
Class 

Book ^ 



COPYRIGHT DEW)SIR 



CREATOR AND COSMOS 



IXiLTJSTR..A.TE3D = 



BT 



ROBERT SHAW, M.A., 



aSADtJATE OF PNTON COLLEGE, N.Y., WHO IS UNPREJUDICED T0WAKD8 AIfY SEOT 

OR PARTY AT THE EXPENSE OF THE TRUTH. 

AUTHOR OF 

■'■^XUTENCB AND DEITY;" OF A "UNIVERSITY ARITHMETIC:" &C. 



IN TWO PARTS. 



PAET FIEST. 

nj THB ETEHKALLY EXISTENT THE EXISTENCES TREATED OF, AS THE TERRESTRIAL (EMBRACIKO TH« « 

WORLD OP MANKIND, OR THE " MORAL WORLD," THE TELLURIC SPECIES, LIQHT, 
COLORS, ETC ) THE UNIVERSAL AND ACTUAL. 



REVISED EDITION. 



/2 1(^ 



ST. LOUIS: 

BECKTOLD AKD COMPANY, 

210 & 212 Pine Street. 

1880. 



~:£>Lzz6' 



Bbtised Edition Copyrighted, 1880. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 

ROBERT SHAW, M. A., 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The principal object of this book (although this is not the only 
purpose it answers, for it conveys to the reader a vast amount of 
information the most interesting and important) is to simplify as 
much as possible the subject of the Creator and the Cosmos. To have 
this done thoroughly and accurately is a work of great magnitude 
and gravity for the author, of great importance and consequence to 
the reader, and an accomplishment very much desired and to be desir- 
ed by all lovers of the truth concerning this most stupendous and 
interesting of all subjects. 

In our day and country the demand for literature is almost all for 
the lighter, or, comparatively speaking, trashier kinds, and the book 
got up designedly to please the ey-i and to satisfy the morbid fancy 
is the kind of book of which mucii the greatest number of copies is 
expected to be sold. Publishers, having some experience of this, 
rather incline to push the sale of works of the lighter kinds, which 
will sell on the railroad cars, in the news depots, and in those places 
of public resort, where works of the heavier kinds do not usually 
appear ; and they are in general more slow than evidently is for their 
interest and that of the public to push the sale of books on heavier 
subjects and more profitable for the masses, although they may see 
in them a great amount of merit and use, and a desideratum the want 
of which has long been felt by an exceedingly large class of reflecting 
and thoughtful minds — the class that is not only incomparablj' 
the most intelligent but the most respectable and trustworthy as men 
of moral principle, and that will see fit to stand by a publisher if he 
honestly and industriously attends to his duties in the prosecution of 
his business. 

Now, I know, by a sufficiently wide experience, that in every com- 
munity there is a certain number of reflecting and thoughtful minds, 
a number indeed usually proportionate to the number of inhabitants 
in the place — and these persons are not at all content unless they 
know the reasons of things, and have as thorough a knowledge as in 
their circumstances they can have of the subjects in which they are 
interested, well knowing that the superiority Avhich arises from 
education and knowledge, especially when this is joined to rectitude 
of moral character, is the only true siiperiority, and that no one, it 
matters not what or how affluent as to circumstances he may other- 



* INTRODUCTION. 

wise be, has a right to regard another as his inferior who is as \\ ell 
educated on the most important subjects, has as thorough a knowledge, 
and is as good a man morally as he himself. Men are not accustomed 
to have much respect for those whom they know are much inferior 
to themselves in education and knowledge ; no matter how much 
material wealth the latter may possess they are likely to undergo 
the tacit criticism, and estimation in the balance of the cultivated 
mind, and this very thought should incite those of sober judgment, 
old and young, to acquire, and as much as possible attain, to that 
which is the only true index and means of equality with the best. 

Nor does our judgment tell us that publishers should neglect the 
duty and moral obligation of furnishing to that large class afore- 
mentioned the books and the knowledge they so much desire, even 
if this be done at the expense of the publication of many of the lighter 
kinds of books. The country is overstocked with this latter class of 
books : it is high time that this fever of morbid mental excitement 
should be stilled ; and that the popular mind should be directed as 
much as possible to more serious and profitable subjects. To thin^- 
the being slow to push the sale of a non-partizan or non-sectarian 
work would assist a publislier in the estimation of any individual or 
party, who may have their money or other interests wrapped up in 
sect or system of an}^ kind, would we are persuaded, be a great mis- 
take for a publisher to make. Such men are, for the most part, not 
al all adverse to a publisher attending to his duties and pushing his 
business with all his might ; nor is it right they should, since a 
publisher's duties in the way of the circulation of books extends to 
all classes, and his business is very general ; he has therefore a per- 
fect right to push his business independently as others have to push 
theirs; liis right will always, too, be unquestioned ; and where he is 
circulating a much needed and useful book as this present one; is, and 
that for all classes, he has really a right to the assistance and sympathy 
of all good men and women. 

The works already in print upon the subject of Christian Theology 
are, as is well known, for the most part merely systems of ideas 
elaborated from the mind or imagination of their authors. These 
latter have been men mostly of European education, trained up in 
certain modes of thought, and to the unhesitating belief of certain 
creeds or confessions of faith, and who in their writing took, eve7-i/ 
time, as a basis for their theological arguments, an hypothesis, that 
is, an assumption without internal examination of the literal truth 
of the S vipiures, and in this way gave to these records chronologi- 
call)" and otherwise what interpretation they please 1. Men of 
American education, and of the, as far as possible, positive American 



INTKODUCTIOlSr. 5 

conception are generally not satisfied to pin their faith to the 
hypothesis, patched up or respectable, of any theorician, they are 
not content to do it without examination and demonstration of their 
own, so far as they can attain to this. 

Such systems of theology as those referred to have, for long ages 
before the settlement of America by the whites, stopped the march of 
progress, and brought about that the masses of the people were in 
effect the chattels of the learned and raling classes, who always, we 
find, made it convenient to join fortunes with each other in the 
narrow national confines of the old world. If our people see fit to 
judge for themselves on .religious matters our laws afford them the 
right to do so ; and our wide country affords them room to do all the 
good they possibly can in the development of their principles, pro- 
vided their education and God-given light has enabled them to do so. 

We do not at all dispute but that men of European education and 
habits of thought have a right, if they wish, to produce theological 
books, and to weave into them all the kingly and priestly ideas both 
of ancient and modern caste which they can evolve. " What we 
intimate is that we have a right also to treat theology in our own 
way and according to our own simple republican habits of thought ; 
and we doubt not but that our rights as well as our books will be 
appreciated by men of European education among others, judging 
partly from the ready sale met with by the second edition of oui 
work, " Existence and Deity." 

So far as the Scriptures are treated of in this book, which they are 
largely in the Second Part, they are not either discarded or per- 
verted, but they are rendered intelligible. The subject of the Creator 
it treats as that subject really is, namely, as that the Creator is Om- 
nipresent, his character being illustrated by his works of creation ; 
but though Omnipresent the Creator is shown to be Infinite as exist- 
ence and being Infinite not conceivable by man's mind nor to be 
seen by his eyes. 

Part First treats of Existence in its various conditions, phases, 
and aspects, — Physical, Spiritual, and Moral, — and illustrates 
variously the subject of the cosmos and the character of the Omni- 
present and Infinite Deity. The Moral and Religious world is 
illustrated from History, Civil and Religious. 

In using the sciences for illustration in this First Part of the 
work, more especially Astronomy, we found it both necessary and 
most to the purpose to set forth the science itself with its deductions 
and discoveries hitherto which Avill be much more beneficial and 
satisfactory to the readers than the statement of isolated facts and 
ideas derived from that science, its deductions and discoveries. 



b INTRODUCTION. 

Besides, we have treated of the scenery of the heavens as viewed 
from the planets and their satellites, a demonstration which is no 
more vague than are the practical parts in common Astronomy, and 
which makes the subject as here presented far more interesting than 
as set forth in the common treatises on that science, and exhibits the 
power, wisdom, and glory of the Deity as set forth in the scenes of 
existence in a peculiarly interesting light. The Astionomy, con- 
sidering the way in which it is treated here, and the labor which has 
been expended in the demonstration of the scenery of the Heavens, 
I would consider worth, of itself, the price of the book. 

The subject of the Creator, — infinite existence and of creation, — is 
variously illustrated in Part First. Mystery, the prolific Mother of 
Superstition, is removed in Part Second ; we have endeavored to 
have the true light shine out on every page, and we trust that they 
who obtain this book or may obtain it will see the inexcusableness 
as well as unreasonableness of longer remaining enslaved to error, 
idolatry, or any other evil practices : all of which we trust they will 
for their own highest interest and for the honor of their Righteous 
and Holy God henceforth discard and eschew. 

To such as might be disposed to look upon this book with an ey& 
of criticism, as those only competent by learning could be supposed 
to do, we may remark that the work consisting of two parts is one of 
design, neither part being complete without the other, and that it ia 
better to read the whole through carefully in order that the subject 
maybe as fully as possible understood. We think however, it would 
be better to read it with a sober, and, in most parts, with a prayerful 
spirit rather than in the spirit of criticism and captiousness and thus 
to profit hj the information it may afford. 

It will be well to remember that in the mathematical parts of 
this volume the English system of Notation is followed, which, where 
large numbers are dealt with, is considered to have more power than 
the French sj^stem. The latter system is the one generally followed 
in this country, and which the author has followed in his Arithmetic. 

The Revision. 

The revision of this First Part of "Creator and Cosmos" has 
been executed with care and thoroughness, and with liie intention 
that it shall serve as a reliable book of reference both as to tacts 
and figures. 



CONTENTS. 



PART FIRST. 

PAGE. 

Existence, Physical, Spiritual, and Moral, illustrated from 
various sources in the physical and moral world, as 
from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms 
of the earth, the earth itself, — the probable per- 
manency of the Cosmos as to phenomena of forms, 
changes, &c., being to some extent here demon- 
strated — a,nd from the civil and religious history 
and the observation of mankind 9-154 

The Creator : Creation, the Earth's elemental conditions 

of existence, matter and spirit literally defined, etc., 9-51 

Some Terrestrial climatal conditions and peculiarities 
.noticed, as well as illustrations from the noxious 
and innoxious portions of the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms 51-60 

Illustrations from the character and practices of the 
races of mankind world-wide, distinctive of the 
moral world 60-154 

First, from the savage and semi-civilized races 60-73 

Second, illustrations from the nations called civilized from 
the earliest historic times, especially in their secu- 
lar or civil aspect 75-115 

Third, illustrations from the nations called civilized, 
especially in their religious aspect, and from early 
times : First, from the history of the Catholic 

Church of the Roman Empire ' 115-143 

Second, from the history and observation of Pro- 
testantism , . . . . 143-154 

Other Things, which tend to illustrate further (or as far 
as our finite knowledge can carry us) the probable 
permanency of the Cosmos or of the order of nature 
and man in the main as now existing ; under which 
head are illustrations from Natural History,Geology, 
Antiquarian Research, Biology, or Embryology, &c. 154-211 

A CONTEMPLATION of other Scenes and objects of nature in- 
tended to further enlighten us and to exalt our con- 
ceptions of the character of the Deity, under which 
head is illustrated the infinity of ideas which existed 
eternally in the Creator's mind from a consideration 
of the diversified display of created objects in the ani- 
mal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms of the earth. 211-236 

On Crystallization, its varieties, &c 236-242 

On Light, the Prism, the Spectrum, Specti'al Analysis, &c. 242-261 
The Rainbow ^ 261-267 

On Colors, and other effects of Light 267-272 

Complementary, or Accidental colors 272-281 



8 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

On AsTEONOjsrr, preliminary explanations, proofs of the 
earth's rotuudit}-, diurnal motions ; circles, degrees, 
&c. ; the horizon, eclijjses, conjunction and opposi- 
tion, annual motion, phenomena arising from the 

earth's motion 281-313 

The Sun 313-320 

The Planet Vulcan 320-321 

The Planet Mercury; appearance of the Heavens as 

viewed from Mercury 321-324 

The Planet Venus ; appearance of the Heavens as 

viewed from Venus 324r-330 

The Earth, its motions, its magnitude, its celestial phe- 
nomena, its siderial and solar day and year, &c. . . 330-338 
The Moon; appearance of the Heavens as viewed fa-om 

the Moon 338-352 

The Planet Mars ; appearance of the Heavens as viewed 

from Mars 352-356 

The Minor Planets or Asteroids ; the Heavens as 

viewed from the Minor Planets 356-858 

The Planet Jupiter and his Satellites ; the Heavens as 

viewed from the Satellites and from Jupiter 358-364 

The Planet Saturn, his Satellites and Rings ; some 
phenomena of the Satellites as viewed from the sur- 
face of Saturn, d-escription of the Rings, and scenery 
of the Heavens as viewed from Saturn, his Satellites 

and Rings 364-377 

The Planet Uranus and his Satellites ; the Heavens as 

ihej appear from Uranus 377-381 

The Planet Neptune; the Heavens as viewed from Nep- 
tune 381-387 

The Attraction of Gravitation explained 387-389 

Kepler the discoverer of the proper motions of Existence 

and his Laws 389-391 

Sir Isaac Newton, the discoverer of the modes of exis- 
tence and his Deductions 391-395 

The Tldes explained 395-398 

On Co^iets 398-406 

Shooting Stars ; Meteorites , . . . . 406-412 

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights ; the 

Mariner's Lights 412-414 

The Fixed Stars ; double Stars ; colored and variable 
Stars — as to the mode of classification of the 
Stars into magnitudes, &c., as to the motions and 
position in space of the Sun and the Solar System 

— temporary Stars 414-426 

Clusters and Nebulae, vaiiable Nebulas 426-435 

The Nebular Hypothesis 435-436 

Sketch of the History of Astronomy 436-449 

Conclusion of Part First 449-453 

Is Science ReconcilablS WITH Religion? 453-472 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



PART I. 



EXISTENCE PHYSICAL, SPIEITUAL AND MORAL ILLUSTRATED FROM 
VARIOUS SOURCES IN THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL WORLD, AS 
FROM THE ANIMAL, VEGETABLE AND MINERAL KINGDOMS OF 
THE EARTH— THE EARTH ITSELF— THE PROBABLE PERMANENCY 
OF THE COSMOS BEING TO SOME EXTENT HERE ILLUSTRATED— 
AND FROM THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY AND THE OBSER- 
VATION OF MANKIND. 



Tlie Creator: Creation, the Earth's elemental conditions of exist- 
ence, Matter and Spirit literally defined, etc. 



WHEN we speak of the Creator we mean that Being whose 
presence is everywhere, who has created all things that have 
been created in the physical universe, and in whom we live and move. 
When we speak of the Creator being everywhere present, which 
means in every conceivable or inconceivable place in the universe, 
we do not mean to say that He is visible to the eye or can be con- 
ceived by the mind of man.* The Creator is infinite, and an Infinite 
Being cannot be conceived by the mind, much less seen by the eye 
of sense. True, we see creation around us, but we are to remember 
that creation stands in the same relation to the Creator as the effect 
does to the cause which produces it. And we shall show further on, 
how that we could not distinguish one object from another were it 
not for the intervention of the colors of light; and we are aware we 
could not see anything at all were it not for light itself. Also, when 
we speak of the Creator being infinite, and everywhere present, we 
mean that there exists but one such Being, for more than one Omni- 
present Being there cannot be. But, though the Creator cannot be 
seen by the eye nor conceived by the mind, yet since His agency pro- 

* In our conceptions concerning the Creator we cannot conceive of him as anytliing, altliougli 
He is present, everywhere, in the eartli and in oui'selves, creating in us to will and to do of His 
good pleasure. Being infinite, He is not conceivable as any object or thing, but of His character 
we have a limited conception, from the endless diversity of His creations and operations in the 
physical and moral world. 

^ 



10 CEEATOK AKD COSMOS. 

duces all the effects that are produced in the natural world, His 
character may be understood and appreciated from a consideration of 
His works, just as the character of an artificer can be judged of from 
a consideration of the work he executes, or the strength of an animal 
from the power it exerts. 

By Creation we mean the efiects produced by the omnipresent 
and everacting Cause for and in the universe.* The effects we 
have principally to illustrate in this connection are of two kinds : 
j^rst, that unceasing change we see ordinarily taking place in nature 
by growth and decay, also termed transformation of matter ; 
and, secondly, change of place by motion, as that of the earth 
in its journey round the sun. The first kind of change, or 
transformation of matter, according to the ordinary operations of 
nature, is that only which we denominate creation, being effected 
by the Creator; the second kind of change, or change of place by 
motion, although effected by the Creator, yet is not creation, since it 
effects no transformation of matter, but only a presentation of the 
same thing in a different place, or after a certain period in the same 
place again. Change of place by motion will be fully illustrated 
when we come to speak on astronomy. There are yet other kinds of 
change which pertain especially to man as a free, intelligent actor, 
and which we shall also illustrate in their proper place, when speak- 
ing of the moral world, or that world which exists with special 
reference to man. 

Change, by transformation of matter, may be illustrated from 
numberless sources by ordinary observation. Thus, a flower which 
begins to grow in the spring, and blooms in the summer, since it did 
not exist before, is a creation. The species of vegetable to which the 
flower belongs had before existed ; the seed from which the flower 
sprung had previously existed ; the flower is the effect of change of 
matter : it had not existed before as a flower ; it is created. And it 
may be here observed that no change or combination of matter could 
produce that flower, or any other particular plant, except the seed of 
that flower or plant existed before to give it birth. Take, for illus- 
tration of the property of seeds, the grain of wheat ; it puts forth the 
blade in the Fall or Spring, which gradually grows till it comes to 
maturity as a full ear in the Autumn. This ear of corn did not exist 
before ; the species of vegetable to which it belongs existed before ; 
the kernel in which it was germinated and which gave it birth pre- 
viously existed ; (and we may remark in passing that the young 



* This general idea of creation refers to all the objects created on and in the earth, on and 
in each of the heavenly bodies, or in any part of space, as well as to the earth and each of the 
heavenly bodies themselves, inasmuch as they, analogously to the human body while living, 
are continually and wholly subject to change, and are in this sense objects of creation. 



CREATION, OR CHANGE OF EXISTENCES, ETC. 11 

as to its primal essence exists in the seed, and that the process of 
sprouting takes place in the seed itself, independently of the aid of the 
earth, as may be observed in the case of barley or other grain sprouting 
when moistened and subjected to heat for some time in the process 
of malting) ; this ear of wheat, we say, since itself did not exist before, 
is a creation. The seed, therefore, must exist before the plant, and 
every seeds brings forth after its own kind. If a seed of wheat is 
sown an ear of wheat will result from it, if anything do result, and 
not an ear of rye or of any other species of grain ; and an oak tree is 
sure to result, if anything do grow, from the acorn. 

This property of seeds is true of all animals as well as plants. 
When a child is born, or the young of any animal is brought forth, 
it is a creation. This organized being has not before existed, though 
its substance and life have never not existed. When the trunk of a 
fallen tree or the body of a dead animal becomes mineralized or petri- 
fied, this mineral or petrifaction is a creation, the component parts 
of the original form combining with certain other elementary sub- 
stances, a new form or species of being is produced. 

Also, if it be understood that the matter of the earth assumed or 
was given its present form, from its having previously existed in 
another form, say in an aeriform or nebular, state, then that change 
of the matter into the form of the earth would be properly termed a 
creation, although such a creation, we may say, can be spoken of 
only hypothetically.* 

It is seen that on the surface of the earth, and for a short dis- 
tance below it, all things are continually changing ; one form of 
matter is continually taking the place of another in existences ani- 
mate and inanimate. Animal and vegetable remains are changed 
into clay, and rocks, and water; and these again enter into the pro- 
duction and support, and compose the solid frame-work of the 
organic structures of vegetables and animals. .When the living or 
animate body dies it does not cease to exist, for there is no such 
thing as annihilation. True, if it be a human being that dies, that 
human being ceases to exist as an organized conscious agent, but the 
bo9.y retains the principle of life, which descends with it to the 
tomb. Death is only a sleep or a state of unconsciousness of the 
body previous to its change into other organic or inorganic exist- 
ences. Thus, the chrysalis state of the caterpillar, in which that 
creature remains to all appearance dead, has been often and aptly 
compared to the state of the dead of the human I'ace. But what 
happens to the caterpillar? At the end of a month he comes forth 
from his tomb having gorgeously tinted wings, and soars on high, a 
beautiful butterfly. We have yet to learn whether in his new and 

* A primal creation of mutter and space, of forms and motions, of vegetables and ani- 
mals, &c., is goiieially and tacitly granted to theology. It is "byfailh" St. Paul accepts it. 
Heb. xi., 3. We discuss ratlier the actual creation, effected by and through "Him in whom 
we live and move." 



12 CREATOR ANL» COSMOS. 

exalted state of existence he remembers his former humble condition 
of a caterpillar. We may, however, presume that he does not. 

The animate body dies because some one or some of its organs or 
faculties cease to perform their ordinary functions, just as a mill 
ceases to operate when a wheel or a cog is broken, or any of the in- 
ternal machinery is deranged or out of gear. And, as the mill ceases 
to operate when deprived of sufficient motive power, as wind, water 
or steam, so does a human being die when he has not a sufficienc}'- of 
air to breathe, of water to drink, or of food to eat. A man will also 
die if he have only a limited quantity of air to breathe, and this 
impregnated with noxious gases, as was the case with that great 
number that perished from suffocation in the " Black Hole of Cal- 
cutta " in 17-56, and is the case with hundreds who are suffocated in 
coal mines, in our own time. 

The wind-mill, when in working order, depends upon the same 
agencies to enable it to operate as a man does who has a sound con- 
stitution ; they both depend upon the atmosphere ; and reason, 
assisted by the atmospheric agent, directs the operations of the mill 
in both cases. In like manner a water-mill depends upon the same 
agency to enable it to operate as a man does, both, as before, being 
supposed sound in their internal machiner}', depend upon a suffi- 
ciency of water being furnished them ; if this be not in sufficient 
quantity to turn the large Avater-wheel, the mill ceases to grind : and 
if there be not a sufficient quantity of water for the requirements of 
the animal system, or if, as in the case of noxious air, the quantity 
that is in supply be deleterious, the man's body consumes and he 
dies. Here we may remark that water enters largely not only into 
the support, but into the constitution of the human body, seventy- 
five per cent, of all the fleshy parts being water. 

Also the steam-mill is analogous to the human body, both being 
sound in their internal parts, depending upon a sufficient quantity of 
steam being generated to enable them to perform their functions. 
The body, as the mill, has a furnace, the stomach, to which a suffi- 
cient amount of fuel, food, needs to be supplied, in order to keep up 
a sufficient degree of heat to sustain the combustion and decomposi- 
tion which are continually going on in it ; for by combustion and 
decomposition in the body there is a continual decay and waste of 
animal tissue, which decay and waste must be as constantly supplied 
by the intra-generation of new chemical compounds. The human 
body, therefore, is truly a kind of laboratory in which a chemical 
process is continuall}^ taking place, of decomposition or decay, of 
recomposition for the supply of animal tissue ; and, as it is said that 
no two persons see the same rainbow, so it may, with equal truth, 



CREATION, OK CHANGE OF EXISTENCES, ETC. IS 

be rfaid thac no human being has exactly the same body two days in 
succcssAon. 

And the human body is further, as is plainly perceived, analogous 
to the steam-mill, having its furnace, boilers, and complex machinery 
for generating heat and steam; for heat has to be generated in the 
body, and consequently steam in order that its functions may con- 
tinue to be performed. In breathing out of doors on a cold frosty 
morning, one can see from the condensation of his breath as com- 
pared with the surrounding air at every exhalation, what an amount 
of steam one generates. 

If the humaii body, therefore, as has been shown, is in every part 
continually unaergoing change during life, is it any wonder or any 
ground of apprehension that there shall be a more radical and per- 
manent change effected in it by death ; a change from which a new 
and nobler creation may arise ? Death, as Ave have before intimated, 
is only a loss of consciousness, and a cessation of action in the in- 
tellectual and sentient being. It is not a loss of life, for the body 
retains in every part the principle of life ; it is not a loss of exist- 
ence, for not a particle of the human system ceases to exist, but 
it is a change which the body must needs undergo previous to its 
being created anew into other forms of existence. 

THERE IS NO DEATH. 
There is no deatli ! The stars go down 

To rise upon some fairer shore, 
And briglit in lieaven's jewelled crown 

They shine for evermore. 
There is no death ! The dust we tread 

Shall change beneath the summer showers, 
To golden grain or mellow fruit. 

Or rainbow-tinted flowers. 
Tlie granite rocks disorganize, 

And feed the hungry moss they bear; 
The forest leaves drink daily life 

From out the viewless air. 
There is no death ! The leaves may fall. 

And flowers may fade and pass away — 
, They only wait througli wintry hours 

The coming of May day. 
There is no deatli ! An angel form 

Walks o'er the earth with silent tread. 
And bears our best loved things away, 

And then we call them " dead ! " 
He leaves our hearts all desolate ; 

He plucks our fairest, sweetest flowers ; 
Transplanted into bliss they now 

Adorn immortal bowers. 
The birdlike voice, whose joyous tones 

Made glad these scenes of sin and strife, 



14 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

Sings now an everlasting song 
Around the tree of life. 

Whene'er he sees a smile too bright, 

Or lieart too pure for taint and vice, 
He bears it to tlie world of liglit 

To dwell in paradise. 
Born to that undying life. 

They leave us but to come again ; 
With joy we welcomed tliem the same, 

Except their sin and pain. 
And ever near us, tliougli unseen. 

The dear, immortal spirits tread ; 
For all tlie boundless universe 

Is life — tliere is no death !* 

The principle of life is inherent in all matter and in every parti- 
cle of it : and in this part of onr discourse it may be well for ns 
to state that there is nothing but matter to be considered. The 
life seems latent in rocks, earths, minerals, and such like, but a mi- 
croscopic inspection of them will show that it is not entirely so. 
Every part of matter, even the solid rocks, the eartli, the waters and 
the air, when examined with a microscope, is found to teem with 
living and sensitive existence. This instrument discovers to view 
myriads of little animals in a drop of stagnant water, some of them 
so minute that when viewed with a glass which magnifies one hun 
dred thousand times, they severally do not appear larger than a vis- 
ible point. And yet each one of these is a distinct being. If a mi- 
croscope of high magnifying j)ower be directed to the atmosphere on 
a calm, clear day in summer, shoals of animalcules may be seen in 
its undulations. But according to our statement above, the exist- 
ence of life in matter does not depend upon its containing organized, 
sensitive beings, and the fact of its existence there may be illustrated 
by many and potent considerations. 

All vegetables derive their nourishment from the earth assisted 
by the atmosphere and the sun. From these, animals derive their 
nourishment. It is true that the earth cannot bring forth vegetables 
or animals spontaneous!}^ ; if it did, then we might say that they de- 
rived their existence immediately from the earth ; the'se must spring 
from their peculiar seeds ; but having been originated in that way, 
the earth and its accompaniments, the atmosphere and the sun, afford 
them increase of life and nourishment, which if matter did not con- 
tain it could not impart. All vegetables and their seeds return to 
the earth whence they sprung, bringing their principles of life and 
vegetation with them,v and become earthy matter. Also the bodies 
of all animals return to the earth, bringing their principles of life 
and generation with them, and become part of the earth. These 

* Lj-tton. 

f Further on the converse of this is shown, or that nothing exists in the universe but 
spirit. Having progressed far enough the reader will be able to judge whether the 
resultant be positive or negative, or both. 



CREATION, OB. CHANGE OF EXISTENCES, ETC. 15 

very principles of vegetation, generation, and life, again enter into 
tlie production and support of other living beings, animate and in- 
animate. It is, therefore, seen that the same principle of life which 
exists in all living beings, animate and inanimate, exists in the earth, 
the atmosphere and the sun. 

And not only is the principle of life inherent in all matter but 
also that of intelligence. This principle is perceived, as it were, 
in its germ in the lowest orders of animals, and is brought to a fair 
degree of perfection in highly civilized and cultivated man. Be- 
tween these two extremes there exist different grades and degrees of 
intelligence, but the fact of the existence of this principle in all an- 
imate beings is certain, and it needs only to be edaced in order that 
it becomes apparent. But how is it to be educed in the case of the 
lowest orders of animals, microscopic animalcules ? It need not 
necessarily be educed in their case, for they naturally exhibit it un- 
mistakably to observation. The following extract from Mr. Baker, 
a celebrated naturalist, in his description of the hair-like animalcules, 
will help to illustrate this : — " A small quantity of the matter con- 
taining these animalcules having been put in a jar of water, it so 
happened that one part went down immediately to the bottom while 
the other continued floating on the top. When things had remained 
for some time in this condition each of these swarms of animalcules 
began to grow weary of its situation, and had a mind to change its 
quarters. Both armies, therefore, set out at the same time, the one 
proceeding upward, the other downward, so that after some time 
they met in the middle. A desire of knowing how they would behave 
on this occasion engaged the observer to watch them carefully, and, 
to his great surprise, he saw the army that was marching upward open 
to the right and left to make room for those that were descending. 
Thus, without confusion or intermixture, each held on its way; the 
army that was ascending marching in two columns to the top, and 
the other proceeding in one column to the bottom, as if each had 
been under the direction of wise leaders." Here we have unmis- 
takable evidence of voluntary motion and of a considerable degree 
of intelligence in these exceedingly minute animals. 

The ancient Romans appear to have been aware of the inherent 
existence of the principle of intelligence from their use of the word 
educare, to educate, which means to draw out or develop that which 
already exists in principle within.* Many of the inferior animals, 



* Loclce, in whose Essay there is much commendable, appears shallow in his argument 
against "innate ideas," and refutes himself partly in his confession of the Existence of God 
and of intelligent invisible spirits. First, we cannot conceive of man, as such, devoid of the 
"Senses;" secondly, the infinite and omnipresent Being is independent, and the source of all 
knowledge. He knows infinitely more than man can possibly conceive, and can cause ideas to 
spring up in the miud. 



16 



CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 



when taught, display a remarkable degree of sagacity, and, although 
we need not necessarily believe what Cicero says as to Orpheus tam- 
ing the wild beasts of the forest by playing to them on his lyre, yet 
we now-a-days have abundant experience of what the domesticated 
animals, such as horses and dogs, and many of the wild animals, such 
as lions and tigers, can be taught to do. As the rough, unshapen 
block of granite or marble from the quarry may be formed into the 
stately and beautiful sculpture, so resembling the living and animate 
being as to deceive us if not assisted by the sense of touch; as the 
rough block of iron ore may, by being put through a certain process 
of fusing, hardening, mailing, etc., be reduced to the form of the 
sharp edged instrument, the sword, the knife, or the razor ; as the 
telescope, which so wonderfully opens up to us the distant regions 
of the universe, and enables us to contemplate far distant worlds, as 
if they were nigh; and the microscope which enables us to investi- 
gate the races of animated beings, invisible to the naked eye, which 
exist in the earth, in the air, and in all matter, are made chieflv of 
such earthy substance, as sand and ashes — even so may the intelli- 
gence of all the inferior animals which are capable of being taught be 
brought to a much higher degree of development than that which it 
has yet attained ; — even so may the intelligence of uncivilized human 
beings be brought to that state of development to which civilized 
man has alreadv attained ; and that of civilized man be brouo-ht to a 
degree indefinitely higher than that which we know of man to have 
yet attained. It is an old saying, and generally a true one, that 
what is in will come out ; but it is more positively true that what is . 
not in cannot come out ; therefore, if the principles of life or intelli- 
gence were not inherent in matter there could be no life or intelli- 
gence developed from matter ; but, since life and intelligence do exist 
and are developed amid such complex and multiplex changes of mat- 
ter, it is plain that the principles of life and intelligence do exist, 
though in different degrees, in all matter, and that in proper circum- 
stances they become apparent, and by proper development they be- 
come more apparent ; but that the fact of their non-apparency in cer- 
tain states and conditions of matter to an intelligent being does not 
alter the fact of their existence there in a latent state. 

Uneducated persons are apt to suppose that the air they breathe 
is the principle of life ; some, that it is the soul. This seems,to have 
been the conception of it entertained by the ancient Hebrews ; for 
the Nephesh Hayya of the book of Genesis is translated into our lan- 
guage the " breath of life " or the " soul of life," but the truth is, the 
air only helps to sustain the animate being in life ; it performs its 
part in supporting life, as food, the production of the earth, and 



CREATION, OR CHANGE OF EXISTENCES, ETC. 17 

water, — which two elements are quite as necessary for animal sup- 
port, — perform theirs. Air is the element which terrestrial animals 
breathe by means of lungs, just as water is the element which aquatic 
animals breathe by means of gills ; alter the condition of these two 
great classes of animate beings and they could not exist as animals ; 
submerge a land animal in water and it will very soon be suffocated ; 
elevate a marine animal to the land, and he will as soon die. All 
these animals are produced by their kind, but, having been intro- 
duced to the world, they are supported by the elements to which they 
are naturally adapted. Not less than all these elements are necessary 
for their sustenance. The various tribes of aquatic animals are sup- 
ported by different kinds of food which they find in the waters and 
on the bottom of the ocean, lakes and rivers, on rocks, etc. Many 
of these tribes, which correspond to the carnivorous species of the 
land, subsist by preying on other tribes ; but water is the element in 
which they all live, which they breathe, and from which mainly they 
derive their support, — for sea animals do not depend for support 
upon the land, their own realm supplying all their wants. We may 
remark here that a very small quantity of air pervades all water and 
a small quantity of water in the condition of vapor pervades the 
atmosphere ; and both these elements seem mutually to assist each 
other in the support of living beings, and to be adapted to each other's 
co-existence. 

A man or any land animal may be in the enjoyment of an abun- 
dance of pure air and wholesome food, but if he have not a sufficient 
supply of water for his animal wants, he will die. Also, he may have 
an abundance of pure air and water, and, if he have not a sufficient 
supply of wholesome food, he will die. And, further, he may be 
furnished with a plenary abundance of both wholesome food and 
water, and, if he have not a copious supply of pure atmospheric air, 
he will languish and die. All these are indispensably necessary for 
his animal existence ; but, Avith all these, his life would still be 
a peculiarly wretched one, if he could at all be supposed to exist, 
without the light of the sun. If the sun never shone upon our 
terrestrial sphere, the earth would be a dark, desolate wilderness ; no 
vegetables could grow on it, and no animals now existing on its 
surface could live on it. Solar light and heat are necessary to the 
existence and growth of vegetables, and the vegetable kingdom, 
together with air and water, are necessary to the support of 
animal life. And can any one now say to which he is most indebted 
for the necessaries and comforts of life, — whether to the products of 
the earth, to the air, the water, or the solar light and heat ? Can any 
one now tell to which of these he owes most, or whether he is 



18 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

a debtor to any one or all of them ? They all, it is seen, are mutually 
necessary for the support and existence of man. The answer will 
doubtless be that they are all necessary and good ; that this world is 
admirably constituted for the maintenance and accommodation 
•of animate and intellectual beings ; that, in short, if the means 
and privileges which this world affords were rightly distributed 
among mankind, and used without abuse, our earth would be a ter- 
restrial paradise, worthy the name of heaven below ; all would 
be happiness and peace among men ; no one would covet or wrong- 
fully seek what did not belong to him ; each would be equally 
interested for the good of others as for his own ; but, since no one 
is responsible for having been born into the world, one should not 
consider one's self peculiarly indebted to it for the gifts and privileges 
it affords him, provided he has obtained and uses them aright. 

It will be seen that the principles of life and intelligence are 
inherent in all matter not only from the preceding illustrations 
but from those that follow. In the processes of change earth becomes 
rocks and minerals, and rocks and minerals become again crumbled 
into earth. The earth produces the vegetables, from their seeds, 
vegetables become incorporated in animals from being their food, and 
animal and vegetable substances become incorporated in man from 
being his food. The vegetable and animal substances are earthy 
matter, including common clay, mineral, and metal, now temporarily 
in different states from that in which they exist in the solid earthy 
substances. But these animal and vegetable substances are con- 
tinually undergoing change, and destined soon to return to the 
earth again, where they will still be undergoing change ; and 
one animal or vegetal)le bod}', say for example the body of any 
animal whatever, or a tree, when deposited in the earth, may give 
birth to thousands, yea, tens of millions of living beings ; and these 
countless beings ceasing to exist in their turn, their substances 
become earthy, which may give birth to other living beings, or go to 
the production and support of plants and animals. 

But vegetables and animals do not consist altogether of earthy 
matter, properly so called ; the largest part of their substance is 
made up of water, another species of matter ; and also the atmosphere, 
light and heat, enter into their production and substance. But 
water, as we have intimated, is a material substance, and so is 
the atmosphere ; and light as well as heat is an everywhere present 
■element, even in the dark and in the cold, only requiring the action 
:oi certain material agencies, or rather that matter be in certain 
•conditions, in order that we become sensible of their presence. 
Light and heat are merely phenomena or effects attendant upon cer- 



AIR ANT) WATER, MATERIAL SUBSTANCES. 19 

tain states or conditions of matter. All existence, therefore, is 
material, and nothing exists but what is of matter.* Others may 
substitute another name for it instead of matter, if they conceive of 
a more suitable one, as the names of all objects are arbitrarily given. 
The animal body is precisely of the same material as are the mediae 
in which it exists. The intelligent rational being is conscious that 
his system is made up of such like materials as earth, rocks, minerals 
metals, water, air, light and heat ; and it may perhaps be said, all 
circumstances being considered, that man is an epitome (here we will 
say) of material existence. 

To illustrate that the air is a material substance such things as the 
following might be considered: when a person runs against the wind 
he feels a force pressing him backwards, and the faster he runs the 
more is he sensible of its resistance. Though he is unable to 
see anything around him, yet he is sensible that something exists 
to press him back, for he experiences its effects. But a better illustra- 
tion of its materiality is the following : that it excludes all other bodies 
from the space it occupies. Thus, if over a cork, floating on a vessel 
full of water, we invert a glass jar having a wide mouth, it will 
be seen that but a very small quantity of water can get into the jar, 
because the air of which the jar is full keeps the water out ; otherwise 
if it were emptied of every material substance, the water would rush 
in and completely fill the jar. The cork, still floating on the surface, 
will show how far the water rises in the jar. On this principle 
the diver's bell has been constructed, an instrument in the shape of a 
bell, the use of which enables men to walk about on the bottom of 
the sea with as much safety as upon the land. The head of the diver 
being within this bell-shaped instrument, which comes down in 
ordinary cases nearly to his shoulders, is separated from the water, for 
the water cannot enter the bell except for a very short distance while 
the bell is filled with air. Fresh air is constantly supplied to 
the diver by means of an air-pump, situated on the land or on 
the deck of a vessel, and a tube which connects it with the diver's 
bell. In most cases there is a large diver's bell in Avhich the divers 
descend, which connects directly with the air-pump by a tube, and in 
which a supplj^ of air is kept for the divers, who have during 
their submarine explorations the small bells which they use connected 
by a tube with the reservoir of air in the large bell. Such an 
arrangement is necessary, for if air were not supplied the diver 
in sufficient quantity he could not remain below for any length 
of time, as the air contained in the bell which he uses becoming very 



* Excepting we conceive of pure space abstracting all idea of matter. 



20 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

dense by the pressure of the water and vitiated by his own breathing 
would become poisonous, and he would die. 

And again, if we take a pair of common bellows, and, after having 
opened them, if we shut up the nozzle and valve-hole, and try to bring 
the boards together again we shall find it impossible. There is some- 
thing included which prevents the liellows from coming togetlier in 
the same manner as if it were filled with flax or wool ; bat on open- 
ing the nozzle Ave can easily shut them by expelling this something 
from within, which will issue with considerable force, and impel any- 
thing that lies in its way. This something is atmospheric air. 

Also, air is not only material but wonderfully expansive and 
elastic. Thus, if a bottle, being put under the receiver of an air 
pump, is entirely emptied of its air, and in this condition being 
tightly corked is again introduced to the receiver, when the air is 
admitted to the receiver the bottle will be broken to pieces by the 
pressure of the air upon its outside, since there is nothing within the 
bottle to resist its pressure. Also, if a bottle full of air, and hermet- 
ically sealed, be put in the exhausted receiver of an air-pump, the 
air within the bottle expands, and, there being nothing on the out- 
side of the bottle to resist its outward pressure, breaks the bottle to 
pieces. All which shows that air is a material substance and capable 
of expansion when in a vacuum or rarer medium. And that it is 
susceptible of compression when acted upon by a denser body is 
proved by the fact of the water having ascended a short distance in 
the jar and the diver's bell, although they were full of air ; for no 
water could have entered them if the air the}^ contained were as dense 
as the water. Air is so elastic that a quantity of it, as it exists at 
the earth's surface, can be expanded into nearly fourteen thousand 
times its original bulk ; and the fact that it is elastic shows it also to 
be compressible, for whatever is elastic is capable of being com- 
pressed into a smaller space. Air is capable of being compressed into 
a small space compared with that which it naturally possesses. 

There can be no difficulty, we think, in any one conceiving how 
that water is a material substance. Like air it is capable of great 
expansion. A cubic inch of water, when reduced to steam, occupies 
a cubic foot or over seventeen hundred times its original bulk. But 
it is Avith difficulty that water can be compressed into a space less 
than that Avhich it naturally occupies. It is one of the first princi- 
ples of natural science, that no two bodies can be made to occupy 
the same space at the same time ; therefore, air is a body and so is 
water, just as much material bodies as stone or iron is. Fill a vessel 
full of water, and immerse in it any convenient solid, and a quantity 
of water will flow out of the vessel, exactly in proportion to the 



MATTER IS SriRIT. 21 

bulk of the body immersed. When a vacuum or empty space is 
made by the removal of any body, solid or fluid, the air rushes in 
from all sides instantaneously to fill up the vacuum, just as water 
rushes in from all sides to fill up the vacuum which is made by 
the taking of a pail of water from a reservoir, and as the vacuum 
which is made by the rolling of a wave on the surface of the ocean 
is instantly filled up by another wave rolling into its place, which 
undulatory activity is continued until the air becomes calm and 
the water level. The partial vacuum which is made at any place on 
the earth's surface by the expansion of the air by heat is instantly 
filled by the denser air from all sides rushing in to effect equilibrium. 
Such is the way in which winds are caused ; the air at certain parts 
of the earth becoming rarified by heat, the denser air from other 
parts comes in rapid motion to fill up the partial vacuum thus made. 
Thus, we liave, during a great part of the year, strong north-east and 
south-west winds, Avhich are caused by the colder and denser air of 
the north and south polar regions coming in rapid motion to fill up 
the partial vacua which have been caused by the rarefaction of the 
air by heat in the equatorial regions. A vacuum is a place from 
which all the air has been withdrawn ; a partial vacuum a place 
from which part of the air has been taken. A vacuum cannot ex- 
ist in the universe except it be an artificial one, such as that in the 
upper end of a barometer, called the Toricellian vacuum, from 
Toricelli, the inventor of that instrument, Avhich is considered the 
most perfect vacuum, and that in the exhausted receiver of an air 
pump 

All the spaces intervening between the heavenly bodies are occu- 
pied with air of a greater or less density. In some places it is dense, 
as at the surface of the earth, where, as we have said before, a 
quantity of it can be expanded into fourteen thousand times its 
original bulk ; and in some places it is rare, as on the tops of high 
mountains and in the upper regioiLs of our atmosphere. In the 
spaces intermediate of the heavenly bodies it is reduced to an exceed- 
ingly thin fluid called ether ; but in no place is it wanting in suffi- 
cient weight and density to counterbalance its surrounding elements, 
for all existing things are naturally in equilibrium, and when there 
is any disturbance, as by a vacuum, they tend to equilibrium. 

Thus, the atmosphere within the sphere of the earth's attraction is 
attracted to the earth's surface, and revolves with it round the sun, 
just as all the other bodies on the earth's surface are drawn towards 
its centre, and revolve with it in its diurnal and annual journe3^ The 
atmosphere, which is beyond the sphere of the earth's attraction, is 
either attracted by otliers of the heavenly bodies within whose spheres 



22 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

of attraction it lies, or it exists in the intermediate spaces in the form 
of ether, where it is not subject to any sensible attraction from any 
of the heavenl}^ spheres. 

The atmosphere which surrounds the earth is analogous to the 
ocean of water which covers three-fourths of its surface; which 
atmospheric ocean, as the ocean of water, revolves with the earth, 
and in the bottom of which, we, with the beasts and birds, exist, as 
do the aquatic animals, in their own element. 

The expansibility of the air and water by heat is exceedingly 
great; and not only these fluids but the densest and solidest sub- 
stances, such as rocks and iron, gold, platina, and iridium, the densest 
and heaviest metals with wliich man is acquainted, can be reduced to 
a gaseous or aeriform state by the application of sufficient heat. 
Heat has the power of penetrating all bodies, and the greater the 
amount of heat enters anj' body the more the body will be expanded. 
Thus, a certain degree of heat will reduce ice to water, and a certain 
additional amount will reduce the water to steam, which is an invisi- 
ble gas. Fill a bladder about half full with air and bring it close to 
the fire, and the heat entering the bladder will expand the air until 
it bursts the bladder. Fill the bladder about quarter full or put a 
still less amount of air in it, and leave it for a sufficient length of 
time before the fire, and the air will expand as before and burst the 
bladder. A like result also would happen to aeronauts if they should 
be carried so far from the surface of the earth as that the air in their 
bodies would be much denser than that by which they were sur- 
rounded ; the air inside their bodies would expand, seeking equilib- 
rium, and burst their bodies. Yet this will scarcely ever happen, 
we think, for the hydrogen gas with which balloons are filled, though 
lighter than the air at the earth's surface and for some miles above 
it, will not ever suffer the balloon to ascend into a very rare medium. 
The air contained in an apple can be expanded by heat to such a 
degree as that it will fill a space more- than forty-eight times the 
dimensions of the apple. Take an iron bar whose end when cold fits 
exactly into a hole, and when you have heated it red hot you will find 
it too large to enter the hole. Heat it more intensely and you will 
reduce, it to the state of a fluid, and apply a sufficient additional 
heat and you will reduce the iron to the state of a gas. You may 
take a similar process with gold or platina, iridium or any other 
solid substance in the earth,* and attain the same result. This pro- 
cess of the reduction of solids to gases applies to all bodies in the 
earth; they are all ultimately reducible to a gaseous or aeriform state 



* See, for example, "Comstock's Chemistry," or almost any other treatise on Chemistry as 
to this. Also, see Cassell's " Popular Educator," vol. ii. page 1. 



EXCESS AND DEFICIENCY OF SPIRIT. 25 

by the application of sufficient heat. It is therefore theoretically 
though not practically true that the whole earth is of a substance 
reducible to the form of gas or air. If it were practically true, which 
does not appear to be the case, we might not be sorry if there should 
be a residuum after the reduction of our sphere to an aeriform state, 
which we, had we the good fortune of being removed to other scenes 
of existence, might use as material for making telescopes and micro- 
scopes to open up to our view the still distant regions of the universe. 
But gas means air, and air means spirit, and spirit means breath or 
that which we breathe ; the whole earth, therefore, on which we 
dwell, with all that is connected with it, is spirit in a condensed form. 
In fact all the heavenly spheres, as we shall make plain hereafter, 
are of the same character, namely, condensed spirit, and the greater 
the amount of spirit condensed in a given sphere the greater is its 
power of attraction, just as the greater and stronger the mind of a 
man is, provided he uses it aright, the greater is his power to govern 
the minds of others. 

There is a natural constitution and order of things in general, a 
state in which they tend to remain if not acted on by forces external 
to nature, none of which we conceive or by the art of man. Thus, 
the atmosphere will remain in its natural or normal state, and so will 
the sea and the solid land, if not operated on artificially by man. 
The extent of his operations on these elements is, however, very 
limited. He may reduce water and some solid substances to air, and 
he may reduce air, as carbonic acid gas, to a solid form ; but all these 
will ultimately return to their natural condition, and the general con- 
dition of the atmosphere, the waters and the earth, will remain the 
same, notwithstanding all the change which man can eifect in them. 
When therefore things are altered from their natural state by man's 
art, the process may be explained upon the principles of excess and 
deficiency of spirit. For example, water in its natural state occupies 
a given space, but being reduced to the form of a gas, or steam, it 
occupies a much greater space. But how has this great expansion 
been effected? By the penetration into thesubstance of the water of an 
additional substance called heat,* which expands it or assimilates it to 
itself ; for although heat, as light and electricity, is an everywhere 
present substance, yet in its objective action it has to proceed from 
certain centres. The water in its natural state has its proper amount 
of heat, but when reduced to an aeriform state it has heat in excess. 



* This penetration and expansion may not necessarily be interpreted to mean that any, the 
smallest amount of substance from without itself enters the body that is heated; but it does 
mean that the ultimate elements of the body have been set in motion by impulse of body from 
without; and it is easily tuiderstood that the elements in motion moving upon each other take 
up more space than at rest, and thus expansion. 



24 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

And conversely, when iron or any other solid is subjected to intense 
cold it contracts, because of the abstraction of some of its noimal 
heat by the surrounding elements ; in this state it possesses heat in 
deficiency of its natural amount. All substances are expanded by 
heat, and all substances except water are contracted by cold. Water 
expands by freezing about one-seventh of its natural bulk, because 
the particles of the water crystallize, and the polyhedral crystals, we 
know, take up more room than the globular particles of the water in 
its natural state. Ever}^ one knows how his body and limbs swell, 
how his veins puff out, when he is much heated by severe exercise. 
One may also observe how his body and limbs contract, how the 
veins disappear, and how lank and meagre he is in comparison, Avhen 
he is subjected to severe cold. In the one case he has heat in excess of 
his naturiil amount, in the other he has it in deficiency. 

But things as naturally constituted may also be explained on the 
same principal of excess and deficiency of spirit, only by way of com- 
parison. The air, the waters, and the earth, tend as we have before 
said, to remain in their natural state. The more solid or dense a 
body is, the more matter or spirit, which here means the same thing 
does it contain. The solid earth, then, Avith its internal contents, 
minerals and metals, is evidently denser than water, and water is 
evideiitl}^ denser than the atmosphere, and the atmosphere which 
surrounds the earth is denser than the ether which lies in the sjDaces 
intermediate of the heavenly bodies. The globe of the earth, -there- 
fore, land and water, in the given space which it occupies, comprises 
much more matter than the atmosphere does in the space which it 
occupies as compared with that occupied by the earth ; and the earth's 
atmosphere may be said to comprise more matter than does the ether 
in any part of the universe, taking space for space. Thus, the solid 
parts of the earth may be said by comparison to have matter in excess 
of the fluid parts, taking equal spaces, and the waters to have matter 
in excess of the atmosphere, taking equal spaces ; and the atmosphere 
to have matter in excess of the ether, taking equal spaces. And, con- 
versel}^ the ether maj^ be said, in like manner, to have matter in de- 
ficiency of the atmosphere, the atmosphere in deficiency of the waters, 
and the waters in deficiency of the solid parts of the earth. The earth, 
therefore, is the great concentration of spirit to which all things else 
tend that are Avithin the range of its attraction. It is denser towards 
and at its centre than near or on its surface, and all things on its 
surface and its atmosphere are attracted towards its centre. And 
it contains in itself that power by which it moves, but it is confined 
to a certain course by the attraction of a weightier body, the sun, or 
other heavenly bodies. 



THE REQUISITE KNOWLEDGE, COMMON SENSE. 25 

The same power of penetration belongs to electricity and light 
as to heat. Light, heat, and electricity are all the same substance, 
under different modes of action and manifestation, or, rather, we 
may call electricity the element of which light and heat are peculiar 
phenomena, or modes of action. They are always found together 
when means are employed sufficiently sensitive or delicate to detect 
them, and all three are capable of producing a number of effects of 
precisely the same character in every respect. They are all three 
capable of penetrating all other bodies with which man is acquainted ; 
they are all three capable of dispersion by means of conduction or 
radiation; and ihej may all be accumulated and concentrated or in- 
tensified in their action. Thus electricity is capable of being diffused 
by means of light, and also by means of heat; that is, if electricity 
be accumulated or intensified in its action at any point, and light 
and heat only be given off from that point, it is found that the elec- 
tricity is dispersed although no current of electricity proper has 
flowed from the point. And, again, if light or heat, either or both, 
be applied to any point, a current of electricity can be educed from 
it ; all of which goes to show tliat light, heat, and electricity are one 
and the same substance under different modes of action and manifes- 
tation. 

Magnetism, also chemical action, motion and gravitation are modi- 
fications of the same general substance, or effects of the same agenc5\ 
That magnetism produces motion is the ordinary evidence we have 
of its existence. In the magneto-electric machine we see a rotating 
magnet evolving electricity ; and the electricity so evolved may im- 
mediately after exhibit itself as heat, light, or chemical affinity. 
Faraday's discovery of the effect of magnetism on polarized light, as 
well as the discovery that change of magnetic state is accompanied 
by heat, point to further like connections. Moreover, various ex- 
periments show that the magnetization of a body alters its internal 
structure ; and that conversely, the alteration of its internal structure, 
as by mechanical strain, alters its magnetic condition. From light, 
also, it is seen may proceed the like variety of agencies. Tlie solar 
rays change the internal arrangement of the parts of particular crys- 
tals. Certain mixed gases which do not otherwise combine, combine 
in the sunlight. In some compounds light produces decomposition. 
Since the experiments of photographers have drawn attention to the 
subject, it has been shown that "a vast number of substances, both ele- 
mentary and compound, are notably affected b}^ this agent, even those 
apparently the most unalterable in character, such as metals. When 
a daguerreotype plate is connected with a proper apparatus " we get 
chemical action on the plate, electricity circulating through the 



26 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

wires, magnetism in the coil, heat in the helix, and motion in the 
needles." The production of all other modes of force from chemical 
action scarcely needs mentioning. The ordinary accompaniment of 
chemical action is heat ; when the affinities are intense, light also, 
under fit conditions, is produced. Chemical changes, involving al- 
teration of bulk, cause motion both in the combining elements and 
in adjacent masses of matter; witness the expulsion of rocks by the 
explosion of gunpowder in blasting. In the galvanic battery elec- 
tricity results from chemical composition and decomposition; while 
through the medium of this electricity chemical action produces 
magnetism.* 

Science has hitherto discovered 62 or 63 natural elements, which 
enter into the composition of our earth and atmosphere, which it 
denominates simple or uncompounded, and which it thus classifies : 
Three permanent gases, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen ; four elements 
having many similar characteristics, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and 
fluorine ; five solids not possessing the usual metallic properties, such 
as metallic opacity and lustre, carbon, boron, selenium, sulphur and 
phosphorus ; fifty metals, only one of which is a liquid, namely, 
mercury, or quicksilver, all tlie other metals being solid. Of these it 
is generally considered that all known things are constituted, and 
the names given to these simple substances, on account perhaps of 
their peculiar properties, distinguish them from one another. But it 
may not be necessary to understand any more than two elements in 
nature which we may call by the old names, electricity and carbon, 
the latter substance representing the solid parts of existence, the 
former the fluid or gaseous ; and the time will come, and perhaps is 
not far distant, when scientific men will conclude that there is no 
necessity of understanding any more than one substance to be in 
existence, which we shall call spirit, or leave unnamed, and of which 
all the varieties and diversities met with in nature are but modifica- 
tions and phenomena. Nor may they think it necessary to limit the 
number of these modifications to sixty-three, or to put any limit 
whatever to that number ; for the number of modifications in nature, 
as existence itself, is infinite. 

But let it be remembered that, though all these so-called simple 
substances are but modifications of the same general substance, yet 
the knowledge and classification of them, after such a manner as has 
been in vogue by scientific men, may not be without its use. If it 
may be employed in the arts for the abridgment of human labor, for 
the prevention of human suffering, or for the supply of human wants 



* See Grove on the Correllation of Physical Forces; also, Herbert Spencer's Princiyals of 
Philosophy. 



THE REQUISITE KNOWLEDGE, COMMON SENSE. 27 

and necessities, conveniences or comforts, then it is useful ; but, if it 
be employed in the arts which minister to the detriment of human 
beings, so far it would be better not known nor practiced. There are 
no men who should be more candid, more interested in the welfare 
of mankind, or more active and industrious for the amelioration of 
the condition of human beings, than learned and scientific men. 
They are in the possession of that of which the great mass of man- 
kind are destitute, which, if they use aright, will doubtless prove a 
blessing to their race, but, if they abuse or neglect, will prove a 
detriment and an injustice. Such men should remember that they 
have a trust committed to them, for the proper use of which they are 
responsible to their Creator, but for the abuse of which they will 
suffer the consequences in their own experience. Men feel all the 
happier for being good and doing good, yea, all the good they possi- 
bly can. Let each one of our readers remember this. 

But the great mass of mankind, although unacquainted with chemi- 
cal science or natural philosophy, have yet enough of common sense 
and sound judgment to guide them in their use of natural objects. 
Nature is a good guide, if they will but give sufficient attention to it, 
observe its laws and live according to its dictates. Surely most men 
know that matter is continually changing, undergoing new modifica- 
tions, and entering into new combinations ; and that a material sub- 
stance which in one state would be healthful, in another state, would 
be a rank poison. No man in the use of his senses and reason would 
choose to live in a place surrounded by unwholesome air and noxious 
gases in preference to a healthy place where there is an abundance of 
pure air, yet we find thousands in the rural districts, and even in 
large towns and cities, who erect their houses on the edge of marshes, 
and in the bottom of valleys, environed by hills, where they are sur- 
rounded with pestilential effluvia, carbonic acid gas and other gases, 
instead of on the brow or summit of a hill, where they Avill have the 
advantage of wholesome air. Neither would he choose to drink 
unwholesome pool-water in preference to the limped water of the 
running brook or the springing well ; nor, in preference to this last, 
would he consent to use such productions of art, as champagne or 
claret, whiskey or rum, gin, ale, beer, porter, and such like intoxicat- 
ing drinks, although a great many who, in other respects, seem to use 
right reason are weak and silly enough to make use of such beverages. 
If a man who sleeps in an ill-ventilated room does not know scien- 
tifically the cause that is producing the weakness of his system, it 
may interest him to be told that, in breathing the confined air during 
the night his system has absorbed its nutritive properties, and has 
left only that part of it which is not fit to be breathed, which is tech- 



28 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

nically called carbonic acid gas, and which, if it continues to be 
breathed, will cause suffocation and will ultimately cause death, — 
he, then, will be likely to conclude, whether scientifically or not, 
that he needs a constant supply of fresh air in his sleeping apartment. 
But there are few men so stupid as not to know, even though they 
ma}' not be acquainted with one of the first principles of chemical 
science, that they stand in need, da}- and night, of a constant supply 
of fresh air. Without any knowledge of chemistry, the coal miner 
knows that he needs a constant supjjly of fresh air in the mine or 
that he cannot work there (and here it is proper for us to remark, 
since the vital interests of a large class of human beings are at stake, 
that it is the duty of the proprietors of coal mines, and of other 
mineral mines, to provide that the mines be supplied with a copious 
supply of fresli air, and otherwise kept as safe as possible, and that 
there ought to be superintendents of mines appointed by government 
whose care it should be that these things be done). Coal mines are 
usually supposed to have two shafts reaching from the surface of the 
earth to the bottom of the mine, into one of which air is impelled by 
means of an air pump, which air traverses the whole length and 
breadth of the mine, penetrating all its departments and recesses, and 
enabling the men and animals there to prosecute their employments. 
At the bottom of the other shaft a fire is kept burning, which rarifies 
the air now vitiated and impregnated with noxious gases after tra- 
versing the mine, and causes it continually to ascend through this 
shaft. It will be remembered that air rarified by heat always ascends. 
In sonie of the coal mines of Pennsylvania, in which such appalling 
accidents have happened of late, we have learned, Avhether it be true 
or not, there are some that know, that there was only one shaft used 
for the access and escape of air to and from the mine. 

Experience will teach men, if they will but observe, that the air 
in deep wells, in cellar's, in close rooms, in caverns, in marshes and 
loAv places, as well as in the upper regions of our atmosphere, is un- 
fit to breathe and detrimental to health : and how bracing and 
wholesome is the air upon the elevated surface of the earth, and in 
all places to Avhich it has free access, or which are kept well ventil- 
ated ; how the air inside a building Avhich has become vitiated by 
the breathing for a long time of a large assembly of people is not by 
any means as Avholesome to breathe as the pure out-of-door air ; how 
that the water contained in marshes and stagnant pools is not fit to 
drink, and hoAv that contained in the running brook or springing 
well is wholesome and refreshing ; how that the piece of flesh or 
other article of food which when fresh would be wholesome and 
nutritious, when undergoing decay would be a rank poison. 



OBJECT OK THING AND NO-THING. 2J 

The hungry man does not stop to enquire whether the loaf of 
bread he receives- is a compound of a number of simple substances, 
or whether it is but one substance. He takes it for granted that it 
is wholesome, and does not suspect that it contains any noxious 
properties. The use of a similar substance before lias given him ex- 
perience to know that it is just what he wants to satisfy his appe- 
tite. He knows, very probably, that it is made up of flour, water, 
yeast and salt; and it may not iuici'cst liiiu 1) learn that llio co.n- 
ponent salt is itself a compound of chlorine and sodium; that tlic 
yeast is composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen; that 
the water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen ; and that the flour 
is the product of the albumen of the wheat or other grain, which is 
itself made up of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, 
phosphorus, &c., and that the whole loaf, if he can spare it, may be 
reduced to the state of a gas or air by the application to it of suffi- 
cient heat. He, probably, in his hungry state is not interested to 
know whether the egg he receives is but one simple substance, or 
that science has determined it to be made up of 55 parts carbon, 16 
parts nitrogen, 7 parts hydrogen, and the remaining 22 parts, out of 
a hundred into which the egg is su^jposed to be divided chemically, 
are made up of oxygen, phosphorus, sulphur, &c., and that it, as the 
loaf, can be reduced to the form of an invisible gas by heat. But if 
he received that loaf or egg in a mould}^ or decayed state, his rea- 
son or common sense would at once suggest to him that it would be 
injurious to his system if he ate it. He probably does not know, 
nor is interested to learn, whether the piece of flesh he receives is 
one simple substance, or whether it may be compounded of many 
simple substances, as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sul- 
phur, phosphorus, &c., which chemical science determines it to be. 
He takes and uses these without hesitation, knowing from past ex- 
perience and daily observation, that they are just such food as he 
needs. But if he receives these in a decayed state he would not use 
them, experience also telling him that in such a state they would do 
him hurt. Good common sense, therefore, accurate observation of 
the operations of nature, and the experience which is derived from 
the varied scenes and associations of life, seem most of the knowl- 
edge that is necessary for men to be possessed of, provided they use 
them rationally, in order to their well-being. It is, however, desira- 
ble that men should become possessed of all the knowledge they 
can, whether in relation to science, or art, or the affairs of life or 
any other branch of knowledge which may administer to their hap- 
piness and well-being. But even here common sense and reason 
should guide them in the selection of the branches of knowledge 



30 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

which they should pursue : those should be selected which are most 
necessary, and undertaken and pursued with a good and useful end 
and object in view. Time, for example, spent in the study of some 
of the dead languages and of some other branches which are never 
reduced to practical use, if these studies be not pursued merely as a 
discipline for the mind whereby some good may be derived from 
them in that sense, is time lost. That time might be well and use- 
fully spent in a practical way, or in the study of those branches 
which could be reduced to a practical use for the benefit and well- 
being of the person's self and of mankind. And not only the per- 
son's own benefit, but that of mankind also should be kept in view, 
in the selection and pursuit of anv branch of study. The knowledge 
of chemistry, we allow, may be made of great use to mankind, if 
emploj'ed by those who become possessed of it for the benefit and 
highest good of mankind, and not, as in many cases it is, for their 
detriment. What shall we say of all these poisonous luxuries that 
adorn the tables of the rich, and which owe their existence to chem- 
istry ? Or of gunpowder, which chemistry informs us is made up of 
nitrate of potassa, carbon and sulphur, in specific quantities ? 

That that which we denominate matter has never not existed,* 
will become more apparent as we proceed and is the opinion now 
most generally entertained among the learned. But that change bus 
always taken place in matter, that the earth and the heavenly bodies 
have always been as to their substance and motion the same as they 
are now, that mankind has always existed as to general form and 
appearance much as he in general exists now, that the universe has 
always presented to the eye of man, in general, the same phenomena 
as it does now, that it has always been to him a present thing, — a 
thing, we say, so far as it came within his view or could be con- 
ceived by his mind ; but as to its being wholly conceived by his 
mind, nothing ; of all this, although we do not necessarily assert the 
positive, preferring to leave people to judge for themselves concern- 
ing these matters from the arguments which we shall afterwards 
adduce, we may assert that there is no valid evidence to the con- 
trary, (t) 

The only conceptions which the mind of man can form are of ob- 
jects or things. Objects or things are limited or bounded, they all 



* If matter, which by any meaus knowable cannot possibly be annihilated, is asserted to 
have been brought into existence in some way called creation, it may and often is consistenUy 
asked, how has that space been created which matter occupies? If inquiry is necessary con- 
cerning this subject, the creation of one of these is as much a subject of inquiry as that of the 
other. 

(t) See examination and comparison of the accounts of the Creation in the book of Genesis 
in the beginning of Part Second of this boolc. To these accounts, or to the hypothesis of " evo- 
lution " which has for its base the "Xebular hypothesis," they may refer who are not content 
•with creation as it acLually takes place. 



THE earth's existence. 31 

have a beginning and an end, a limit in every direction. But the 
universe being infinite, that is, without beginning or end, or any- 
conceivable possible limit in any direction whatever, is no thing, no 
object : it is nothing. This may be better understood from an illus- 
tration. Take a line, (which is necessarily an imaginary one,) and 
beginning at any given point, say the centre of the table before you, 
conceive of it as extended upward toward the Zenith, or straight 
above your head ; or right downwards toward the Nadir, straight be- 
neath your feet ; or towards the East, West, North or South, or in 
any other direction whatever, toward any point of the celestial sphere ; 
conceive of this line as extended for any length of time, say for a 
thousand millions of centuries, and at any rate of rapidity of exten- 
sion, say ten thousand millions of miles per second ; let it be con- 
ceived of as extended for any length of time, and at any rate of ra- 
pidity whatever, and it can never be conceived of as coming to a 
termination in any one direction, so that it cannot be conceived as 
being capable of being extended further. It is as near such a termi- 
nation in any direction where it ceases to be extended, as it is at the 
central point of the table from whence it began to be extended. And 
that central point, too, of the table, which we have used for conveni- 
ence of illustration, we do not conceive as having either beginning 
or end : it is infinite and nothing. Here then is the idea or the no 
idea; the universe everything and nothing; a point infinite and 
nothing.* 

The human mind, as we have stated, can conceive only of objects 
or things. A man is an object, a tree is an object, the earth is an 
object, the moon is an object, the sun is an object, the planets and 
stars are objects ; and everything that has or can be conceived of as 
having a beginning and an end, a bound in every direction of space, 
and everything that has or can be conceived of as having a beginning 
and an end in time, is an object or thing. In fact the universe, so far 
as it can be conceived by the mind, is an object or thing ; but con- 
sidered as infinite it is nothing. 

This illustration of infinitude and finitude will throw some light 
upon the statements we have made in the opening page of this book, 
as to the Creator and Creation. Is it not very plain that our omnip- 
otent and glorious Creator, that is infinite, cannot be conceived by 
the mind, much less seen by the eye ? And yet men are so unrea- 



* If any one will consider for a moment upon this subject he will realize that, in a sense, he 
is infinite. The thought starts from his own mind, and, like Noah's dove, sent forth from the 
ark, can find no resting-place in any direction whatever until it return to his own mind again. 
In the mind it has the beginning and the end. If the mind could reach a limit in any direction 
whatever so tliat it could not conceive further, he would be finite, not infinita 



32 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

sonable, so presumptuous, as to set up material objects as representa- 
tions of Him, and wors^hip them ; and invent systems of ideas which 
they call systems, or " bodies " of divinity, and set them up and wor- 
ship them instead of Him. For how is it possible to conceive of an 
Infinite Being ? The mind can form no idea of Him, and how absurd 
and blasphemous that men should worship objects and things such 
as the sun, moon and stars, idols of w'ood and of stone, and men living 
and dead of their own race ! It appears so absurd and blasphemous 
as scarcely to be tolerable. And yet we are sensible of the presence 
of our great Creator, and can see His character reflected in every 
natural object. How important it is that men should be good and 
do good, and maintain an humble and devout spirit in His pres- 
ence ? 

It is plain that the distinction between objects and things and 
nothing, or, in other words, between the finite and the infinite, arises 
from the different states and conditions of matter as to density and rari- 
t}', — an idea which perhaps will be understood from the explanation 
we have already given of it, and may be more clearly understood 
from what follows : If all the matter in our globe and in all the other 
bodies in space were reduced to a gaseous or aeriform state, all of the 
same densitv, which reduction we have shown to be theoretically 
possible, there could be no object or thing in the universe : nothing 
but space which we can now conceive would exist. We might con- 
ceive of space to no end, but there would be no proper object to be 
conceived by the mind. jNIatter considered in the form of our earth 
or of any other globe, or even of Saturn's ring or of any other form, is 
an object or thing, and the condition of its being a definite object 
depends upon its existing in that condensed form to distinguish it 
from other forms of matter. Hence partly arises the numberless ob- 
jects which are in and on the earth, partly we say, for some objects 
are distinguishable from others by their difference of density, some 
by their difference in form, and some by their difference of color, etc. j 
for there is such a diversity in all these, and in other respects, that 
scarcely any two objects in all nature are exactly alike in ever}^ 
respect. This will be better understood from illustrations which we 
design to give further on. Hence it may truly be said that the earth 
exists out of nothing, also the sun, moon and stars, and each of the 
other heavenly bodies which do exist in the universe ; each of these 
bodies, hoAvever large, is a definite object or thing, and each of them 
may be said to exist out of nothing ; and, if all were reduced to an 
aeriform state of the same density throughoiit, they would cease to 
be definite objects or things and would vanish into nothing. Hence 
too, may have arisen the notion entertained by the ancients, of the 



THE EARTH'S EXISTENCE. 33 

earth and the heavens having been created or caused to exist out of 
nothing in six days, a notion which has descended to our time, but 
which of late, since the researches of geologists and astronomers have 
shed a glimmer of light upon the subject, has been discarded, 
or rather the subject has begun to be understood differently — 
understood in such a way for the sake of accommodation, per- 
haps, that the six days are made to represent six long periods ot 
time. And what, do we guess, will be the next step Avhicli theo- 
logians and all godly men will take with respect to this subject. 
Why they will be happy to confess that for what they know to the 
contrary the globe on which we dwell as to its essence and present 
general form has never not existed ; even thus they generally look 
at it now, leaving the perfect understanding of it to God alone. The 
doctrine of the creation of the cosmos out of nothing, as it has been 
taught and believed, has been the cause of a great deal of supersti- 
tion, and indeed a particular inconvenience and impediment to pro- 
gress, in the right direction. Not the old creation of Genesis but the 
new creation of John should be held out as of any importance for 
men to believe in ; not a creed of miracles which are only properly 
understood by a few, or of traditions which as commonly and 
literally understood are nullified by their inconsistency should be 
held forth as of importance for men to accept by the teachers of man- 
kind. They should teach men to be good and to do good individ- 
ually; to live lives of self-denial, of holiness and righteousness, of 
charity and of honest industry : they should teach men to depend 
for happiness and peace upon their own godly living, and not to depend 
for immunity for their own misspent lives, their lives of impurity, of 
vice and wickedness, upon the virtues of any other. They should 
practise this doctrine of regeneration themselves, and let their lives 
of humility, of industry and of godliness be conspicuous examples 
for those they teach to imitate. They should not teach men to ex- 
pect the millennium, except men themselves, by their godly living, 
bring it in ; and they should do all in their power in the state, in 
their own narrower sphere, and in the improvement of individual 
life, to introduce and perpetuate that glorious era. 

That the cosmos as to the phenomena of forms, motions, &c., has 
never not existed while there is no evidence definitely to prove, as it 
is impossible for us to conceive infinite time any more than infinite 
space, there is, as we have mentioned before, no evidence to dis- 
prove. While men have no knowledge of its having existed even 
essentially in any other way, say for example, in a nebular state, as 
the nebular hypothesis, which we shall speak of, by and by, and 

which is only an hypothesis, assumed, yet they have definite knowl- 

3 



34 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

edge for long periods of time, of its having existed in the present 
general way, as to phenomena of forms, motions, &c. Although 
Astronomy was cultivated by the ancient eastern nations, especially 
the Babylonians and Egyptians, for thousands of years before the 
Christian Era, yet Thales, a Milesian, whose date is 610 B. C. was the 
first we know of, to have recorded an eclipse ; and astronomers of 
the present day tracing backward the eclipses to his time have deter- 
mined his record to be correct ; and also that the earth, moon, sun, 
and planets have performed their revolutions during that period 
with undeviating regularity and precision. Therefore, tracing back- 
wards in the same manner we shall find that we have no right to 
infer that as to the phenomena of forms, motions, &c. they ever 
existed in any other way than as in general, they do now, or that 
their- substance assumed such forms, motions, &c., from having 
existed previously in any other state, since we have no evidence for 
any such conclusion and are not necessitated to point an assumption 
from which to draw any such inference, which would be heaping one 
hypothesis upon another. The compound ring of the planet Saturn 
is a body of such immense dimensions that it is computed to contain 
an area of more than one hundred times that of our globe, and to 
revolve around that planet at an exceedingly rapid rate of motion, 
namel}^ 900 miles a minute. It is found to be not exactly concen- 
tric with the body of Saturn, and, therefore, must subsist about that 
planet in a state of unstable equilibrium. " The observed oscilla- 
tion," says Sir J. Herschell, " of the centres of the rings about that 
of the planet is, in itself, the evidence of a perpetual contest between 
conservative and destructive powers, both extremely feeble, but so 
antagonistic to one another as to prevent the latter from ever 
acquiring- an uncontrollable ascendancy and rushing to a catastrophe. 
The smallest difference of velocity between the body of the planet 
and the rings must infallibly precipitate the latter on the former, 
never more to separate ; consequently their motion in their common 
orbit round the sun must have been adjusted to each other hj an 
external power with the minutest precision, or the rings must have 
been formed about the planet, while subject to their common orbitual 
motion, and under the full free influence of all the acting powers." 
Such is the complexity of the system of Saturn: — the immense globe 
of the planet, itself a thousand times larger than the earth, in rapid 
motion, and surrounded with a comjDOund ring of such immense 
dimensions, as we have mentioned above, and with eight moons, all 
in rapid motion around the body of the planet, and with the planet 
in space around the sun, — as well as the doctrine of gravitation, as 
all forbid the idea of these bodies having been formed or their 



THE earth's existence. 35 

njotions adjusted to each other when in rapid motion in space, and 
subject to all the acting forces. 

But the main question which will suggest itself in the case before 
us, doubtless, is : — If the cosmos as to the phenomena of form, motion, 
&c., has not always existed as it does now, how has it come to exist 
thus ? One of the iirst ideas that strike the mind when investi2:atinsr 
this subject is that of the gradual condensation of matter from all 
sides towards a common centre. This probably led some to suppose 
that the earth and all the celestial bodies are the results of a gradual 
condensation or closing in of the matter of which they are composed 
towards their several common centres. But such a thought or 
theory is inconsistent with the general theory of gravitation, with 
the regularity and precision of the motions of the spheres, as well 
as with the character and constitution of the earth as to solid, 
liquid, and gaseous. All things on the earth's surface, and for a 
certain distance in a perpendicular direction from its surface, tend 
or are attracted toward its centre. So, doubtless, it is with all the 
celestial spheres. If an earthly bodv, solid or liquid, is rarified 
sufficiently by heat, it ascends from its surface, but becoming con- 
densed in the atmosphere it returns to the earth's surface again. 
You can reduce water to the form of a gas, as steam, but it becomes 
vapor in the atmosphere, accumulates into clouds and descends to 
the earth again in the form of water or rain. Also, if any earthly 
substance, mineral or metal be reduced to a gas, every particle of it 
will soon find its way to the earth again in some form or in different 
forms, for the atmosphere is so constituted as to be sufficient in itself 
to answer the purpose which it is adapted to fulfil. Water is also 
so constituted as to be a stable element, sufficient in itself to fulfil 
the purpose for which it is adapted ; there is always exactly the same 
quantity of it in the earth, and, belonging to the earth, in the atmos- 
phere in the form of vapor. The solid parts of the earth also are so 
constituted as to be a stable element, sufficient in itself to fulfil the 
purpose for which it is adapted ; for, as we have stated, if an earthly 
substance or mineral be reduced to an aeriform state every particle 
of it will find its way to the earth again : the atmosphere does not 
want it, having enough of its own, and whilst it remains there it is a 
foreign in the midst of a native element. Also, if any part of the 
dry land by earthquakes, the action of the waves on coasts, or anj 
occiirrence in nature, be submerged, an equal extent will be freed 
from the dominion of the waters in some other place ; and men bring- 
ing their land plants and animals with them, they will all be propa- 
gated upon this new land to supply the place of those vegetables 
and animals which were lost by submergence. There is no sufficient 



36 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

reason to believe that more than small portions of land are lost 
at any time by the water, or that more than small portions are set 
free when compared with the whole extent of the dry land. 

The solids of the earth, the waters, and the atmosphere always 
retain their natural or normal bulk, if not expanded by the admis- 
sion to them of an excess of heat, or contracted by the abstraction 
of some of the heat that naturally belongs to them. A certain 
quantity of heat, as we have before said, belongs to all bodies, and 
so long as they possess just that amount and no more, or no less, 
they are said to be in their natural or normal state. And the doc- 
trines of natural science prove, as clearly as anything can be proved, 
the stability of fluids if allowed to remain in their natural state. It 
is proved by hj^drostatics and pneumatics that fluids press equally in 
all directions.* For example : fill a cubic measure full of water or 
atmospheric air, the lid being put on air-tight, the pressure upwards 
against the lid of the vessel will be the same as that downwards 
against its bottom, and the pressure against its sides will be equal 
to the upward or doAvnward pressure. This is seen more clearlj- in 
the case of a globe-shaped vessel filled with water or air ; the pres- 
sure outwards upon every point of the inside of the sphere will be 
equal ; and the fluid is said to be in stable equilibrium. Let it be 
remembered that the fluid in both of these cases needs to be in its 
natural state ; for if either water or' atmospheric air be possessed of 
more than its natural amount of heat its tendency is to ascend, and, 
therefore, the pressure upwards against the lid of the vessel would 
be greater than that downward or in any other direction. Heated 
water is seen to ascend in the shape of steam, and the air, heated in 
the fire place, makes its way up the chimney, carrying with it the 
unconsumed particles of charcoal, in which condition it is called 
smoke. 

The fact of air and water or any other body, expanded by heat, 
ascending perpendicularly rather than going in any other direction 
from the earth's surface, needs explanation. Thus it will be remem- 
bei'ed that the earth is round like a ball, and is continually revolv- 
ing round an imaginary line, passing from its north to its south poles 
or points, and called the earth's axis. It revolves round its circum- 
ference in the space of about twenty-four hours, producing in that 
length of time the succession of day and night. When it is noon- 
day with us in the northern hemisphere, it is midnight with those 

* Such is the general statement in Hydrostatics and Pneumatics, but it is necessary to 
modify it thus : the lateral pressure varies according to the perpendicular height, that is to say, 
it increases with the square of the depth ; and in this respect it is governed by precisely the 
same law that governs the velocity of "falling bodies ;" see farther on page 43. See ako 
Joyce's Scientific dialogues under Hydrostiitics as to this Umitiition. 



THE earth's existence. 37 

residing in the southern hemisphere, and during the interval of 
twelve hours, between twelve o'clock night and twelve o'clock noon, 
the earth has travelled round half her circumference, or over 12,000 
miles; and during the interval of twelve hours more, between twelve 
o'clock, noon, and twelve o'clock, night, the earth has travelled over 
12,000 miles more, or the other half of her circumference ; for the 
whole circumference of the earth is nearly 25,000 miles. It will be 
readily understood, therefore, that the inhabitants of the southern 
hemisphere have the soles of their feet directly opposite to those of 
ours, and their heads pointing in contrary directions to our heads. 
Hence in the day-time, when we consider ourselves looking up into 
the heavens and contemplating the sun, they must necessarily be look- 
ing downwards, or in the contrary direction, when viewing the stars ; 
and in the night-time, when we consider ourselves looking up into 
the heavens and contemplating the moon, the stars and the milky 
way, it being their day-time, they must be looking downwards, or 
in the contrary direction, when viewing the sun. And, conversely, 
during their daj^-time, which is our night, when they imagine, them- 
selves looking up toward the sun and the shining heavens, we must 
necessarily be looking downwards, or in the contrary direction, 
while gazing on tlie moon, the stars and the milky way ; and during 
their night-time, which is our day, when they imagine themselves 
looking up toward the heavens at the stars, the moon and the milky 
way, we must i?ecessarily be looking dowirwards, or in a contrary 
direction, while contemplating the sun in his brightness passing 
the meridian. Hence, as in natural science it is proved that equal 
and opposite forces, acting on the same plane, produce a negative 
result, so it is here as evidently proved that there is neither up nor 
doivn as regards the universe, or, speaking otherwise, as regards in- 
finite, spiritual or material existence.* This subject may be more 
clearly illustrated by the use of an artificial globe, such as are used 
in schools. Thus, the earth being round like a ball, when a body is 
expanded by heat into a gas at any point of its surface, it will take 
a direction perpendicular to the place where it begins to be expanded 
in separating itself from the earth's surface. Hence, if the whole 
earth underwent a gradual expansion at the same time, the expand- 
ing matter going in directions perpendicular to every point of the 
earth's surface, we may coiiceive that the earth, provided it became 



* lu this connection it is fitting to remade that tliere are alilce apparent contradictions with 
respect to the motions of the earth. Thus the eartli moves round its axis in a contrary direction 
to that in which it moves round the sun. And iu its motion toward the constellation, Hercules, 
in company with the sun and tlie other members of his system, it moves in a direction different 
from either of these. So that the threefold contradiction, apparently, at least, nullifies the real 
motion. 



38 CREATOR a:s'd cosmos. 

reduced into fluid, all of the same density, would be expanded into 
an immense gaseous globe, perhaps fifty or one hundi'ed thousand 
times its present dimensions, though still retaining its globular form. 
This we have shown before to be theoretically probable, though it is 
not practically so, for as long as the material elements, solid, liquid, 
and gaseous, of which our earth and atmosphere are composed have 
neither more nor less heat than what naturally belongs to them, they 
will remain in their natural state. 

Also, the uniform globular figure of the earth and of all other 
heavenly bodies is no disproof of their permanency. To this spher- 
ical form of the heavenly bodies there is no exception but one, 
namely, Saturn's compound ring, among the tens of thousands of 
those bodies which the telescope has enabled us to explore. And if 
all these bodies Avere formed by the gradual settling in of their mat- 
ter towards their centres, how does it hajopen that none of them ex- 
cept Saturn's ring is of any other than a globular form ? why are 
not some of them in the form of squares, or j^entagons, or hexagons, 
or in spme other polyhedral form? or why did Saturn's compound 
ring assume the form it has ? The evidences that the earth is a globe 
are complete and irresistible ; and every one who has the use of his 
eyes knows by observation that the sun and moon are round. The 
telescope enables us to contemplate the planets of the solar sys- 
tem from a nearer standpoint than that at which we survey the 
moon without its aid. All these planets are of globiflar shape, each 
performing its motions in space as the earth is. Telescopes of high 
magnifjdng power, such as that of Herschell and Earl Rosse, also 
virtually transport us to the regions of the fixed stars, regions so 
immensely distant that any conceivable agent, travelling at the rate 
of twelve millions of miles a minute, would take scores, yea hun- 
dreds, and from some of them, thousands of years to reach our earth. 
Although the distance of those stars are so immensely great that 
none of them have yet been closely contemplated, still there is evi- 
dence, judging from the cones of light Avhich they send forth, to show 
them to be of globular figure. 

The great nebular systems, so many of which have been brought 
into view by the telescope, are found when closely scrutinized by 
telescopes of great space-penetrating power, to consist of systems of 
stars, each star of which it is reasonabl}^ conjectured is the centre 
sun of a planetary system, and each star and planet of which is most 
probably of the globular form. Over 3600 of these systems of neb- 
ulae have been discovered in the northern and southern hemispheres. 
The nebulae which were known to astronomers before the great tele- 
scopes were invented had given rise to various theories, and, among 



THE earth's existence. 39 

them, this, to which the assent of many minds was given, that the 
formation of the celestial spheres took place from the gradual condensa- 
tion of celestial vapor, such as these nebulae appeared to them to be. 
Sir Wm. Herschell's great telescope first dispelled this idea by showing 
that many of the nebulae, so regarded as vapor, were really clusters of 
stars; but at the same time by its space-penetrating power it reveals 
new nebulae before unknown and beyond its resolving power. The 
construction of Earl Rosse's great telescope next contributed a new 
and vastly increased resolving power, and again showed the nebulae 
unresolved before consisted of star-clusters only still more remote, 
but at the same time it added to our knowledge the. existence of 
other nebulae before unknown, and, in turn, beyond its power of res- 
olution. " Thus," says Humboldt, " by increasing optical power, 
resolution of old and discovery of new would follow each other in 
endless succession ; so that it may be fairly asked whether we can 
with probability assume both such a state of the universe, and such 
a degree of improvement in optical instruments, that in the whole 
firmament there shall not remain one unresolved nebulae." When the 
phenomena which gave rise to the theory of gradual condensation 
had vanished, one would think that the false impression to which 
the theory gave rise should vanish also. It is not, however, neces- 
sary for any one to conclude that all the bodies existing in space, as 
our earth is, are of globular form, for, although all those we can see 
with our eyes and all the telescope has brought within our view are 
of that form, yet the universe being infinite, there may still remain 
bodies existing in it of great diversity of form. 

Also, the laws of gravitation, by which all things on or near the 
earth's surface are drawn towards its centre with a force proportional 
to their weight, are further proof of the earth's permanence. Al- 
though the laws of gravitation act universally, yet that which we 
have to speak of concerning them here relates to the earth and its 
neighbor globes of the solar system. We have before endeavored to 
illustrate that the earth is round like a ball; and as we know by 
observation and experience that all things on the side of the earth 
on which we are tend towards its centre, even so all things on the 
side of the earth opposite to us are attracted toward the same centre 
but in a contrary direction. Every point on the earth's surface has 
a point situated directly opposite to it in another hemisphere of the 
earth : thus, we and all around us are attracted towards the earth's 
centre, while those in Australia, directly opposite to us, are attracted 
toward the same centre in a contrary direction. Those also in Cen- 
tral Asia are attracted toward the earth's centre in a direction contrary 
to that in which the people of Brazil are attracted towards the same 



40 CEEATOB AND COSMOS. 

centre ; and those living in Northern Africa and Europe are attracted 
in a direction contrary to that in which the New Zealanders are attract- 
ed. Thus we see all bodies, wherever they are situated on the earth's 
surface, are attracted towards its centre. The force of this attrac- 
tion is found to be the same at all points on the earth's surface, with 
the exception of an exceedingly slight variation at the North and 
South Poles. This being so there are equal and opposite forces in 
operation at all points on the earth's surface, which produces a nega- 
tion ; for equal and opposite forces acting on the same plane, produce 
a negative result. Now, as every point on the earth's surface has a 
corresponding point directly opposite to it on the other side of the 
earth, and as there are two forces connecting these two points respect- 
ively with the earth's centre which are equal and acting directly 
opposite to each other, these forces may be conceived to meet on 
opposite sides of a plane, situated at right angles to their direction, 
and to produce a negative result, that is, no result beyond nullifying 
each other.* These two forces represent any two equal and opposite 
forces, or any number of equal and opposite forces acting towards the 
earth's centre, and from this the conclusion appears evident that the 
earth as a whole, or any analogous co-existing body in space, has, of 
itself, no weight. It may, therefore, truly be said that there are no 
forces of attraction connecting the surface of the earth with its cen- 
tre, except that by which lighter bodies have to yield to heavier ones. 
This, however, is a definite force, well-known, and acting uniformly 
and universally. The earth's elements, and consequently itself, are 
so constituted as to be in equilibrium ; and the reason why bodies in 
its atmosphere tend towards its surface, and those on its surface to- 
wards its centre is because their specific gravity is greater than the 
medium in which they are ; and because the interior and centre of 
the earth are made up of weightier materials than its exterior parts. 
Put a piece of iron into water, and it sinks to the bottom ; put a 
piece of wood in, and it floats on the top ; because the weight, that is, 
the specific gravity of the iron, is greater than its own bulk of water 
and that of the wood lighter. Elevate a solid body of any kind in 
the air, and having nothing to support it, it falls to the earth, because 
its weight is greater than that of its own bulk of air. In one sense, 
therefore, gravity means the same as weight, and the word gravitas is 



* This conclusion, you see, corresponds to the conclusions we have come to as to the motions 
and shows that, at least apparently, gravitation means nothing beyond what we here explain a: 
to the invariable descent or approach of lighter bodies towards heavier ones, or of the rarer to 
the more dense, or of the less attractive to the more attractive, as the loadstone. That Gravi- 
tation, as Light, Heat, Magnetism, Motion, &c., is a modification of the one general substance 
or an effect of the one great agency, is here quite apparent. We give a more simple illustra- 
tion of it farther on under the head of the " Attraction of Gravitation." 



THE earth's existence. 41 

the Latin for the English word weight. It may seem strange to some 
that the earth, being round like a ball, should have the faculty of 
drawing bodies towards itself at every point of its surface; for, if a 
solid body be elevated in the air at a point of the earth directly 
opposite to that which we occupy, the body falls to its surface, as 
with us ; and if iron or wood be there thrown into the water, the 
one will sink and the other float, as with us. Now it is known 
beyond all doubt, that all bodies possess the power of attraction in 
proportion to the quantity of matter they contain. Some bodies, as 
the loadstone, possess it even in a greater degree. It is plain, there- 
fore, that the earth being so much larger than any body on or near 
its surface, possesses the power of attracting them to itself at every 
point on its surface. This power, however, is not limited in its 
action by the earth's surface, but extends into the atmosphere and 
far into space. It is the earth's attraction which retains the moon in 
its orbit round the earth; and it is the sun's attraction which retains 
the earth and moon in their orbit round the sun ; and, conversely, it 
is the attraction of the earth and moon and all the planets which 
retains the sun in his position and orbit in space. The attraction, 
therefore, is mutual between all bodies in space, and in the main acts 
in proportion to their several weights. Bodies, however small, at or 
near the earth's surface, attract the earth in proportion to their weight ; 
but the earth being so much weighter than any of these, their attrac- 
tion is as nothing compared with the earth's, and, therefore, all these 
small forces yield to the attraction of the earth. The earth, also, 
being nearly fifty times larger than the moon, exerts on the latter a 
proportional attraction, and thus retains it in its orbit round the earth, 
and prevents it from flying off into space in a tangential direction, 
which that bodj'', as all other globes in space, has a tendency to do, 
if not counteracted by the superior weight of other bodies. And the 
sun being over 1,300,000 times larger than the earth, and consider- 
ably larger than all the known planets of his system taken together, 
exerts a balancing power over all these bodies. It is plain, therefore, 
that all these bodies are in equilibrium, and that the principle of 
attraction may be resolved into that of the maintenance of equilibrium, 
and of the stability of order. The universe, though it may be considered 
as one great whole, is constituted of different parts, and these parts 
of different elements, all of the same general substance, but in differ- 
ent degrees of density and rarity. The earth, though composed of 
three elements, solid, liquid, and aeriform, each of which fills its own 
place and performs its own functions in the earth's economy, may be 
called a unit ; and each of these constituent parts may be called 
unit in relation to the constitution of the earth ; but yet the earth is 



42 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

onh" a member of universal existence, filling its own place, and per- 
forming its own functions, a^ the other members are. 

We have mentioned before with what regularity the earth and the 
heavenly bodies move. This regularity and precision is not greater 
than that which governs bodies falling towards the earth's surface. 
Small bodies will not fall to the earth unless they be within the 
sphere of the earth's attraction. By this we mean that there are 
parts of space in which the earth's attraction is nothing. The sun, 
moon, and each of the planets has a sphere of attraction of its own. 
But then, there are spaces intermediate of these bodies, which do not 
come within their spheres of attraction in any sensible degree. There, 
as we have before remarked, the ether is in equilibrium. Xot that the 
attraction of each of these bodies is not exerted on each of the others, 
but that their contrary attractions, counteracting each other, produce 
equilibrium in certain parts of the space intermediate of these bodies. 

The attraction of gravity, and the dispersion of light and heat, are 
analogous in their operation. The force of all these decreases with 
the square of the distance from the centre of action. Suppose you 
are reading at a certain distance from a candle, and that you receive 
a certain quantity of light on your book, if you remove to double 
that distance from the candle you will enjoy four times less light 
than you had before ; here, then, though you have but doubled your 
distance, you have diminished your light four-fold, because four is 
the square of two. If, instead of doubling your distance from the 
candle, you remove to three, four, five, or six times the distance from 
it, you will then receive at these different distances, nine, sixteen, 
twenty-five, or thirty-six times less light than you did at first, for 
these, respectively, are the squares of the numbers three, four, five, 
six. The same is applicable to the heat imparted by a fire, at a dis- 
tance of two yards, from which a person will enjoy four times less 
heat than one who sits at one yard from it, and at three yards dis- 
tance nine times less heat, and so on decreasing with the square of 
the distance from the fire. And if a body is removed to double the 
distance from the centre of gravity, the attraction exerted on it is 
one-fourth ; if to three times the distance, it is one-ninth ; if to fotir 
times the distance, one-sixteenth, and so on decreasing as the squares 
of the distances increase. 

All bodies have their centres of gravity or points about which all 
their parts are balanced. The earth's centre of gravity is its centre. 
The differences of the power of the earth's atti-action are not discern- 
ible at short distances from its surface, owing to the distance of the 
latter from the centre of gravity. But it is determined that, could 
we ascend 4000 miles from its surface, or double the distance of the 



SPIRIT IS MATTER. 



43 



surface from the centre, we should there find the attractive force to 
be one-fourth of what it is here ; or, for example, that a body, which 
at the earth's surface weighs one pound, would, at 4000 miles above 
the earth, weigh but a quarter of a pound. By the most accurate 
observations the moon is found to be obedient to the same laws of 
attraction as other heavy bodies are. Its mean distance is clearly 
ascertained to be about 240,000 miles, or equal to about sixty semi- 
diameters of the earth, and, of course, the earth's attraction on the 
moon ought to diminish in the proportion of the square of this dis- 
tance, that is, it ought to be sixty times sixty, or 3600 times less at 
the moon than it is at the earth's surface. This is found to be the 
case by the measure of the deviation of its course from a right line. 
Bodies near the earth's surface, when left free to descend, fall at the 
rate of sixteen feet in the first second of time ; but as the attraction 
of gravity is continually acting, so the body continues to fall with 
an increasing, or, as it is usually called, an accelerating velocity. It 
has been determined, by the most accurate experiments, that a body 
falling from a considerable height, by the force of gravity, falls six- 
teen feet in the first second; three times sixteen feet in the next ; 
five times sixteen feet iir the third ; seven times sixteen feet in the 
fourth, and so on, constantly increasing according to the odd numbers, 
one, three, five, seven, nine, etc. By reason of the centrifugal force, 
that is, the force which impels the earth in its orbit, the distance 
fallen in the first second varies a little in different latitudes. 

The following rule holds in all cases as to falling bodies : that the 
spaces they describe when falling freely from a state of rest increase 
as the squares of the times increase. Or, the following formulae with 
respect to falling bodies will convey a clearer idea of the uniformity 
with which this law acts: 



Seconds, 


Space passed over in a 
second. 


Velocity at end of 
second. 


Total space passed over to 
end of second. 


1 

2 
3 
4 
5 

6 

7 


1 
3 
5 
7 
9 
11 
18 


2 

4 

6 

8 

10 

12 

14 


1 = 1- 
4 = 2-! 
9 = 32 
16 = 42 
25 = 52 
36 = 62 
49 = 72 



If, after the demonstration of the uniformit}^ of the action of gravity, 
any one should be puzzled to understand how it is that while the 
earth is continually rolling round like a ball, it retains all things in 
connection with it to its surface, they should remember that we con- 
stantly meet with illustrations of this force. A can, filled with water 
may be swung round the head without a drop being spilt. When 



44 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the can is at its highest point, and therefore has its mouth downwards, 
the water is attracted towards the earth; but this attraction is more 
than overcome by the centrifugal force, or the force of the hand by 
which the can is swung, and hence it remains in the can as if it were 
solid. It does not lose a particle of its water. Some persons are 
worried because they say they cannot understand this with regard to 
the earth, but the same persons hardl}^ ever consider how it is that 
flies and other insects walk upon a perpendicular pane of glass or 
upon the ceiling over their heads. Does this not seem as inexplic- 
able as the other ? 

But something has, at least, been adduced to show the probability 
of the permanency of the cosmos, constituted in general as to pheno- 
mena of form, motion, elements, &c., as it is now. Nothing can be 
brought forward to prove the contrary of that probability; and if 
any one attempted to prove such contrary, it would be well for him 
to prove how it came into existence, how it attained its present 
general constitution as to elements, forms, motions, &c. ; how it is 
maintained in this constitution, where, in short, it came from, and as 
we may suppose such a one would hold the doctrine of its final 
destruction, where it is going to, and when ? 

We have shown heretofore that matter and spirit are the same 
thing * in different states as to density and rarity ; that the most 
solid substances can be reduced to an aeriform state, and it is of the 
same essence in the gaseous form as it is in the solid. In the one 
case it is condensed, in the other expanded ; in the one case it is 
the solid, tangible substance, in the other the intangible, invisible 
gas. Spirit, from the Latin word sjyirare, to breathe, from which our 
words inspire, expire, etc., are derived, means that which we breathe, 
or breath. The Greek word for the same thing is --.luud, wind, or 
breath, from which our technical word, pneumatics, is derived, mean- 
ing the science which treats of wind or air. Also, the Hebrew word, 
translated into our language, spirit, means air or wind ; as for instance 
in the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis, it says, the Spirit 
of God moved upon the face of the waters, which equals, the wind 
of God moved upon the face of the waters. The difference be- 
tween spirit and matter, then, is onl}^ one of degree of densit}^ and 
rarity of substance; it is the same substance in two different 
states; in the one state in a form to be breathed, in the other in a 
form too dense to be breathed. We do not mean to say that air 
derived from the reduction of any and every solid substance to a 



(*) Mind, as it relates to man, is properly called a development from matter or from spirit; 
but mind is really infinite and universal as is deity. The soul as applied to man means the Liv- 
ing, conscious, rational human heing, and in a wider sense the principle of life iu man. 



SPIRIT IS MATTER. 45 

gaseous form would be fit to be breathed by human beings and all 
the animal creation ; we mean only that it would be air or wind (for 
wind is air in a state of motion) just as much air as is the atmosphere 
which surrounds us. We do not mean to say that the solid parts of 
the earth, or even water, are intended to be reduced to air and 
breathed ; indeed their very constitution, and the purposes they fulfil 
in the production and support of animals and vegetables, indicate 
different. The atmosphere is that one constituent element of our 
terrestrial system, which is intended to be breathed. Each of the 
three constituent elements of our system has its own purpose to fulfil, 
and yet they are all three mutually helpful to each other. The 
atmosphere and water may be called the servants of the solid earth. 
The earth needs air and water as well as the solar light in order to 
the production and support of vegetables and animals. The earth 
also supplies oxygen to the atmosphere, and absorbs the impurities 
with which that element becomes impregnated. This operation is per- 
formed by the leaves or lungs of vegetables, which absorb the car- 
bonic acid (*) fi'om the air, retain its carbon to increase the solid 
tissue of their plants, and expire or reject its oxygen, which is the 
vital principle of the air we breathe. The atmosphere, as a sponge, 
sucks up the water from the surface of the ocean, of lakes and rivers, 
and lets it down upon the thirsty earth again in the form of rain. 
This process of imbibing water by the atmosphere is called evaporation. 
These three elements are, as we have before remarked, modifications 
of the same general substance, each so constituted that nothing can 
be added to or taken from it; but they are all three mutually depend- 
ent on each other, as the parts of the human or other animal body are 
dependent on each other. When water is evaporated from the sur- 
face of the ocean, ©f lakes, and of rivers, it is not lost — not a particle of 
it goes beyond the sphere of the earth's attraction; but having 
descended to the earth again as rain, snow, etc., it in due time 
finds its way into the rivers and thence to the ocean. When a tree 
decays, part of it becomes water, part carbonic acid, and part humus 
or clay. When any vegetable or animal body goes to decay, its com- 
ponent parts return eventually to their original elements, earth, 
water, and air. These three elements in the constitution of the ter- 
restrial system form an individual or unit, just as the parts and mem- 
bers of the human body form an individual or unit. 

Matter is defined in general terms to be everything which is an 
object of our senses, and includes the ideas of extension, solidity, inac- 
tivity, and mobility. The theory with respect to the constitution of 
matter hitherto is : that all matter is made up of infinitely small 

(*) Carbonic acid is composed of Carbon and Oxygen. 



46 CREATOR AND COSMOS, 

particles, called atoms, that is, parts so minute as to be incapable of 
further division ; and that these atoms or ultimate particles are un- 
changeable and indestructible, unless the power which gave them 
existence so effects it. The most minute particles, which, even the 
microscope can only just discern, may contain millions of these 
atoms, so that they must be infinitely beyond the reach of the recog- 
nition of our senses. A molecule (a little mass) which ma}'' be called 
the secondary atom, is the smallest particle capaple of existing by 
itself. This, though it may contain millions of atoms and be undis- 
cernible by the naked eye, is considered the ultimate particle of a 
compound body. For a long time the theory supposed these molecules 
to be round, solid particles, but the expansion and contraction of 
bodies under the influence of light, heat, and electricity had never 
been satisfactorily^ accounted for on this hA'pothesis, nor how solid 
bodies become liquid, and solid and liquid bodies become gasiform. 
The theory, therefore, has for some time supposed that the molecules 
of matter are not solid, but are filled with electricity, as the soap 
bubble is with air, and are, like it, capable of great elastic expansion 
and contraction, and that they are only round like the soap bubble 
when taken singi}', but are polyhedral or manysided over all their 
surfaces of contact, when like the soap bubbles in connection with 
each other, or in clusters. This theory shows how electricity, Avhich 
undoubtedly pervades all bodies, ma}' be contained within the mole- 
cules : and also how electricity, which is undoubtedly capable of 
expanding all bodies, can expand them; and further, how mole- 
cules, which, from extreme contraction are hard, and solid, and 
opaque, may, by extreme expansion and rarefaction, become fluid, 
gaseous, diaphanous, and transparent. It also satisfies the chemical 
requirement of definite atoms for proportional admixtures of different 
elements and their concurrent expansion and contraction Avithin 
definite limits in the compounds they form. 

But let us see from the following illustrations what these mole- 
cules are which are conceived to be filled with electricity, by this 
also seeing the extent to which matter is capable of being subdivided. 

One hundred cubic inches of a solution of common salt will be 
rendered milk}^ by adding to it a cube of silver, each side of which 
measures the ^7^07 °^ ^^^ inch, dissolved in nitric acid. The atoms 
of silver have found their way into every particle of water, and there 
with the salt formed the white chloride of silver, which rendered 
the solution milky ; that is, the small cube of silver has divided itself 
into at least one hundred trillions of parts,* a number which 
the seconds pendulum of a clock would beat in 3,168,969 years ; 

* 100000000000000 , that is, we multiply each of the small cubes by 1000, and divide by the 
31,556,928 ' ' number of seconds in a year. 



SPIRIT IS MATTER. 47 

and even yet we are not sure that we have approached the meas- 
ure of an atom of silver, we have only reached the limits of our 
power of subdivision. A single grain of gold can be spread into a 
1 >,iif containing 50 square inches, and this leaf muy be readily divided 
into 500,000 parts, each of which is visible to the naked eye ; and, 
1)\- the help of a microscope which magnifies the area of a surface 
100 times, the lOOth part of each of these becomes visible ; that is the 
50 millionth part of a grain of gold will be visible, or a single gram 
of that metal may be divided into fifty millions of visible parts. But 
the gold which covers the silver wire used in making gold lace is 
spread over a much larger surface, yet it preserves, if examined by a 
microscope, a uniform appearance. It has been calculated that a 
single grain of gold under these circumstances would cover a surface 
of nearly thirty square yards. 

If a bar of silver be gilded and then drawn out into a wire, the 
thread may be so fine that the gold covering one foot weighs less than 
the Q-^QQ of a grain ; an inch of this wire will contain the i7-2"o"o o^^ ^^ 
a grain ; this may be divided into 100 jDarts, each visible to the eye, 
and being covered by the y2'oWoo' °^' ^^^® °'^® '^ million 2 hundred 
thousandth part of a grain of gold. Under a microscope, magnify- 
ing 500 times, each of these pieces may be subdivided by the eye 
into 500 parts, the gold retaining its original appearance, and show- 
ing no signs of dividing into its separate atoms ; and yet the par- 
ticle visible to the eye, that which covers the upper part of the wire, 
^^ TFoWoFCo ¥ ^^' ^^^^ *-*^^® seven thousand two hundred millionth of 
a grain. 

If a Dound of silver wire which contains 5760 grains, and a single 
grain of gold be melted together, the gold will be equally diffused 
through the whole silver, insomuch that if one grain of the mass be 
dissolved in aqua fortis, the gold Avill fall to the bottom. By this 
experiment it is evident that a grain of gold may be divided into 
5761 visible parts, for only the 5761st part of the gold is contained 
in a single grain of the mass. 

The diffusibility of parts of natural bodies is still more surprising. 
Odoriferous bodies, such as camphor, musk, and asafoetida are per- 
ceived to have a wonderful subtility of parts ; for though they are 
perpetually filling a considerable space with odoriferous particles, yet 
these bodies are found not to lose any sensible part of their weight 
in a great length of time. 

Again, it is said by those who have examined the subject with 
the best glasses, and whose accuracy of observation is not questioned, 
that there are more animals in the milt of a single codfish, than there 
are men on the whole earth, and that a single grain of sand is larger 



48 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

than four millions of those animals. Now if it be admitted that 
these little animals are possessed of organized parts, such as a heart, 
stomach, muscles, veins, arteries, etc., and that they are possessed of 
a complete system of circulating fluids, similar to what is found in 
larger animals, we evidently approach the idea of the infinite reduci- 
bility of matter. It has indeed been calculated that a particle of the 
blood of one of these animalculse is as much smaller than a ci-lobe 
one-tenth of an inch in diameter as that globe is smaller than the 
whole earth. 

Captain Scoresby, in his account of the Greenland Seas, states 
that, in July, 1818, his vessel sailed for several leagues in water of 
a very uncommon appearance. The surface was variegated with 
large patches of a yellowish-green color. It was found to be pro- 
duced by animalculae, and microscopes were applied to examine them. 
In a single drop of the water examined by a power of 28,224 (magni- 
fied superficies) there were fifty in number on an average in each 
squar^e of the micrometer glass of jl^th of an inch in diameter ; and 
as the drop occupied a circle on a plate of glass containing 529 of 
these squares there must have been in this single drop of water taken 
at random out of the sea, and in a place not the most discolored, 
about 26,450 animalculae. How inconceivably minute must the ves- 
sels, organs, and fluids of these animals be ! A whale requires a sea 
to sport in ; a hundred and fifty millions of these would have ample 
scope for their evolutions in a cup of water ! We might adduce 
many more instances of a like kind, but these we doubt not will be 
sufficient to illustrate into what exceedingly minute parts matter is 
capable of being subdivided ; parts so infinitely minute that they are 
evidently a rare fluid or gas, reducible doubtless to as rare a gas as 
the air we breath or to the much more subtile ether. 

And since that all existing things are of a substance reducible to 
a fluid of the same density throughout, it remains to give a name to 
that existence. We have begun this illustration with the proposition 
that there is nothing existing in the universe but spirit, in different 
states of density and rarity. This, according to the literal meaning 
of the word spirit, and the consideration that all existing things are 
of a substance reducible to a state of air, seems to be an appropriate 
term. Others, however, may conceive of a more appropriate term to 
be applied to universal existence and the more appropriate the term 
the more worthy of being applied and universally adopted. Nor do 
we think it proper or just to deprive scientific men of their atomic 
theory, since they regard it as expedient for their purposes ; but for 
our own part we consider chemical affinity to be all that is necessary. 

Affinity, in the language of chemistry, is that force in virtue of 



CHEMICAL AFFINITY, ELECTRICAL ATTRACTION. 49 

which two or more substances combine to form a compound body. 
This body exhibits properties different from those of the combining 
elements, and is called a chemical compound. Some substances dis- 
play a greater afQnity for each other than others do. For example, 
if we take a piece of chalk, and put it in a glass of water, in due 
time it will become softened, and if the water be stirred, the chalk 
will render it milky, but no change has taken place, for if it be let 
stand the chalk will sink to the bottom, or, if the water be evapor- 
ated, the chalk may be recovered unaltered. But had a little nitric 
acid been added to the water, bubbles of gas would have arisen to 
the surface, and the water would have become clear. The chalk was 
composed of lime and carbonic acid. The nitric acid having been 
added a combination of it takes place with the chalk, by which car- 
bonic acid gas is set free, and escapes in bubbles from the surface of 
the water. If now the water be evaporated, chalk will no longer be 
found, but a transparent crystallized substance, called the nitrate of 
lime, very different from the lime or the nitric acid of which it is 
composed. Here then is an illustration of chemical affinity, and of 
chemical combination. Chemical action always evolves heat. The 
action which took place when the nitric acid came into contact with 
the chalk Avas analogous to that which takes place when a stick of 
wood is thrown on the fire, in which case heat and flame result, and 
the component parts of the wood enter into new combinations. This 
phenomenon of chemical affinity veiy plainly depends upon the prin- 
ciple of electrical attraction. We have before explained that elec- 
tricity, light, and heat, are the same substance under different modes 
of action and manifestation ; or rather that electricity might be re- 
garded as the element of which light and heat are peculiar manifes- 
tations. This element pervades all bodies, which only require to be 
properly acted upon in order that it be made apparent in heat, or 
light, or both. Before the invention of lucifer matches the black- 
smith, in order to kindle his fire, battered a nail on his. anvil until it 
became red hot. Also, the savage who has no access to the means 
employed by civilized people for making a fire, educes that element 
by rubbing together two sticks of wood. Even water is pervaded by 
the active principle of combustion, and if thrown on a blazing fire in 
insufficient quantity tends not to quench but to strengthen the 
flame. All bodies in their natural condition are supposed to contain 
a certain amount of this electric fluid, and if they possess no more 
and no less than this natural amount they tend to remain in the same 
electric state. But if a body contains more than its natural amount 
it is said to be positively electrified, if less it is said to be negatively 
electrified. When a positively electrified body is brought near or 



50 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

in contact with a negatively electrified one, attraction takes place 
between them, and the former discharges its surplus fluid into the 
latter to make up for its deficiency. Thus, thunder is caused by a 
positively electrified cloud coming near a negatively electrified one, 
which it attracts, and discharging into it its surplus electricity ; and 
the lightning is merely a manifestation of the electric fluid itself. 
But what causes the noise, it will be asked, which scares the chil- 
dren ? The noise is caused by the electric discharge rushing through 
the air, and in its course displacing its own volume of the latter, thus 
causing a vacuum which the air from all sides rushes in to fill up. 
This combination of causes produces the thunder, but principally the 
air in rushing in to fill up the vacuum. When two bodies having 
more than their natural share of electricity come near or in contact 
with each other they tend to repel each other. This principle of 
electrical attraction and repulsion satisfactorily explains why some 
substances have a strong inclination to combine with each other chem- 
ically, while others exhibit little or no desire to do so. Now, in the 
example before us, the nitric acid and the chalk attract each other, 
one of the two containing a less amount of electricity than the other ; 
and thus, combining with each other, heat is evolved, and conse- 
quentl}^ gas is set free, and a chemical compound results. But the 
whole process of chemical combination is explainable on the princi- 
ples of equilibrial diffusion of electricity, and the change and recom- 
bination of matter. 

We have already endeavored to illustrate how that not only life 
but intelligence is inherent in all matter. Now that we have resolv- 
ed all matter into spirit it will not be difficult to understand that 
proposition. The mind readily conceives of the principle of life as 
existing in all spirit, though it may not conceive- of it so readily as 
existing in all matter. This, we think, arises in the main from the 
mind being habituated to think in a certain way concerning matter 
and spirit, and from a certain meaning which has been given to the 
word spirit in the ancient world, and especially in the Christian 
world, a meaning- not original or literal, but collateral ; not essential, 
but only attributive. For instance, the word spirit is commonly used 
to express the disposition, inclinations, state of heart or temper of a 
human being, although it is not often thought that the air the individ- 
ual breathes is the literal spirit, or that the human being himself is 
a real, though not in his present state a literal, spirit. Also, the 
Deity is especially spoken of as a spirit, invisible and everywhere 
existing, which is very true, for an infinite being cannot be conceived 
by the mind, much less seen ; and if a being be infinite he must 
be everywhere present ; confessed as a being he cannot be nowhere. 



CLIMATICAL PECULIARITIES. 51 

But as we know that we exist and as we see the works of the Creator 
in nature all round us we know that he exists and exists everywhere. 
But the Deity, as everywhere existing, speaking both from a physi- 
cal and moral point of view, must include bad as well as good, false 
as well as true God. What we have said hitherto with respect to 
the Creator we mean also of the Deity, for the Creator and the Deity 
we understand as synonymous terms for the same Being. The Deity, 
then, though unseen, must comprehend in Himself all that is seen 
to exist, and to be perpetuated in existence, in the two opposite 
aspects of evil and good in which it is seen by us, for the physical as 
well as the moral world presents existence in these two contrary 
aspects. 

Some terrestrial climatal conditions and peculiarities noticed, as well as 
illustrations from the noxious and innoxious portions of the animal 
and vegetable kingdoms. 

In the physical world we have the frigidly cold climates of the 
North and South polar regions, — the regions of eternal snow and ice, 
in which animal life cannot exist, and where if human beings try to 
live for a short season they must suffer the effects of intense, biting 
cold, and be every moment in danger of being frozen to death. We 
have also the parching torrid zone for twenty degrees imxuediately 
north and south of the equator, where men and animals suffer 
almost as much from the effects of the burning heat of a verticle sun, 
as in the polar regions from the effects of the intolerable cold. In 
contrast with these we have the mild climates of the temperate zones, 
where men enjoy the most delightful and refreshing breezes ; 
the most beautiful scenery, and magnificent and sublime prospects 
of creation ; the most lavish abundance of the good and useful pro- 
ductions of the earth, both animal and vegetable ; where nature with 
benignant smile and outstretched hand seems to anticipate the 
various wants of man, and offers him in luxuriant abundance even 
more than his heart desires. 

Certain parts of the earth are subject periodically to violent storms 
and tempests, hurricanes and tornadoes, which often render men life- 
less or homeless, and cause a great deal of terror, inconvenience, and 
damage to the inhabitants of the districts where they prevail. The 
hurricane and tornado are destructive winds that prevail upon the 
American Continent, and in the West India Islands, causing terror 
and often death both to men and the inferior animals. Then there 
are the poisonous winds, the terrible harmattan, and sirocco, and' 
samiel, and simoom, which prevail upon the continent of Africa, and 



52 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

in the south-western countries of Asia, causing the inhabitants of 
these countries to quake and hide their heads, as well as often caus- 
ing much destruction to life and property. In contrast with these 
we have the mild and genial breezes of our temperate climates, which 
are favorable to vegetation and to animal health ; and, also, the trade- 
winds and monsoons which enable our seafaring men to navigate 
every sea and ocean, and to waft the products of the earth and of 
the arts from land to land. 

In the animal kingdom we can contemplate the character and dis- 
position displayed by the wild carnivorous animals of the land, the 
lion, the tiger, the hyena, the wolf, the bear, the jackal, the wild-cat, 
etc. ; and the monstrous carnivora of the ocean, as the shark, 
the whale, the porpoise, and others innumerable, about which we 
know nothing. And among the reptile tribes we can contemplate 
the boa constrictor, the rattle-snake, the adder, the alligator, the 
crocodile, the anaconda, etc. ; and also among ravenous birds, the 
eagle, the ostrich, the vulture, the hawk, the raven, etc. And on tlie 
other hand we can contemjjlate the character and disposition of the 
gentle and useful domesticated animals, the sheep, the cow, the horse, 
the goat, the deer, the camel, the dromedary, the tamed elephant, the 
ass, the dog, the cat, the pig ; also, among birds, the pigeon, the hen, 
the goose, the duck, the guinea-hen, etc. 

In the vegetable kingdom we are presented with two varieties, 
noxious and innoxious plants. Poisonous plants are numerous — in- 
deed, they are to be found in most of the species, but some species 
contain many more than others. The order Ranunculacece, for exam- 
ple, of flowering plants, are almost all poisonous, and in some cases 
the poison is so virulent, that death speedily results from swallowing 
a very minute portion of the fruit. More than one poisonous princi- 
ple abounds in this tribe ; but of these the alkali termed by chemists 
aconitum is the most violent. It is a white substance something like 
flour to look at, and so frightfully poisonous that the twentieth part of 
a grain or even less is a fatal dose. Of all the various species of acon- 
itum, that termed aconitum ferox is the most dangerous. This plant 
grows in the Himalaya Mountains, and was on one occasion made 
use of by the natives to rid themselves of their subjugators, the 
English. A few leaves of this plant having been thrown into a Avell 
so poisoned the water, that men or beasts drinking it were almost in- 
fallibly killed. Also, the Poppy tribe, especially cultivated in India, 
is that which supplies the opium which is doing so much to poison 
the Chinese and the Hindoos. Plants belonging to the order Ranun- 
culaceoe are supplied with a watery, acrid, poisonous juice ; but in 
plants of the Poppy tribe the juice is milky, from which milky 



NOXIOUS PLANTS. 53 

juice the luxury, opium, is expressed. Also, the great natural order 
Umhellifera, or umbrella, bearing plants, are of a dangerously doubt- 
ful character. Their chemical characteristics may be said to depend 
on the presence either of an odorous, volatile oil, or of a poisonous 
matter. Everybody knows how agreeably odorous is caraway seed, 
and most people are aware of the poisonous nature of the hemlock, 
and of the noxious character of the fools' parsley. The advantage 
when one is in an unknown country of being a practical botanist, so 
as to be able to refer a plant to a hannless or noxious kind, is con- 
siderable. It is related that when, during Anson's voyage, his crews 
disembarked in unknown places, the surgeon, fearful of poison, would 
not allow them to partake of any vegetables, except grasses, not- 
withstanding the scurvy was making great ravages among them. 

The greater number if not all the members of the order Cucurli- 
tacoe, or cucumber tribe, contain a bitter poisonous principle, present- 
ing many degrees of intensity. In the colocynth it attains its maxi- 
mum. In the ordinary cucumber the poisonous bitter principle is 
usually but little developed, never to the extent of being danger- 
ous, although frequently enough to be disagreeable. In the melon, 
sugar is the principle secretion, nevertheless, the bitter principle so 
prevalent in the family is present in a small degree ; it exists in the 
outside rind of the fruit, and to a still greater degree in the roots, which 
are violently emetic. Bryonia, another species, is still more violent 
in its poisonous action than the colocynth. Also, nearly all, if not 
all members of the order Solanacece, or night-shade tribe, contain a 
poison of a narcotic kind. To this order belong the common night- 
shade, henbane, tobacco, stramonium, and the mandrake plant. It is 
a highly dangerous family of plants, although one that ministers to 
our sustenance in the potato. Even this is not entirely free from 
poison ; the fruits are notoriously poisonous, and even the juice of 
raw potatoes is highly injurious. The nutritive properties of the 
potato arise from the starch and gluten which it contains being min- 
gled with so little of the poisonous principle, that the latter is de- 
stroyed by the cooking process to which the potatoes are subjected 
before eaten. The egg-plant and tomato belongs to this family ; the 
former is occasionally eaten, the latter frequently and almost uni- 
versally by the Spaniards, and now by the Americans. We may here 
remark that the vegetable substance, starch, is largely diffused 
throughout many poisonous plants, yet when separated from them 
it is invariably harmless. Of this we have a remarkable example in 
tapioca, which is nothing else than the baked starch ex<,racted from 
the trunk of a tree, the jatropha manihot. The juice of this tree is 
so poisonous that they poison arrows with it ; nevertheless, tapioca is 



£>4 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

a delicate article of food. The common deadly night-shade, atropa 
belladonna, grows in shady places, and is an elegant though danger- 
ous-looking plant. We may here remark that, as a general rule, most 
plants having dark-green foliage, and dark-colored flowers are pois- 
onous. The belladonna bears a cherry-like fruit, which is sometimes 
incautiously eaten by children, and too often with a fatal result. In 
1793 some orphans brought up in the Hospice de la Piete at Paris 
were employed in weeding a botanical garden. They happened to be 
attracted by the tempting-looking fruit of the belladonna plant, of 
which they ate a considerable quantity. Fourteen of these unfor- 
tunate children died in consequence only a few hours afterwards. 
This lamentable catastrophe justifies the generic name atropa, from 
Atropos, one of the fates, who was supposed to cut the thread of life. 
The specific name, belladonna, signifies beautiful lady, and is de- 
pendent on the circumstance that the Italian ladies used the distilled 
water of this plant as a cosmetic. They foolishly imagine that it 
improves their complexions. The mandrake is a species very nearly 
allied to the belladonna. It grows in the South of Europe, and in 
dark places. This plant, known and celebrated from times of great 
antiquity, was employed by the sorcerers of ancient days to produce 
narcotism, and disordered vision. Its roots are large, often two- 
pronged, whence its fancied resemblance to the limbs of a man. 
This plant has, from very early periods of history, been regarded with 
much superstitious dread, which has probably arisen partly from its 
poisonous properties, and partly from its large and irregularly shaped 
roots, which at times approximate to the uncouth form of a man. Shake- 
speare writes : " And shrieks the mandrakes torn out of the earth, 
that living mortals hearing them run mad." The notion that pre- 
vailed in days gone by regarding the sounds of complaint uttered by 
the mandrake when being rooted up appears to have been widely 
entertained by the ignorant. Misfortune of the direst kind was be- 
lieved to be the portion of any one bold or rash enough to engage in 
disturbing the mandrake in his earthbed. An old English proverb 
says : " He who gathereth the mandrake shall die ; blood for blood is 
his destinie." It is supposed that the mandrakes mentioned in some 
parts of the Old Testament were not the same as the plant known to 
us by this name, but that under this term reference is had to the 
fragrant but insipid fruit of the Cucumis Dudaim, a plant which is 
cultivated in the gardens of the East for the odor it exhales. The 
mandrake is also confounded with the sleep-apple, a mossy excres- 
cence on the wild rose, which when laid under the pillow was sup- 
posed not to allow any one to wake until it was taken away. This 
property of stupefying doubtless arose from its narcotic properties. 



NOXIOUS PLANTS. 55 

Henbane is a European plant belonging to this genua under con- 
sideration. It is a biennial plant, and grows amidst the ruins of 
buildings, in the neighborhood of habitations. Its stem is studded 
with a cotton-like substance, and it constantly exhales a repulsive 
odor. Its corolla is palish yellow, veined with purple. It owes its 
peculiar properties to the presence of a peculiar alkali. Its action is 
far less powerful than that of belladonna ; nevertheless it may cause 
death if eaten. A German physician relates that, on a certain occa- 
sion, the Benedictine monks of the convent of Rhinon were presented 
with a salad in which the root of chicory, as was thought, had been 
placed. Instead, however, of being of chicory the root was of henbane. 
After the repast the monks went to bed. Symptoms of poisoning 
soon commenced ; the monks were all stupefied. The time for matins 
or morning prayers arrived, and one monk was so fast asleep that his 
fellows supposed him to be dying, and under this impression admin- 
istered to him extreme unction. The other monks went to chapel, 
but they had much better have stayed away ; some of them could not 
even open their eyes, much less read. The vision of others was so 
disordered that they thought insects were crawling on their books, 
and employed themselves in blowing and brushing the intruders off. 
Others instead of praying uttered nonsense. In the end all the 
monks got well, even the one supposed to be dead ; but one poor in- 
dividual, a tailor, could not thread his needle for a long time after- 
wards, so disordered was the state of his vision. Instead of one 
needle the tailor saw three, and as he could not tell the real needle 
from its ghostlike duplicates, there was slight chance of his threading 
it. This anecdote illustrates better than any mere description the 
physiological action of henbane. 

The stramonium is another plant of the Night-shade order. It 
was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but is now common 
in Europe, having been brought from Central Asia in the Middle 
Ages by the wandering gipsies. Its active principle is called daturine^ 
•which exists in the leaves and in the seeds. This principle is a po- 
tent narcotic alkaloid, resembling in its quality and the effects it pro- 
duces the alkaloids yielded by the henbane and belladonna. It 
is a deadly poison, and among the most striking of its properties may 
be named the effect it produces on the pupil of the eye, namely, that 
of causing it to dilate strongly. Nevertheless the stramonium, or 
the thorn-apple as it is sometimes called, like many other poisonous 
plants, has its beneficial uses. In Cochin China a decoction made of 
its leaves is considered an effectual remedy for hydrophobia, the ter- 
rible malady resulting from the bite of a mad dog ; but this by some 
is considered very doubtful. In small quantities daturine is very 



56 CREATOR A>'D COSMOS. 

Useful as a pain-soother or anodyne, and as an antispasmodic. Persons 
suffering' from asthma have found • relief from smoking the dried 
-leaves of the plant, or inhaling an infusion made by pouring boiling 
water on the seeds or leaves. Great care, however, should be used 
lest the patient take an overdose. Tobacco is another plant belong- 
inor to this natural order, and the use or abuse of which is too ■well 
Icnown to require comment here. 

The order Euphorhiacece, to which the castor-oil plant belongs, is 
mainly made up of very dangerous plants. The greater number of 
its species contain a milky, acrid, and poisonous juice, which often 
holds dissolved, in addition to other principles, a peculiar elastic sub- 
stance, and occasionally a coloring matter. The species Euphorbice, 
the type of this natural order, presents an aspect of great variety. 
The mancliineel is a large tree of intertropical America, celebrated 
for its peculiarly poisonous qualities. If accounts are to be trusted 
it is certain death for an individual to sleep under the shade of one 
of this species ; and even rain which touches th.e skin after ha^'ing 
fallen upon the leaves of this tree raises a blister. The manchineel 
tree also bears tempting looking fruit, from which an agreeable odor 
is exhaled, but even a small portion if eaten produces certain death. 

The order called Loganiaceoe is also largely represented by poison- 
ous plants. The sub-family strychnos contains the most remarkable 
species of this natural order. The greater number possess in their 
bark and seeds two alkaline principles, termed respectively strychnine 
and brucine. The action of these on the animal organism is ex- 
tremely violent. The Strychnos-tiente is a climbing plant of the 
Javanese forest, with the juice of which the natives poison their 
arrows. It is the famous Upas and is often confounded with another 
Javanese vegetable poison, obtained from the Antiaris Toxicaria, a 
tree belonging to tbe natural family Artocarpeae. The ourari, or 
wourali, is also a poison furnished by another member of the same 
natural family, the strychnos toxifera, a native of Guiana. The In- 
dians who dwell on the banks of the Orinoco, the Ipura and the Rio 
Negro, employ this suljstance as a poison for their arrows. The nux 
vomica tree, or koochla tree of India, is perhaps the most valuable of 
this tribe, furnishing an alkaloid, strychnine, very poisonous, but of 
cfreat use in medicine. 

The natural order Apocynacese, which name Greek scholars will 
recognize, and is significant of the dog-killing power of certain of 
its species, is also a dangerous tribe. The plants belonging to this 
order are usually trees or shrubs, seldom herbs, and for the most part 
containing a milky juice. This natural order is rather fi-equent in 
tropical climates, but the number of species is very inconsiderable in 



INNOXIOUS PLANTS. 57 

our latitudes. The milky, acrid and bitter juice which flows, from 
many of these plants imparts to the family an emetic and purgative 
tendency which in some species is deleterious. The bark of many 
of the dog-banes contains a bitter astringent principle; in other spe- 
cies a tinctorial matter predominates. The seeds of many genera are 
poisonous. Many species of the genus cerbera, as well Asiatic as 
American, possess narcotic acrid seeds, sometimes poisonous, but 
Tiseful as a remedy for the bites of serpents. The cerbera ahouai 
secretes an exceedingly poisonous juice, which is emploj'ed in Brazil 
for the purpose of stupefying fish. The poisonous tanghin is a native 
of Madagascar, about thirty feet in height, yielding a dropaceous 
fruit which contains an oily seed, and is employed by the natives 
judicially in the trials by poison. The accuser makes his complaint 
to the judge, who refers it to an official denominated the ampanan- 
ghin, and whose office is the double one of priest and executioner. 
If sufficient presumptive evidence of crime is forthcoming, the tan- 
ghin is administered and the guilt or innocence of the accused is 
judged by the result. If he recover from the effects of the poison 
he is declared innocent. If he die he is considered guilty and his 
goods are forfeited. Even the natural order of endogenous plants to 
which the grasses and cereals belong is not without its poisonous 
species. The darnel grass is strongly poisonous owing to the pres- 
ence of the chemical principle loline. Festuca quadredentata, a 
species which grows abundantly in Peru, is mortal to cattle which. 
graze upon it. Another species balmogrostis, is juiceless, and, when 
swallowed by animals, injures their throats, rather on account of the 
flinty matter with which it is profusely coated than because of any 
poisonous principle it contains. The orders here mentioned contain 
each many genera, species, and varieties, and what Ave have adduced 
as to poisonous vegetables gives only a very general idea of their 
number and varieties in the vegetable kingdom. 

But this abstract from the vegetable kingdom concerning noxious 
plants, together with what we have shown concerning the climatic 
conditions and changes of the earth, and the character of the savage 
carnivorous portion of the animal kingdom, should be fully sufficient 
to show the fallacy that underlies the effort of Dr. Dick and others 
to demonstrate that the earth and all things were created for the 
especial use and benefit of mankind. 

Having taken a glance at the noxious portion of the vegetable 
world, it will be proper, for the purpose of contrast, to give a passing 
notice to the innoxious portion of it. With this part of the vegetar 
ble kingdom people are better acquainted than they are with the 
other. In this part are contained the plants which furnish. the food for 



bb CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the human race and for the inferior orders of animals. It will not be 
necessary, therefore, to give any extended description of it; for what 
everybody knows to some extent, or may know extensively by a 
little observation, they need not be told about in detail in such a treat- 
ise as this. 

All seed-bearing plants are classed by botanists under the two 
general natural divisions of exogenous plants, or those which grow or 
increase by external depositions of their substance ; and endoge- 
nous plants, or those which grow or increase by internal depositions 
of their substance. Of the former class tlie oak, the elm, and most 
large trees are specimens ; of the latter the palm tree, the bamboo, 
the sugar cane and a stalk of wheat, rye or oats may serve as speci- 
mens. Most of the vegetables which minister to our sustenance be- 
long to the endogenous division. Thus, all the species of grasses 
are endogenous. The smaller species clothe our fields with verdure 
and afford nourishment to cattle ; the larger species furnish us with 
bread and sugar, for the reader may remember that not only the spe- 
cies commonly called grass which the cattle graze upon, but wheat, 
barley, rice, maize, oats, rye, and even the sugar-cane, the bamboo, 
and the palm-tree, are, botanically considered, grasses. Is it not 
wonderful that mankind subsists chiefly on grass! LinnfEus, the 
celebrated Swedish naturalist, has remarked that the cow eats 27 (j 
species of plants, and rejects 218 ; the goat eats 449, and rejects 126 ; 
the sheep eats 347, and rejects 141 ; the horse eats 262, and rejects 
212 ; and the hog, more nice in its taste than any of the rest, eats 
but 72, and rejects all the rest. Whether these animals reject certain 
plants on account of certain poisonous principles which the}^ possess, 
or simply because of a peculiar nicety of taste in themselves, we 
shall leave to be determined by others. 

Grasses are not excluded from any quarter of the globe, but the 
number of individuals, though not of species, is greatest in the north- 
ern temperate regions ; also, they have become so transported from 
one region of the earth ^ another, that it seems now quite impossi- 
ble to determine Avith certainty the native regions of many species. 
Oats and rye are mostly cultivated towards the north ; barley and 
wheat in more temperate regions ; maize is a staple product of America, 
and rice of Asia. The seed or rather the fruit of these afford suste- 
nance to the greater portions of the human race. The analogy of 
the chemical composition of grasses as well as their external charac- 
ters indicates their mutual affinities pointing out the whole family as 
essentially nutritive vegetables. The grain or seed contains starch 
or gluten in abundance, mixed with a certain quantity of sugar, the 
amount of which increases toward the period of germination ; they 



INNOXIOUS PLANTS. 59 

also contain a little fixed oil and various saline matters. Innocuity 
and the presence of nutritive principles are the grand characteristics 
of grasses physiologically considered. The sugar-cane is supposed 
to be a native of South-eastern Asia. It was unknown to the ancient 
Greeks and Romans, as also was sugar. From South-eastern Asia 
the cane was introduced into Arabia, and it thence was introduced 
into Egypt, Asia-Minor, Sicily, Italy, and Spain. From the latter 
country it was transported to St. Domingo and the mainland of 
America. It is cultivated to a considerably large extent and fur- 
ishes much to the benefit of the human race. The corn-bearing 
grasses are appropriately denominated cereals, or plants of Ceres, the 
goddess of corn, among the ancient Greeks and Romans. Amongst 
these wheat takes the first rank. It is more nutritive than any of 
the others, and is adapted to climes and tracts of greater diversity 
of character. Rice may be correctly described as a tropical water- 
grass, the conditions necessary to its growth being a hot atmosphere, 
and a swampy soil. These conditions exist in Asia, where rice is 
cultivated to a large extent, and in the southern temperate and tropi- 
cal climates of America. The conditions necessary to the growth of 
rice are unfavorable to the health of man. The palm tree is a plant 
which furnishes a number of useful products, such as oil, wine, dates, 
cocoa, nuts, hemp, astringent matter, sugar, and spirit ; also an excel- 
lent fruit is furnished by the banana a species of palm tree. The 
maple tree affords a large amount of sugar to the people of the Uni- 
ted States and Canada, who prepare and use that article to a great 
extent. The various species of apple tree furnish a fruit which is 
used in a variety of forms for human food. Also, the various species 
of peaches, plums, cherries, gooseberries, prunes, apricots, pineapples, 
strawberries, raspberries, currants, grapes, etc., as well as the various 
species of wild fruits, too numerous indeed to mention here, and of 
a wholesome nature, all afford their stores of nutritive food for the 
sustenance of man. Also, if we enumerate the roots, bulbs, and tu- 
bers, which are cultivated by the farmer and gardener, such as pars- 
nips, carrots, beets, turnips, potatoes, etc., we shall find that a large 
store is furnished from this source, also, for the maintenance of man 
and beast. 

If we enumerate the forest trees we have the various species of 
the oak, fir, pine, cedar, ash, larch, walnut, hickory, elm, birch, 
hemlock, etc., which all contribute to supply man's wants, if not in 
the way of food, yet in other important ways. 

Then there are the various species of flowering plants which 
adorn the fields and gardens, which are not of a poisonous nature, 
and which add such varied and diversified beauties to the prospect 



60 CREATOR AJSTD COSMOS. 

before us. During the summer season, when all nature is clothed 
with verdure, when the trees and plants are blooming with flowers 
and blossoms of varied hue, when the birds are warbling their 
melodious notes, when the various species of corn are growing and 
ripening in the fields, when the various kinds of domestic animals are 
seen to gambol and frolic about the lawns, and nature seems to 
smile benignantly in bringing fortli an abundant supply for the wants 
of all her animate offspring, then does not our earth seem a present 
heaven ! 

Illustrations from the character and practices of the Races of Mankind : 
first, from the Savage and Semi-civilized races. 

If we take a survey of the various tribes of mankind we find a 
great variety of character and disposition displayed. The two 
extremes of evil and good are here comprised. Man is undoubtedly 
the most savage and brutal of all terrestrial animals, but is suscepti- 
ble of becoming the most gentle, kind and iutelligent. In dealing 
with this part of our subject we shall first take a glance at the state 
of the uncivilized races of mankind, and at those nations by whom 
terrible scenes of barbarity are wont to be enacted and terrible deeds 
of atrocity are wont to be perpetrated, and then we shall take a 
glance at the races called civilized, both of the past and present. 

Contemplate with us the character and disposition of savage 
tribes, of the New Zealanders, the South Sea Islanders, the Austra- 
lian Bushmen, the Caffres, and numerous other African tribes; of the 
numerous nations of Indians of North and South America, of the 
ancient Mexicans, and of the Asiatic tribes of Huns, Tartars, etc., 
and what a horrid and disgusting picture of human cruelty, brutality, 
barbarism, and savage malignancy will be presented to the mind. 
The most prominent feature which appears in the character of 
savage nations is their disposition for war, and to inflict revenge for 
real or supposed injuries. The dismal effects of the principle of 
hatred directed toward human beings, the disposition to be engaged 
in war continually, and the savage ferocity of the human mind when 
unrestrained by moral and prudential considerations, are no where more 
strikingly displayed than in the islands scattered through the wide 
expanse of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Of the truth of those 
positions we have but too many melancholy examples, in the reports of 
missionaries and in the journals which have been published by 
navigators, from which we select a few. The first instance we shall 
adduce relates chiefly to the inhabitants of New Zealand. Captain 
Cook remarks in relation to those islanders : " Their public conten- 



CHARACTER OF SAVAGE RACES. 61 

tions are frequent, or rather perpetual ; for it appears, from their 
number of weapons and dexterity in using them, that war is their 
principal profession. The war-dance consists of a great variety of 
violent motions and hideous contortions of the limbs, during which 
the countenance also performs a part ; the tongue is frequently thrust 
out to an incredible length, and the eyelid so forcibly drawn up, 
that the white appears both above and below as well as on each side 
of the iris, so as to form a circle around it ; nor is any thing neglected 
so as to render the human shape frightful and deformed. To such 
as have not been accustomed to such a practice they appear more 
like demons than men, and would almost chill the boldest with fear ; 
at the same time they brandish their spears, shake their darts, and 
cleave the air with their patoopatoos. To this succeeds a circum- 
stance almost foretold in their fierce demeanor, horrid and disgraceful 
to human nature, Avhich is cutting to pieces, even before being per- 
fectly dead, the bodies of their enemies, and after dressing them on 
a fire, devouring the flesh, not only without reluctance, but with 
peculiar satisfaction." One cannot well conceive a more striking 
idea of the workings of pure malevolence, and of the rage and fury 
of infernal fiends, than the picture here presented of those savage 
islanders. These people, so far as European power and civilization 
has not reached them, live under perpetual apprehension of being de- 
stroyed by each other ; there being few of these tribes who have not, 
as they believe, received wrong from some other tribe, which they 
are continually on the watch to avenge, and the desire of a good 
meal is no small incitement. " Many years will sometimes elapse 
before a favorable opportunity happens, but the son never loses sight 
of an injury that has been done his father. Their method of exe- 
cuting their horrible designs is by stealing upon the adverse party in 
the night, and if they find them unguarded, which is very seldom 
the case, they kill every one indiscriminately, not even sparing the 
women and children. When the massacre is completed they either 
feast and gorge themselves on the spot, or carry off as many of the 
dead bodies as they can, and devour them at home with acts of bru- 
tality too shocking to be described. If they are discovered before 
they execute their bloody purpose, they generally steal off again, and 
are sometimes pursued and attacked by the other party in their turn. 
To give quarter or to take prisoners make no part of their military 
law, so that the vanquished can save their lives only by flight. This 
perpetual state of war, and destructive method of conducting it, ope- 
rates so strongly in producing habits of circumspection, that one 
hardly ever finds a New Zealander off his guard, either by night or 
by day." The implacable hatred which these savages entertain for 



62 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

each other is illustrated in the following short narrative, also by Cap- 
tain Cook. " Among our occasional visitors was a chief called Ka- 
hoora, who, as I was informed, headed the party that cut off Cap- 
tain Furneaux's people, and himself killed Mr. Dowe, the officer who 
commanded. To judge of the character of Kahoora from what I 
heard from many of his countrymen he seemed to be more feared 
than beloved among them. Not satisfied with telling me that he 
was a very bad man, some of them even importuned me to kill him, 
and I believe they were not a little surprised that I did not listen to 
them, for, according to their ideas of equity, this ought to have been 
done. But if I had followed the advice of all our pretended friends, 
I might have extinguished the whole race ; for the people of each 
village or hamlet by turns applied to me to destroy the others. One 
would have almost thought it impossible that so strildng a proof 
of the divided state in which these people lived could have been 
assigned." 

Similar dispositions are displayed by the inhabitants of almost all 
the other islands of the South Seas. The influence of Christianity 
does not as yet prevail very extensively among them. The following 
description is given by M. de la Perouse of the inhabitants of Ma- 
ouna Orjolava, and the other islands in the Navigator's Archipel- 
ago : — " Their native ferocity of countenance always expresses either 
surprise or auger. The least dispute among them is followed by 
blows of sticks, clubs, or paddles, and often, without doubt, costs the 
combatant's their lives." With regard to the women he remarks : — 
" The gross eifronter}- of their conduct, the indecency of their mo- 
tions, and the disgusting offers which they make of their favors ren- 
dered them fit mothers and wives for the ferocious beings that sur- 
rounded us. 

The natives of New Caledonia are a race of a similar description- 
Captain Cook describes them as apparently a good-natured people, 
but subsequent navigators have found them to be the very reverse 
of what he described them, — as ferocious in the extreme, addicted to 
cannibalism, and to every barbarity shocking to human nature. The 
French navigator, the Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, in his intercourse 
with these people received undoubted proof of their savage disposi- 
tion, and of their being accustomed to eat human flesh. Speaking 
of one of the natives who had visited his ship, and had described the 
various practices connected with cannibalism, he says : " It is diffi- 
cult to depict the ferocious avidity with which he expressed to us 
that the flesh of their unfortunate victims was devoured by them 
after they had broiled it on the coals. This cannibal also let us 
know that the flesh of the arms and legs was cut into slices, and that 



CHARACTER OF SAVAGE RACES. 63 

they considered the most muscular parts a very agreeable dish. It 
was then easy for us to explain why they frequently felt our arms 
and legs, manifesting a violent longing; they then uttered a faint 
whistling which they produced by closing their teeth, and applying 
to them the tip of the tongue ; afterwards opening their mouth they 
smack their lips several times in succession. The characters of the 
islanders now described may be considered as common to the inhab- 
itants of the New Hebrides, the Friendly Islands, the Marquesas, the 
Sandwich Islands, New Guinea, New Britain, the Ladrones, and 
almost all the islands that are scattered through the vast expanse of 
the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Williams, a missionary to the Fijian canni- 
bals, remarks among other things : " Some captives who had been, 
stunned by the fearful blows of their heavy war clubs were cast into 
hot ovens, and when the fierce heat brought them back to con- 
sciousness and urged them to fearful struggles to escape, the loud 
laughter of the spectators bore witness to their joy at the scene." 
Captain Cook, in describing the natives of New Zealand, again re- 
narks : " The inhabitants of the other islands of the South Seas 
nave not even the ideas of indecency with respect to any object or 
JO any action." Of the natives of Otaheite he declares : " They are 
.1 arrant thieves, and can pick pockets with the dexterity of the 
most expert London blackguard." When describing the societies 
distinguished by the name of Arreoy he declares as a characteristic 
of the female part of the community : " If any of the women happen 
to be with child, which in this manner of life happens less frequent- 
ly than in ordinary cases, the poor infant is smothered the moment 
it is born, that it may be no incumbrance to the father, nor interrupt 
the mother in the pleasures of her diabolical prostitution." Another 
circumstance mentioned by the same navigator exhibits their former 
moral character in a still more shocking point of view. On the ap- 
proach of war with any of the neighboring islands, or on other im- 
portant occasions, human sacrifices were a universal practice. 
" When I described," says Captain Cook, " the Native at Tongaba- 
too, I mentioned that on the approaching sequel of that festival we 
had been told that ten men were to be sacrificed. This may give us 
an idea of the extent of the religious massacres on that island. And, 
though we should suppose that never more than one person is saci-i- 
ficed on any single occasion at Otaheite, it is more than probable 
that these occasions happened so frequently as to make a shocking 
waste of the human race, for I counted no less than forty-nine skulls 
of former victims lying before the Moral, where we saw one more 
added to the number. And, as none of these skulls had as yet suf- 
fered any considerable change from the weather, it may be inferred 



(54 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

that no great length of time had elapsed since this considerable 
number of unhappy wretches had been offered on the altar of blood." 
He likewise informs us that human sacrifices were more frequent in 
the Sandwich than in the other islands. "These horrid rites," says 
he, " are not only had recourse to upon the commencement of war 
and preceding great battles, and other signal enterprises, but the 
death of any considerable chief calls for the sacrifice of one or more 
tow-tows, that is, vulgar or low persons, according to his rank, and 
we were told that ten men were destined to suffer on the death of 
Terreeoboo, one of their great chiefs. 

With respect to the North American Indians (who have now 
almost disappeared from the Eastern States and Canada) it is the 
uniform description given of them by all who have travelled or lived 
among them in their wild state that, if we except hunting, war is the 
only employment of the men, and every other concern is left to the 
women. Their most common motive for entering into war is either 
to revenge themselves for the death of some friend, or to acquire 
prisoners who may assist them in their hunting and whom they 
adopt into their society. In these wars they are savage and cruel to 
an incredible degree. They enter unawares the villages of their 
foes, and while the floAver of the nation are engaged in hunting, 
massacre all the children, women, and helpless old men, or make 
prisoners of as many as they can manage. But, when the enemy is 
apprised of their design, and is coming on in arms against them they 
throw themselves flat on the ground among the withered herbs and 
leaves which their faces are painted to resemble. They then allow 
a part to pass unmolested, when all at once, with a tremendous 
shout, rising up from the ambush, they pour a storm of musket-balls 
on their foes. If the force on each side continues nearly equal, the 
fierce spirits of these savages, inflamed by the loss of friends, can no 
longer be restrained. They abandon their distant war, they rush 
upon one another with clubs and tomahawks in their hands, magni- 
fying their own courage and insulting their enemies. A cruel com- 
bat ensues ; death appears in a thousand hideous forms, which 
would congeal the blood of civilized people to behold, but which in- 
creases the fury of these savages. They trample, they insult over 
the dead bodies, tearing the scalp from the head, wallowing in their 
blood like wild beasts, and sometimes devouring their flesh. The 
flame of war rages on until it meets with no resistance, then the 
prisoners are secured, whose fate is a thousand times more dreadful 
than theirs who have died in the field. The conquerors set up a 
hideous howling to lament the friends they have lost. They ap- 
proach to their own village, the women with frightful shrieks come 



CFIARACTER OF SAVAGE EACES. 65 

out to mourn their dead brothers, or their husbands. An orator 
proclaims aloud a circumstantial account of every particular of the 
expedition, and, as he mentions the names of those who have fallen, 
the shrieks of the women are redoubled. The last ceremony is the 
proclamation of victory ; each individual then forgets his private 
misfortune, and joins in the triumph of his nation ; all tears are 
wiped from their eyes ; by a transition unaccountable to us, they 
pass in a moment from the bitterness of sorrow to an extravagance 
of joy. As they feel nothing but revenge for the enemies of their 
nation, their prisoners are treated with extreme cruelty. The pun- 
ishments inflicted on such prisoners as are doomed to death are too 
shocking and horrible to be exhibited in detail ; one plucks out the 
nails of the prisoner by the roots ; another takes a finger into his 
mouth and tears off the flesh with his teeth ; a third thrusts the fin- 
ger mangled as it is into the bowl of a pipe, made red hot, and 
smokes it as if it were tobacco ; they then pound his toes and fingers 
to pieces between two stones ; they apply red hot iron to his mangled 
body ; and thus they continue for several hours, and sometimes for 
a whole day, until they penetrate to the vital parts and completely 
exhaust the spring of life. Even the women, forgetting the human 
as well as the female nature, and transformed into something worse 
than the reputed Furies, frequently outdo the men in this scene of 
horror, while the principal persons of the tribe sit round the stake 
to which the prisoner is fixed, smoking and looking on without be- 
traying the least emotion. And, what is quite as remarkable, the 
prisoner himself endeavors to brave his torments with a stoical 
apathy ; " I do not fear death" (he exclaims in the face of his tor- 
mentors), " nor any kind of tortures ; those that fear them are 
cowards, they are less than women. May my enemies be con- 
founded with despair and rage ! Oh ! that I could devour them and 
drink their blood to the last drop ! " Such is a faint picture of the 
ferocious dispositions which, with a few modifications, have char- 
acterized the Indians of North and South America, and which we 
have reason to believe yet characterize those who are beyond the 
reach or influence of the white races. We ourself, have some ex- 
perience of the character of the Indians who live in the neighbor 
hood of the whites ; for happening occasionally to be where they 
were, and observing their noisy conversation and their unruly ges- 
tures, we felt considerably alarmed for our own safety, and did not 
wish to be among them longer than our duties required. 

If we cross the Atlantic and land on the shores of Africa we shall 
find the inhabitants of that continent exhibiting dispositions no less 

cruel and ferocious. Bosman relates the following instances of 
5 



66 CBEATOR AliD COSMOS. 

cruelties practiced by the Adomese Negroes, inhabiting the banks of 
the Praa or Chamah River : " Anqua, the king, having in an engage- 
ment taken five of his principal Antese enemies prisoners wounded 
them all over : after which with a more than brutal fury, he satiated, 
though not tired himself, by sucking their blood at the gaping 
wonnds : but bearing a more than ordinary grudge against one of 
them he caused him to be laid bound at his feet, and his body to be 
pierced with hot irons, gathering the blood that issued from him in 
a vessel, one half of which he drank, and offered up the rest to his 
god. On another occasion he put to death one of his wives and a 
slave, drinking their blood also, as was his usual practice with his 
enemies."* Dispositions and practices quite as abominable are ex- 
hibited in the kingdom of Dahomey near the gulf of Guinea. An im- 
molation of human victims for the purpose of watering the graves of 
the king's ancestors, and of supplying them with servants of various 
descriptions in the other world, takes place every year, at a grand 
festival which is held generally in April or May. The victims are 
generally prisoners of war reserved for the purpose, but should there 
be a lack of these, the number, between sixty and seventy, is made 
up from the most convenient of his own subjects. The immolation 
is not confined to this particular period : for at any time, should it 
be necessary to send an account to his forefathers of any remarkable 
event, the king despatches a courier to the shades, by delivering a 
message to whomsoever may happen to be near him, and then ordering 
his head to be chopped off immediately. It is considered an honor 
when His Majesty personally condescends to become the executioner 
in these cases, an office in which the king prides himself in being 
expert. The governor was present on one occasion, when a poor fel- 
low, whose fear of death outweighing the sense of the honor conferred 
upon him, on being desired to carry some message to his father declared 
on his knees that he was unacquainted with the way, on which the 
tyrant vociferated, " I'll show you the way," and with one blow made 
the head fly many yards from his body, highly indignant that there 
should have been the least expression of reluctance, f On the 
thatched roofs of the guard-houses which surround the palace of this 
tyrant are ranged, on wooden stakes, numbers of human skulls ; 
the top of the wall which encloses an area before it is stuck full of 
human jaw-bones, and the path leading to the door is paved with 
skulls. 

In the Kingdom of Ashantee similar practices uniformly prevail. 
" When the king of this country," says Dupuis, " was about to open 
the campaign in Gaman, he collected together his priests to invoke 

* Dupuis Journal in Ashantee. t MacLeod's Voj'age to Africa. 



CHARACTER OF SAVAGE RACES. 67 

the Royal Fetische (idol) and perform the necessary orgies to ensure 
success. These ministers of superstition sacrificed thirty-two male, 
and eighteen female victims, as an expiatory offering to the gods ; 
but the answers from the priests being deemed by the council as still 
devoid of inspiration, the king was induced to make a custom at the 
sepulchres of his ancestors, where many hundreds bled. This, it is 
affirmed, propitiated the wrath of the adverse god." The same king 
when he returned from the campaign, having discovered a conspiracy, 
decreed that seventeen of his wives along with his own sister should 
be strangled and beheaded. His sister's paramour, and all those of 
the same party, were doomed to the most cruel deaths at the grave 
of the king's mother. While these butcheries were transacting the 
king prepared to enter the palace ; and in the act of crossing the 
threshold of the outer gate was met by several of his wives whose 
anxiety to embrace their sovereign lord impelled them thus to over- 
step the boundary of female decorum in Ashantee ; for it happened 
that the king was accompanied by a number of his captains, who ac- 
cordingly were compelled to cover their faces with both their hands, 
and fly from the spot. This is said to have enraged the monarch, 
though his resentment proceeded no further than words, and he 
returned the embraces of his wives ; but another cause of anger soon 
after occurred, and he was inflamed to the highest pitch of indigna- 
tion, and in a paroxysm of anger, caused these unhappy beings to be 
cut into pieces before his face, giving orders at the same time to cast 
the fragments into the forest to be devoured by birds and beasts of 
prey, nor did the atonement rest here ; for six more unhappy females 
were impeached of inconstancy, and they also expiated their faults 
with their lives. Like another Ulysses, His Majesty then devoted 
himself to the purification of his palace, when to sum up the whole 
horror of these bloody deeds, two thousand wretches selected from 
the Gaman prisoners of Avar, were slaughtered over the royal death- 
stool in honor of the shades of departed kings and heroes. We are 
not to imagine that such fiendish and malignant dispositions are con- 
fined to kings and the ruling order of society. Whenever such fero- 
cious passions are displayed among barbarous chieftains, they pervade 
to a greater or less extent the great mass of the people, and almost 
every one in proportion to the power Avith which he is invested perpe- 
trates similar atrocities. The following instance, selected from Major 
Gray's " Travels in Africa, in 1824," will corroborate this position, 
and also show for how many acts of cruelty and injustice the abettors 
of the infamous traffic in slaves are accountable. The Kaartan force 
which the Major accompanied had made 107 prisoners, chiefly women 
and children, in a predatory excursion into Bondoo, for the purpose 



68 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

of obtaining a supply of slaves. The following is an account of the 
manner in which they were dragged along : " The men were tied in 
pairs by the necks, their hands secured behind their backs ; the women 
by the necks onl}^ but their hands were not left free from any sense 
of feeling for them, but in order to enable them to balance theii- im- 
mense loads of corn or rice, which they were obliged to carry on 
their heads, and their children on their backs." " I had an opportunity," 
saj'S Major Gray, " of witnessing, during this short march, the new- 
made slaves, and the sufferings to which they are subjected in their 
first state of bondage. They were hurried along, tied, at a pace 
little short of running, to enable them to keep up with the horsemen, 
who drove them on as Smithfield drovers do fatigued bullocks. 
Many of the women were old, and by no means able to endure such 
treatment. One in particular would not have faUed to excite the 
tenderest feelings in the breast of any one, save a savage African. 
She was at least sixty years old, in the most miserable state of ema- 
ciation and debility, nearly doubled together, and with difficulty 
dragging her tottering limbs along. To crown the heart-rending 
picture, she was naked save from her waist to about half way to the 
knees. All this did not prevent her inhuman captor from making 
her carry a heavy load of water, while with a rope about her neck he 
drove her before his horse ; and whenever she showed the least inclina- 
tion to stop he beat her in the most unmerciful manner with a stick." 
The inhabitants of all the interior of Africa, and round its northern, 
eastern and western coasts, display in almost every tribe the most 
inhuman and depraved dispositions. The Algerines are characterized 
as the most cruel and dangerous pirates, base, perfidious and rapaci- 
ous, to the last degree. No oaths or ties, human or divine, will 
avail to bind them, when their interest interferes. Whatever respect 
they pretend to pay to their prophet Mahomet, gold is the only idol 
which they worship. The emperors of Morocco are notorious as a 
set of rapacious and blood-thirsty tyrants, who have lived in a state 
of habitual warfare with Christian nations, and in the perpetration 
of deeds of injustice and cruelty. The Gallas, on the borders of 
Abyssinia, are a barbarous and warlike nation. They are hardy and 
of a ferocious disposition, trained to the love of desperate achieve- 
ments, taught to believe that conquest entitles them to the possession 
of whatever they desire, and to look upon death with the utmost 
contempt ; and, therefore, in their wars they fight with the most 
determined resolution, and neither give nor expect any quarter. The 
inhabitants of Adel, too, are of a warlike disposition, and most fre- 
quently live in enmity with those around them. The Feloops are 
gloomy and unforgiving in their tempers, thirsting for vengeance, 



CHARACTEE, OF SAVAGE RACES. 69 

even in the hour of dissolution, and leaving to their children to 
avenge their quarrels. The inhabitants of the grain coast, especially 
the Mulattoes, are said to be a most abandoned set of people. The 
men are drunkards, lewd, thievish and treacherous, and the women 
are the most abandoned prostitutes, sacrificing themselves at all 
times, and to all sorts of men, without the least degree of restraint.* 
The natives of Ansico, which borders on Angola, live by plunder- 
ing all who happen to fall in their way, some of whom they kill, and 
others they keep slaves. The Boshemen are land pirates, who live 
without laws and without discipline ; who lurk in thickets to watch 
the passage of travellers and shoot them with poisoned arrows, in 
order to seize their cattle. " The natives of Congo," says M. de la 
Brosse, in his "Travels along the Coast of Angola," 1793, "are ex- 
tremely treacherous and vindictive. They daily demanded of us 
some brandy for the use of the king and the chief men of the town. 
One day this request was denied, and we had soon reason to repent 
it ; for all the English and French officers having gone to fish on a 
small lake near the sea-coast, they erected a tent for the purpose of 
dressing and eating the fish they had caught, when amusing them- 
selves after the repast, seven or eight negroes, who were the chiefs 
of Loango, arrived in Sedans, and presented theii- hands according to 
the custom of the country. The negroes privately rubbed the hands 
of the officers with a subtle poison, which acts instantaneously, and 
accordingly five captains and three surgeons died on the spot." 
The Moors are characterized by Mungo Park as having cruelty and 
low cunning depicted on their countenances. 

Their treachery and malevolence are displayed in their plunder- 
ing excursions against the negro-villages. Without the smallest 
provocation, and sometimes under the fairest professions of friendship, 
they will seize upon the cattle of the negroes, and sometimes upon 
the people themselves. The Bedouins are plunderers of the culti- 
vated lands and highway robbers ; they watch every opportunity of 
taking vengeance on their enemies, and their animosities are trans- 
mitted as an inheritance from father to children. Even the Egyp- 
tians, who are farther advanced in civilization than the tribes to 
which we have alluded, are characterized by excessive pride, vindic- 
tive tempers, inordinate passions, and various species of moral turpi- 
tude. There is a trait in the character of the women of this nation, 
adverted to by Sonini in liis " Travels in Egypt," which is particularly 
odious and liorrible. On discovering any partiality in their husbands 
for other females, they are transported into a most unbounded and 
jealous fury. Such are their deceit and vindictiveness on these occa- 

* CiMjk's l'niver.-;il G(.'OL;r;ipliy. 



70 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

sions, that they instil into the blood of their faithless or suspected 
husbands a slow and mortal poison. They meditate their revenge 
in silence, and they enjoy the diabolical satisfaction of taking off an 
unhappy being by a lingering death. It is said their own persons 
supply the horrid means of perpetrating their malicious designs on 
their husbands, and that they mix with their aliment a certain por- 
tion of an ingredient of a poisonous nature, which infallibly induces 
a slow languor and consumption, and in time brings the wretched 
victims to the grave. 

The symptoms of the disease are dreadful. The body desiccates, 
the limbs become exceedingly weak, the gums rot, the teeth loosen, 
the hair falls off, and at length, having dragged out a miserable and 
tortured existence for a whole year or more, the unhappy being dies 
in the most excruciating torments. 

If we pass from Africa to the regions of Asia we shall find its 
inhabitants of a similarly depraved character, and practicing similar 
principles in all the various ranks of its population. Here tyranny 
in its most degrading and cruel form reigns supreme and uncon- 
trolled over a superstitious, a degraded, and an idolatrous race of 
mankind. The following, in relation to a petty tyrant of Persia, 
may serve as a specimen of Asiatic tyranny : " The governor, Zul- 
fecca Khan, is pronounced to be a cruel and unprincipled tj'rant ; un- 
fortunately for the people he has the ear of the sovereign, and they 
have no resource against his rapacity. He pays to the Crown 7000 
tomauns* a year, but it is asserted that he collects from the district 
100,000. His oppression was so grievous that the inhabitants, wea- 
ried out, went in a body to the king to complain; but His Majesty 
only referred them back to their tyrant, who, exasperated at their 
boldness, wreaked upon them a cruel vengeance. It is said he 
maimed and put to death a thousand of both sexes, cutting off the 
hands, putting out the eyes, and otherwise mutilating the men ; and 
cutting off the noses, ears, and breasts of the women. The people, de- 
sponding and broken-hearted after this, paid in so far as they were 
able the rapacious demands of their oppressor, and the natural con- 
sequence, ruin and desolation has ensued." f 

Sir John Chardin gives the following account of the inhabitants 
of Mingreli a, particularly the Avomen : "The people are generally 
handsome, the men strong and well made, and the women very beau- 
tiful, but both sexes are very vicious and debauched. The women, 
though lively, civil, and affectionate, are very perfidious for there is 
no wickedness which they will not perpetrate, in order to procure, 



* A tomaun equals about $3.02. 1 Frazer's Journey to Kliorazan. 



CHARACTER OF SEMI-CIVILIZED RACES. 71 

to preserve, or to get rid of their gallants. The men likewise pos- 
sess many bad (j^ualities. All of them are trained to robbery, which 
they study both as a business and as an amusement. With great 
satisfaction they relate the depredations they have committed, and 
from this polluted source they derive their greatest praise and honor. 
In Mingrelia falsehood, depredation, and theft are good actions, and 
whoredom, bigamy, and incest, are esteemed as virtuous habits. The 
men marry two or three wives at a time, and keep as many concu- 
bines as they choose. They not only make a common practice of 
selling their children either for gold or in exchange for wares and 
provisions, but even murder them or bury them alive, when they 
find it difficult to bring them up." 

The Tartars, who occupy vast regions of the high table lands of 
Eastern Asia, are uniformly described by travellers as a rude, plun- 
dering, and uncultivated race of men. " There is something fright- 
ful," says Smellie, " in the countenances of the Calmuck Tartars. 
All of them are wandering vagabonds, and live in tents made of 
cloth and skins. They eat the flesh of horses, either raw or a little 
softened by putrefying under their saddles. No marks of religion, 
or of any decency in their manners, are to be found amongst most of 
these tribes. They are fierce, warlike, hardy, and brutally gross. 
They are all robbers, and the Tartars of Daghestan, who border on 
civilized nations, have a great trade in slaves, whom they carry oS 
by force, and sell to the Persians and Turks." * 

The Arabians, like the Tartars, live in a state of wildness and 
lawless independency ; their chiefs authorize rape, theft, and rob- 
bery. They hold virtue in no estimation, and glory in almost every 
species of vice. They roam about in the desert, and attack caravans 
and travellers, wherever they fall in with them, whom they frequently 
plunder of their property and murder. 

The Chinese, though undoubtedly more civilized than most of 
the tribes already mentioned, and though they merit praise for their 
industry, perseverance and ingenuity, are as despicable in their moral 
characters, and as destitute of true benevolence, as almost any nation 
on the earth. Avarice is their leading passion, and in order to gratify 
it they practice every species of duplicity and fraud. They are not 
wont to be influenced by motives either of honesty or humanity; and 
they surpass every other nation in private cheating. Captain Cook 
observes that, the danger of being hanged for any crime being ex- 
cepted, " there is nothing, however infamous, which the Chinese will 
refuse to do for gain." In this declaration he concurs with most 
writers on the Chinese, both ancient and modern. 

* Smellie' s Philosophy. 



72 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

The Burmans are a lively inquisitive race, irrascible and impa- 
tient ; while in peace, they give proof of a certain degree of gentle- 
ness and civilization ; in war, they display the ferocity of savages. 

The Malays, though inhabiting a country beautiful and delightful 
in the extreme, where refreshing gales and cooling streams assuage 
the heat, where the soil teems with delicious fruits, where the trees 
are clothed with a continual verdure, and the flowers breathe their 
fragrant odors, are a people remarkably ferocious in their manners. 
They go always armed, except the slaves, and would think it a dis- 
grace to go abroad without their poniards. 

The inland inhabitants of Malacca, called Monucaboes, are a bar- 
barous people, delighting in doing continued mischief to their neigh- 
bors, on which account, it is said, no grain is grown in Malacca, but 
what is in the gardens enclosed with the thickest hedges, or deep 
ditches ; for when the corn is grown on the open plain the Monu- 
caboes never fail to set fire to it. 

Chardin describes the Persians as warlike, vain, and ambitious of 
praise, exceedingly voluptuous, prodigal, luxurious and addicted to 
gallantry. Although this country is regarded by the Western nations 
as oue of the most civilized in Asia, it is well known that the wars 
and the fiendish cruelties in which the despots of Persia have been 
engaged, have changed many of the provinces of that country into 
scenes of sterility and desolation ; and much of the miseries of famine, 
which has recently been desolating that country, is owing to its mis- 
government. 

The Hindoos are effeminate, luxurious, and practiced in the arts 
of dissimulation. They can caress those whom they hate, and behave 
with the utmost affability and kindness to those whom they intend 
to deprive of existence by the most sanguinary means. Though they 
seldom scold or Avrangle, they often stab each other insidiously, and 
without any public quarrel gratify a private revenge. The destruc- 
tion of infants, the immolation of widows, the drowning of aged 
parents, which prevail among them, and the cruel and idolatrous rites 
which distinguish their religious services, are too well known to re- 
quire description. 

The Turks, though grave, sedate, and rather hypochondriac, yet 
when agitated by passion are furious, raging, and ungovernable, dis- 
simulative, jealous, suspicious and vindictive. They are superstitious 
and obstinately tenacious in religious matters, and, until of Ifite, did 
not ordinarily exercise benevolence or even humanity towards those 
whose religion differed from theirs. Interest appears their supreme 
good, and, when that comes in competition, all ties of religion, con- 
sanguinity and friendship are, with the generality of them, speedily 



THE MORAL WOKLD. 73 

dissolved. They have deprived of their liberty, and to a great extent 
of their wealth, those who have been subjected to their iron sceptre, 
and have plunged them into the depths of moral and mental debase- 
ment. Their devastations and cruelties, and the deeds of injustice 
and horror which they have committed, are detailed upon the pages 
of history, and they are scarcely surpassed by the atrocities of the 
most savage hordes of mankind. 

Such is a partial review of the moral state of the savage and semi- 
civilized races of mankind, and shall we find a review of the nations 
called civilized to present a favorable contrast to it? Shall we find 
that the general moral goodness of the nations called civilized compares 
favorabl}' withtlie radical and general moral badness of the nations we 
have passed in review ? Each intelligent person can answer this for 
himself. What one nation can be pointed to as a good moral exam- 
ple for all other nations to follow? It will be much easier to find 
an individual man whose moral example would be worthy of being 
imitated by all the inhabitants of his own nation and all mankind 
than it would be to find a nation whose moral character, as a nation, 
would be worthy of being imitated by all other nations. 

Idea of the Moral World. 

In the moral world, as well as in the physical, there are degrees 
of approximation to perfection. The physical universe, of course, 
always exists perfectly constituted, but within the range of our 
observation we find changes continually taking place in nature. 
There is first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the 
ear. The moral world exists in relation to man, and so changes to 
suit his changeable nature that we hear of moral badness as well as 
moral goodness. And then there are degrees of approximation from 
a very bad to a very good moral character. The word moral, derived 
from the Latin word mos, mores, meaning customs, manners, usages, 
etc., will clearly show the distinction between the physical and moral 
world, and that the moral world has special reference to rational 
beings. People's morals are their manners, customs, usages, etc., in 
their intercourses with each other ; and the morals of an individual 
are his or her manners, customs, usages, practices, etc., in relation 
to one's self and to others. Hence, as the manners and customs of 
a people react in forming their permanent character, we hear of a 
good or bad moral character, national as well as individual. As 
long as mankind has existed so long has he had in some sort, man- 
ners, customs, usages, etc., and so the moral world is always co-ex- 
istent with the physical. But the moral world exists especially in 



74 CREATOR a:nd cosmos. 

reference to man ; he may be said to have created it for his own 
purposes; and if by any catastrophe, now unknown to us, the race o± 
man should entirely perish from the earth, one world would perish 
with him, the moral world which he has created for his own pur- 
poses. The original thinker in his first excursions is apt to suppose 
that that which goes by the name of moral world is not worthy of 
the name world. What, he says, have not all the lower orders of 
animals their peculiar habits as well as men : habits, which in the 
case of some of them, as the beaver, the dog, the mole, and the bee, 
amount to what might be called manners and customs? Or, is the 
routine of mankind in their intercourses with each other, in accord- 
ance with established rules or laws, called social, political and 
religious, worthy of the name of world as compared with the physi- 
cal world ? But such an one should bethink himself that the term 
world (the Greek representative of which is cosmos, signifying order, 
or systematic arrangement) involves the idea of system and order ; 
and the fundamental idea of true morality is order. Thus, the law 
of Moses, contained in the Ten Commandments, is called the Moral 
Law, because it contains a system of rules which, if perfectly and 
universally observed, would ensure the preservation and continuance 
of order among all human beings. 

Thus, the distinction is clearl}^ seen between the physical and 
moral world ; and that, if by any means all mankind ceased to exist, 
the moral world would cease to exist with them ; but the physical 
world would still remain, and the earth, not an atom of matter less 
by the disappearance of man from it, would continue to exist, and to 
revolve upon its axis, and round the sun, and day and night Avould 
continue to take place upon it, and the seasons would come and go 
in succession as they do now, and the changes in nature would con- 
tinue to take place in their seasons, in the main, always as they 
now do. 

It will be remembered that this is a supposed case only to show 
man's real importance, if we may so speak, and his real position in 
existence. But on the other hand, we believe that, if man has 
always existed, so he will always exist, and so the world he has cre- 
ated, the moral world, will co-exist with him. And, moreover, as he 
is a changeable being he will continue to change his moral system, 
modifying it, remodelling it, and creating it anew ; as, for example, a 
nation maj' do which may change its moral system in part, or may 
change it in whole, social, political, and religious, every century 
more or less, and may thus create a new moral world as often as it 
sees fit. And further, it is the moral principle which chiefly dis- 
tinguishes man from the brutes, constitutes him a responsible being, 



CHARACTER OF ANCIENT CIVILIZED NATION.S 75 

to be depended upon in matters of contract and in all social inter- 
coursi^.s, and the adherence to which promotes and elevates nations 
as well as individuals. The primary idea of morality is divinely 
good, implying intelligent order in and among human beings ; the 
idea of badness being at all associated with it arises from its perver- 
sion. He who lives not according to moral principle makes himself 
lower than the brutes. The cultivation of the moral principle by 
precept and example and the enforcement of its observance by 
requisite compulsion and restraint should be the object and care of 
just and righteous lav/s. The importance, then, of the adoption and 
practice permanently of a good moral system, such as that contained 
in the " Ten Commandments," and in " the Sermon on the Mount." 
is here clearly recognized. 

Secondly : Character of the Ancient Civilized Nations. 

And now let us briefly review the state of moral character of the 
nations called civilized. Among the ancients, the Greeks and 
Romans are understood to have been the most civilized nations. 
They were those which are thought to have attained the highest per- 
fection in art and literature. They were those which, of all the 
ancients, modern nations most delight to imitate in respect to their 
arts, literature, and arms. The Greek and Roman languages and 
literature are taught in our academies and colleges and the laws of 
Lycurgus and Solon, of Numa and Justinian are studied by our 
■undergraduates. But what information do the records of history 
afford us as to the moral character of these nations. Wars and 
intrigues, treachery and oppression, and all sorts of crime comprise 
most of it. In the earliest periods of which history gives us any 
information, we find these nations engagetl in wars. The war of the 
Grecian States with Troy, an account of which we have in the 
"Iliad" of Homer, although it is not recorded in history proper, yet 
is acknowledged by our ablest modern historians to have taken place. 
This war, having been prosecuted for ten years, ended in the down- 
fall of Troy ; and, though we have no certain information as to the 
numbers that fell on both sides, yet, judging from the numbers said 
to have been engaged, we know the loss of life must have been very 
great. Troy is said, according to the common belief, to have fallen 
in the year 1184 before Christ. We mention this war to show what 
we meet with in the very beginnings of Grecian history, and as ex- 
perience teaches that history repeats itself, we may believe that this 
war was but a repetition of what had been taking place in pre- 
historic ages. After this followed the first and second Messenian 



T6 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

wars carried on between Sparta and Messenia for a period of many 
years, during which many battles were fought with incredible fury 
and great numbers lost their lives. Then followed the Persian wars, 
carried on first by Darius the Persian, against the Grecian colonies 
in Asia Minor, and afterwards by Darius and his successor Xerxes 
against Greece itself. The great battle of Marathon was fought 
between the Greeks and Persians in the reign of Darius, in which 
many thousand Persians were slain. Darius, humbled at his defeat, 
entrusted, at his death, the prosecution of the war against Greece to 
his son Xerxes. The army which the latter led into Greece was the 
most numerous of which we have any account in the annals of 
history, the largest of the expeditions of the crusades of sixteen 
centuries afterwards not coming nearly up to it. According to the 
statement of RoUin, which is founded on the statements of Hero- 
dotus, a historian of those times, of Isocrates, and Plutarch, this 
army consisted of a million seven hundred thousand foot, eighty 
thousand horse, and twenty thousand men for conducting the carri- 
ages and camels. On crossing the Hellespont, the strait which 
separates Europe from Asia, an addition was made to it from other 
nations of three hundred thousand, which made his land forces 
amount to two million one hundred thousand men. His fleet con- 
sisted of twelve hundred and seven vessels, each carrying two hun- 
dred and thirty men, in all two hundred and seventy-seven thousand 
six hundred and ten men, which was augmented by the European 
nations with twelve hundred vessels, carrying two hundred and 
fort}'- thousand men. Beside this fleet the small galleys, transports 
ships, etc., amounted to three thousand, containing about two hun- 
dred and forty thousand men. Including servants, eunuchs, women, 
and suttlers, and others who usuallj" follow an army, it is reckoned 
that the whole number of souls that invaded Greece with Xerxes 
amounted to five million, and nearly three hundred thousand souls. 
After remaining some time in Greece, nearly the whole of this vast 
army, along with the fleet, was routed and destroyed. Mardonius, 
one of the lieutenants of Xerxes, whom the latter at his departure 
left to prosecute the war in Greece with three hundred thousand 
men, was finally defeated and slain by the Greeks at the battle of 
Platese, and only three thousand of this vast army is said to have 
escaped destruction. This account of the invasion of Xerxes 
appears on the whole to be somewhat exaggerated. 

After this followed the first and second Peloponesian wars be- 
tween the Greeks themselves, the two leading States, Athens and 
Sparta, being engaged against each other. These wars were carried 
on for very many years with varying success, and great loss of life 



CHARACTER OF ANCIENT CIVILIZED NATIONS. 77 

to both sides. And preceding and following all these there were 
endless wars and contentions between the petty Grecian States them- 
selves in which were displayed the basest intrigue, perfidy, treachery, 
dishonesty and animosity. They made truces with each other only 
to break them when they got a fair opportunity ; nor did they loose 
any occasion which presented itself of inflicting damage on each 
other when at war, attacking each other at night, and murdering 
and robbing all they could. And it should be borne in mind that 
the Greeks were a shrewd, cunning people ; they united the cunning 
and treachery of the fox with the boldness and ferocity of the lion 
and tiger ; and in very numerous individual cases the wisdom of the 
the sage with the courage of the warrior. 

The opening history of the Romans also represents that people 
as engaged in war. The founders of Rome are represented in myth- 
ical tradition as descended from the Trojans, who, after the fall of 
Troy, emigrated to Italy under the leadership of the Trojan chief, 
^neas. Romulus and Remus, the descendants of ^neas on their 
mother's side, and who are represented as having the god Mars for 
their father, are said to have founded the city, Rome, about the year 
753 B.C. In a dispute which arose between the two brothers, as to 
the name to be given to the new city, Romulus is said to have slain 
his brother Remus, and so the city was culled Rome after tl^e 
name Romulus. (This, as we have mentioned, is derived from 
tradition, and is not supported by authentic history; indeed, there 
are reasons to believe the city, Rome, may have been an old city, 
before the time it is said to have been founded by Romulus and 
Remus.) But it goes on to say : The new city being well filled with 
men who flocked to it from all sides, but there being a scarcity of 
women, Romulus, in order to obtain wives for his citizen subjects, 
is said to have made application to the neighboring communities, 
with that in view : but his proposal being treated with contempt, he 
resolved to obtain by stratagem what had been denied his honorable 
request. He invited certain tribes of the Sabines and Latins to come 
to Rome to witness certain festive games, and when they were 
assembled his Romans fell upon the daughters of their guests and 
carried them off by force. In consequence of this Rome became 
involved in a war with the Sabines, which, however, was brought to 
an amicable conclusion by the intervention of the women, who threw 
themselves betwen the two armies and declared themselves willing 
to share the fate of their new husbands. After this Romulus is 
said to have waged successful war against Fidenae and the Etruscan 
town of Veii, the latter of which he compelled to give up a portion 
of its territory. His reign is said to have extended over a period of 



78 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

thirty-eight years, 753-716 B.C., and his death was as marvellous as 
his birth ; for while he was reviewing his people his father, Mars, de- 
scended in a tempest and bore him up to heaven. Under the name 
of Quirinus he was afterwards worshipped as a god for a period of 
nearly eleven hundred years, from the time he is said to have lived to 
the establishment of the Christian religion, in the empire, by Con- 
stantine, A.D. 330. The same honors were paid him as to his father 
Mars, and it was believed that he watched for the interest of the 
state he had founded. This may have been one cause of the invinci- 
bility of the Romans in battle, that they thought themselves watched 
over, favored, and assisted by the founder of their state. Men often 
believe a lie as if it were the truth ; but firmly, though blindly, be- 
lieving it, it is as truth to them. Although this account, as that of 
the war of Troy, is mythical, it nevertheless shows us the warlike 
practice of these people in early historic times, and as we find them 
to be at the very beginning of their history, so we may certainly con- 
clude them to have been before. 

From the reputed time of Romulus to that of the Sicilian and 
Carthaginian wars, for a period of between three and four hun- 
dred years, the Romans were perpetually engaged in contests with 
the Italian tribes. The Etruscans, the Latins, the Marsians, the Her- 
nicans, the JEquians, the Pelignians, the Umbrians, the Lucauians, 
and the Samnites, were all subjugated by Rome. She then proceeded 
to subdue the Grecian States of Southern Italy, and, after continu- 
ing the war for many years, during which time the Romans fought 
many and hard battles, especially with Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, who 
had come from Greece with an army to assist these Grecian colonies, 
Rome finally succeeded in conquering both Pyrrhus and all the 
Grecian States of Southern Italy, and in establishing her government 
over these States. 

In more modern times we have a counterpart for Rome in the An- 
glo-Saxon Heptarchy ; for after, by conquest or otherwise, the seven 
Saxon kingdoms were brought under the power of the king of Wes- 
sex, their forces being concentrated, they expanded by degrees on 
all sides, and, under a succession of Norman princes, brought into 
subjection the remaining parts of South Britain, and eventually Ire- 
land. Scotland was united to the government in after times and by 
peaceful means. But as Rome did not cease to advance her con- 
quests after she had subdued Italy and Sicil}^ neither did the 
Anglo-Saxons, when they had subdued Britain and Ireland ; but 
they advanced in all directions in enterprise and arms, until to-day 
the sun never sets upon the Anglo-Saxon race and language, and their 
influence in arts and arms is far more than commensurate with the 



CHABACTER OF ANCIENT CIVILIZED NATIONS. 79 

countries they inhabit. But the comparison in other respects stands 
thus, — if in the acquisition of territory, England slew her thousands 
Rome did her tens of thousands. It is to be hoped that, henceforth, 
England will take care that she add not largely to her cup of blood 
by war. 

Carthage was originally a colony of Phoenicians who, about the 
year 800, B.C., settled on the northern coast of Africa. These col- 
onists increased their dominions by inroads on the neighboring tribes, 
and, being a naval power, by degrees became masters of almost every 
island in the Mediterranean. Thus Carthage may be truly said to 
have become great at the expense of her neighbors. Their efforts 
to conquer Sicily brought them into collision with the now formid- 
able forces of Rome. The conflicts between Rome and Carthage are 
distinguished in history by the name of the Punic Wars, Punic 
meaning Phoenician, for Carthage, as we have said, was a Phoenician 
colony. The first Punic war, beginning B.C., 264, lasted twenty- 
four years ; the second seven, and the third four years and some 
months. In the last contest the city of Carthage was destroyed to 
its foundations by the Romans. It was delivered up by Scipio, the 
Roman general, to be plundered by the soldiers ; its gold, silver, 
statues, and other treasures amounting to 4,470,000 pounds weight 
of silver were carried to Rome ; its towers, ramparts, walls and all 
the works which the Carthaginians had raised in the course of many 
centuries, where levelled to the ground. Fires were set to the edifices 
of the once proud metropolis, which consumed them all ; not a single 
house, it is said, escaped the fury of the flames. And although the 
fire began in all quarters, and burned with great violence, it con- 
tinued for seventeen days before all the buildings were consumed. 
Thus perished a city which contained 700,000 inhabitants, and which 
had waged so many ferocious wars with neighboring nations — a ter- 
rible example of the destructive effects produced by malevolent 
passions in war, and of the retributive justice of the Governor of the 
universe. The destruction of human life in the wars which Rome 
waged with Carthage is beyond all specific computation. During the 
space of sixteen years Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, sacked no 
less than fourteen hundred towns, and destroyed three hundred thou- 
sand of his enemies, and we may safely reckon that nearly an equal 
number of his own men were cut off by the opposing Roman armies ; 
so that several millions of human beings must have been sacrificed in 
these bloody and cruel wars. 

The following is a summary statement of the number of human 
beings that were sacrificed in a few of the battles recorded in history 
as fought for the most part by the Greeks and Romans against their 



80 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

enemies. In the battle of Issus, between Alexander the Great, at, 
the head of the Greeks, and Darius the Persian, there are said to 
have been slain 110,000; in the battle of Arbela, two years after- 
wards, between the same two despots, 300,000. In the siege of 
Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus, according to Josephus, there 
were destroyed 1,110,000. And there are said to have been slain in 
Jerusalem in the year 170, B.C., by Antiochus Epiphanes, celebrated 
for having compelled the Jews to worship his image, which he intro- 
duced to their temple, 40,000. In the year 101, B.C., in an engage- 
ment had between the Romans under Caius Marius, their consul, 
and the German tribes of Cimbri and Teutons, in transalpine 
Gaul, there are said to have been slain of these barbarians, aside 
from what fell on the Roman side, 200,000 men, — some historians 
say 290,000 ; and it is related that the inhabitants of these countries 
in which the battle occurred, made fences for vineyards out of the 
bones. In the ensuing year the Romans, under the command of the 
same consul, slaughtered 140,000 of the Cimbri, and took 60,000 
prisoners. In the year 105, B.C., the Romans, in a single battle 
with the Cimbri and Teutons, lost upwards of 80,000 men. In the 
battle of Cannse the Romans were surrounded by the forces of 
Hannibal and cut to pieces, after an engagement of only three hours 
the carnage became so dreadful that even the Carthaginian gen- 
eral cried out to spare the conquered. Above 40,000 Romans lay 
dead on the field, and 6000 of the Carthaginians. What a horrible 
exhibition of the rage and fury of diabolical passions must have 
taken place on this occasion ; and what a dreadful scene must this 
field of battle have presented, when we consider that, in the mode of 
warfare of those days, the slain were literally mangled and cut to 
pieces ! In the battle between Scipio and Hasdrubal 40,000 are said 
to have fallen. At Cyrene there are said to have been slain of 
Romans and Greeks, by the Jews, 220,000 ; in Egypt and Cyprus in 
the reign of Trajan, 240,000 ; and in the reign of Hadrian, 580,000 
Jews. After Julius Csesar had carried his arms into the territories 
of the Usipetes in Germany, he is said to have defeated them with 
such slaughter that 400,000 perished in one battle. (This most 
probably is exaggerated.) In the battle of Chalons, between the 
Huns, under Atilla, and the Romans, there perished about 300,000. 
In the year 681, A.D. there are said to have been slain by the Sara- 
cens in Syria, 60,000. In the invasion of Lombardy and Milan, by 
the Goths, no less than 300,000. In A.D. 734 by the Saracens in 
Spain, 370,000. In the battle of Yermuk, 150,000. In the battle 
between Charles Martel and the Mohammedans, 350,000, at the least 
computation, are said to have been slain. In the battle of Muret, in 



CHARACTER OF ANCIENT CIVILIZED NATIONS. 81 

A.D., 1213, between the Catholics and Albigenses, 32,000 are said to 
have fallen. In the battle of Cressy, between the English and French 
in 1346, 50,000. In the battle of Halidon Hill, in 1333, 20,000. In 
the battle of Agincourt, in 1415, 20,000. In the battle of Towton, 
in 1461, 37,000. In the battle of Lepanto, in 1571, 25,000. In the 
battle of Fontenoy, 100,000. 

The destruction of human life in the wars that accompanied and 
followed the invasion of the barbarous nations who overthrew the 
Roman Empire in the West is beyond all specific calculation. In 
the war which was waged in Africa in the reign of the Emperor, 
Justinian, Procobius remarks : "• It is no exaggeration to say that 
five millions perished by the sword and famine and pestilence." The 
same author states tjiat during the twenty years war which this 
Emperor carried on with the Gothic conquerors of Italy the loss of 
the Goths amounted to above fifteen millions ; nor does this appear 
altogether incredible when we remember that in one campaign 50,000 
laborers died of hunger. 

About the beginning of the thirteenth century arose the very cruel 
and bloodthirsty tyrant, Zingis Khan. With immense armies, some 
of them amounting to a million of men, he overrun and subdued the 
Kingdom of Hya, in China, Tangut, Kitay, Turkistan, Karazum, 
Great Bucharia, Persia, and part of India, committing the most 
dreadful cruelties and devastations. It is compatjd that during the 
last twenty-two years of his reign no less than 14,470,000 were but- 
chered by this merciless scourge of mankind. He appeared to the 
people of the East like an infernal fiend, breathing out destruction 
wherever he went, and the doctrine which he preached after conquest 
was utter extermination. 

About the same time when this monster was ravaging the Eastern 
world those mad expeditions distinguished by the name of Crusades 
were going forward in the West. Six millions of infatuated mortals, 
raging with hatred and thirsting for blood, assumed the image of 
the cross and marched in successive expeditions, in tumultuous con- 
fusion, to the confines of Palestine, in order to recover the city of 
Jerusalem from the hand of the Mohamedans. In these holy wars^ as 
they were impiously called, more than 850,000 Europeans are said to 
have been sacrificed, before they obtained possession of Nice, An- 
tioch, and Edessa. At the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, about 
75,000 are said to have been slain ; and at the siege of Acre, 300,000. 
For nearly two hundred years these wild expeditions continued to 
go forward, and were urged on by proclamations issued from the 
papal and kingly thrones, and by fanatical sermons from the pulpit, 
until several millions of deluded wretches perished from the earth ; 



82 CKEATOB AND COSMOS. 

for the greater part of those who engaged in the crusades either died 
from hardships endured on the march or were slain or taken prison- 
ers. At this period, and for many centuries before, the wide ex- 
panse of Europe and Asia exhibited little else than one great field of 
battle, in which nations were dashing against each other, conquerors 
ravaging kingdoms, tyrants exercising the most awful cruelties, su- 
perstition and revenge immolating their millions of victims, and 
tumults, insurrections, slaughter and universal alarm, banishing 
peace and tranquility from the abodes of men, and subverting the 
moral order of society. The European states were distracted by the 
incessant disputes between the popes and the emperors ; the interior 
of every European kingdom was torn in pieces by the contending 
ambition of the powerful barons ; in the Mohamedan Empire the ca- 
liphs, sultans, and emirs, waged continual war ; new sovereignties 
were daily rising and daily being destroyed, and amidst this univer- 
sal slaughter and devastation the whole earth seemed in danger of 
being laid waste, and the human race to suffer an extermination. 

In the latter part of the 14th century arose Tamerlane, one of 
the successors of Zingis Khan. This ruthless conqueror followed in 
the footsteps of his predecessor, the cruel Zingis. Putting himself 
at the head of large armies he overran Persia, Turkestan, Kipzak, 
Russia and Hindostan, ravaging as he went, levelling cities with the 
dust, cruelly destroying their inhabitants, and committing the most 
horrible depredations. He also conquered the Turks of Asia Minor 
and carried the Sultan Bajazet into captivity, as it is said, in an 
ii-on cage. Whole nations were crushed under the iron heel of this 
conqueror. The historian Gibbon when speaking of him says : 
*' The ground which had been occupied by flourishing cities, was 
often marked by his abominable trophies, hy columns or pyramids of 
human heads ; and perhaps his conscience would have been startled 
if a priest or a philosopher had dared to number the millions of vic- 
tims whom he sacrificed to the establishment of peace and order."* 
Such is the motive that invaders generally avow for their action — 
■that they may establish order in the nations which they invade — but 
itoo often it happens that instead of bringing order and tranquillity 
.they bring to them ruin and devastation- By the Crimean War, car- 
Tied on between France, England, and Russia, there were killed 
784,991. By the Italian war of 1859, 45,000. By the war with 
Schleswig-Holstein, 3,500. In the American civil war, of the North- 
ern army there were killed 281,000 ; of the Southern army, 519,000. 
In the war of 1866 between Prussia, Austria, and Italy, 45,000. In 



* Gibbon's Rome. 



CHAKACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 83 

distant and various wars in Mexico, Cochin China, Morocco, St. 
Domingo, Paraguay, etc., 65,000 ; making a total of one million 
seven hundred and fifty thousand men swept off by war in the space 
of fourteen years, between 1853 and 1866. And in carrying on 
these wars it is estimated there was spent at the least calculation, 
nine thousand five hundred and sixty-five millions of dollars ; an 
amount of money which if put to the use of benefitting humanity, 
might have transformed the whole moral and social condition of 
civilized nations for the better. It is said the entire loss of Germany 
in the late war it had with France was something like 180,000 men, 
rather more than half of whom are invalided ; and it is certain the 
loss on the part of France was not less but perhaps much greater : 
and this war was carried on at a corresponding rate of expense. 

It may be remembered that the instances we have adduced are 
only a few circumstances in the annals of warfare. And yet in a 
few of the instances last stated, we are presented with a scene of 
horror which includes the destruction of between fifty and sixty 
millions of the human race, besides the other various kinds of suffer- 
ing which war entails. Language can scarcely be found strong 
enough to express the emotions of the mind when it seriously con- 
templates the horrible scene. And is it not melancholy to reflect 
that in the present age, which boasts of its improvements in science, 
in civilization and religion, neither reason, nor humanity, nor Chris- 
tianity, nor benevolence, has yet availed to stop the progress of de- 
stroying armies, and to set a mark of ignominy upon the nations that 
delight in war. To counteract this most irrational and deplorable 
propensity by every means which reason or humanity can suggest 
should be the duty of every one who is desirous to promote the pres- 
ent and future benefit of his species. 

For our review of the moral character of the civilized nations 
we have chosen Greece and Rome, and the nations immediately con- 
nected with them, as the most fit representatives of ancient times; 
and in continuing this review we shall confine it to those nations 
which have ariseu out of the Roman Empire, as the fittest represen- 
tatives of civilization in modern times. It would not answer to 
choose out any one of these nations as the fittest national representative 
of civilization in modern times, for each of them would be unwilling 
to be classed less high in that respect than any of the others. It 
becomes our duty, therefore, to take a glance at each of them so far 
as our limits will allow, and see how they appear to stand with re- 
spect to moral character. 

We have given proof of the warlike dispositions which were 
♦displayed in the Greek and Roman empires, and in a few instances 



84 CREATOR AKD COSMOS. 

of other nations also that waged war with them and on their borders ; 
and now it will be well to slightly examine what dispositions are 
displayed by these modern nations, while at the same time they may 
be considered in connection Avith their religious institutions. As to 
the dispositions displayed by these modern nations, pride and selfish- 
ness are prominent characteristics in them all. All these nations 
are more or less addicted to wars, and pride and selfishness are the 
prime movers to the wars which they wage. 

Russia has proceeded in her career of self-aggrandizement for the 
last two centuries, absorbing one nation after another against their 
will, until her dominions now extend across the whole continent of 
Asia from the China Sea to the Baltic ; and from Mount Caucasus 
and the frontiers of Tartary to the frozen ocean. Russia has to a 
large extent made herself great at the expense of her neighbors ; 
starting from her northern desert, in the time of Peter the Great, 
she has extended her dominions, until she is now equal in extent of 
territory to any other nation on the globe. Her government is 
strictly despotic. Her religion is Christian of the Greek model, 
which we shall have occasion to speak of in the latter part of the 
book. The mass of her peoples, until lately serfs, are gen ei ally 
ignorant and of a servile spirit. Her penal laws are exceedingly 
severe ; the severest punishments are frequently inflicted for the 
most trivial offences. At the will of the emperor, and often for very 
slight offences, men are bound in irons and transported to the frozen 
regions of Siberia, there to drag out a most miserable existence, 
until death or the term of their banishment puts an end to their 
sufferings. The knout is one of the most common instruments of 
punishment used in Russia. This instrument is a thong made of 
the skin of the elk or the wild ass, and so hard that a single stroke 
cuts the flesh to the bone. The following description is given bj 
Olearius of the manner in which he saw the knout inflicted on eight 
men, and one woman, only for the crime of selling brandy and 
tobacco without a license : " The executioner's man, after stripping 
them down to the waist, tied their feet, and took one at a time on 
his back. The executioner stood at three paces distance, and, 
springing forward with the knout in his hand, whenever he struck 
the blood gushed out at every blow. The men had each twenty-five 
or twenty-six lashes ; the woman, though only sixteen, fainted away. 
After their backs were thus dreadfully mangled they were tied 
together, two and two ; and those who sold tobacco having a little 
of it, and those who sold brandy a little bottle put about their necks. 
They were then whipped through the city of Petersburgh, for about 
a mile and a half, and then brought back to the place of their punish- 



CHARACTER OP CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 85 

meut and dismissed." This is what is termed the moderate knout, 
for when it is administered with the utmost severity, the executionei- 
striking the flank and ribs, cuts the flesh to the bowels, and there- 
fore many die of this merciless and inhuman punishment. The 
punishment of the pirates and robbers who infest the banks of the 
Volga, is another act of savage cruelty peculiar to Russia. A float 
is built whereon a gallows is erected, on which is fastened a number 
of iron hooks, and on these the wretched criminals are hung alive by 
the ribs. The float is then launched into the sti-eam, and orders are 
given to all the towns and villages on the borders of the river, that 
no one upon pain of death shall afford the least relief to any of these 
wretches. These criminals sometimes hang in this manner three, 
four, and even five days alive. The pain produces a raging fever, 
in which they utter the m.ost horrid lamentations, imploring the 
relief of water and other liquids. During the reign of Peter the 
Great the robbers who infested the various parts of his dominions, 
especially the banks of the Volga, were hung up in this manner by 
hundreds and thousands, and left to perish in the most dreadful 
manner. The boring of the tongue, and the cutting of it out, are 
practiced yet in Russia as an inferior species of punishment. It is 
much to be hoped that the time will soon come when governments 
will see and admit the folly and injustice of such proceedings. 
Punishment administered beyond the desert of the offence, can have 
no other tendency than to demoralize the minds of the people, to 
blunt *heir natural feelings, and to render criminal characters still 
more desperate ; and hence we need not wonder at what travellers 
affirm respecting the Russians, that they are very indifferent as to 
life or death, and undergo capital punishment with unparalleled apathy 
and indolence. It matters little what the name of the religion is 
that is professed by a government which practices, or allows to be 
practiced in its dominions, such tyranny, brutality and cruel barbar- 
ism. In order to show itself civilized and a worthy apostle of its 
faith to foreign peoples, a government should show itself exemplar}'- 
at home by dealing righteously, benevolently, and beneficently with 
its own people. 

Prussia and Russia may be said to have attained a conspicuous 
national existence at the same time. In the year 1701 Frederick, the 
Margrave or Count of Brandenburgh, deeming himself strong enough 
to make good his intentions against the nations which might choose 
to oppose him. crowiied himself king, and publicly announced that 
his name henceforth was not elector of Brandenburgh, but king of 
Prussia. At the same time Peter the Great was engaged in the work 
of building the City of St. Petersburg, and of making Russia a naval 



86 CEEATOE, AND COSMOS. 

power, after having a few j-ears previously prepared himself for this 
task by practicing as a shipbuilder in an English dockyard. Both of 
these nations have since then under successive rulers made great ad- 
vances to power. "We have stated by what means Russia enlarged 
her dominions to such a great extent; and shall we now inquire by 
what means Prussia has come by her power and attained to the 
supremacy among the German States which she now enjoys ? Was 
it by peaceable or warlike measures ? Mainly by war. True, Prussia 
owes much for her present eminency to the intelligence of her people; 
and this is, of course, owing to the system of education that is estab- 
lished and carried on in that country. Now the proper object of a 
system of education is to diffuse a knowledge of the sciences, the 
useful arts, and of anj^ other branch of knowledge the acquisition of 
which may tend to the happiness and well-being of tlie people. But 
the system of education established in Prussia includes the teaching 
of the military art as well as the other arts. And it may probably 
be argued that the art of war is a necessary and useful one. There is 
no necessity of it if men but keep the principles of pride and self- 
ishness in their own nature in due subordination to the principles 
of godliness, which they can do by having right reason rule. Nor 
can the greatness that is derived from war be called true greatness. 
What, it may be asked. Is a nation to look on inactively and see 
itself invaded, desolated, and absorbed by an enemy without offering 
any resistance ? This sometimes would be the wisest policy for a 
nation in such circumstances. Some of those nations, for e:p,mple, 
which have been absorbed by Prussia herself during her career of 
conquest and by Russia might have done better had they thus acted. 
Since they were not able effectually to repel, it would have been 
wiser for them to have submitted to the invader, without actively re- 
sisting him, by which course they would at least have saved the lives 
of those Avho fell, and perhaps obtained better terms from the ag- 
gressor. But if a strong nation is attacked what course should it 
pursue ? Intelligent non-resistance would in this case even be the best 
course to follow, uud \>\ peaceful measures to obtain the best condi- 
tions obtainable ; it is also by far the most praiseworthy. But each 
nation, when it feels itself greatly aggrieved by another, no matter 
how limited its resources for offence and defence are as compared 
with those of the other, is apt to feel itself equally strong, just as a 
small weak man feels when he is provoked to combat by a large ath- 
letic one. Well, as there is no necessity of either of these men strik- 
ing the other, nor of the one that may have been struck striking in 
return, so there is not the slightest need of a nation, whether it may 
be powerful or weak, striking either in aggression or defence. In- 



CHAEACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 87 

telligent non-resistance on the part of a nation, as of an individual, 
makes the aggressor feel ashamed of his conduct, and is the means of 
saving life and limb and property, and of securing the blessings of 
happiness and peace to many people who should otherwise suffer. 
But the question is often and very considei;,te!y usked Who, when 
struck or insulted, ciin abstain from strikin<>- or insulting in his turn? 
Any one can abstain from it if he will but act considerately. If a 
man returns an insult he degrades himself to the level of him who 
insults him ; but if one try to kill him, he should endeavor to not be 
killed. Reason should always be allowed to govern ; passion or 
malevolence not for a moment. We have ourselves always acted on 
the principle of intelligent non-resistance, and mean to do so as long 
as we live. The principle of good-will to men, men of every charac- 
ter and temper, should be cultivated by all, and no principle con- 
trary to this should be allowed to occupy the breast for a single mo- 
ment. If men are weak enough to strike or insult, they are so from 
ignorance or the depravity of their nature ; such should be looked 
upon with compassion, and their good, not their evil and destruction, 
should by every means be sought ; when they come to fully under- 
stand what they are, and what they should be and do, they will be 
strikers and insulters no longer. Example is ever more powerful 
than precept, in the case of nations as well as individuals. But, as 
in the case of two men who are about to quarrel, the law holds that 
one accountable who strikes first, why may there not be an inter- 
nation«l law established among the civilized nations, which no one 
nation will be allowed to transgress? But it may be said that trans- 
gression of that law would imply the use of compulsory means to 
enforce obedience to it, and that this means might necessarily be 
war. If it were stipulated by the international law that all the 
nations agreeing to it should remain unarmed, that military princi- 
ples should iiot be taught nor warlike implements manufactured or 
retained by these nations, then war could not be the means resorted 
to in such a case. But it may be said that when a nation would feel 
inclined to transgress or to secede from the international confederacy 
it might insiduously import arms and equipments of war from some 
other nations outside of the league, and so prepare itself to effectu- 
ally accomplish its object. To prevent the occurrence of such a 
breach it would be wise for the confederacy to embrace within 
itself as many as possible of the nations of the earth, even those they 
would deem uncivilized ; to bring all these if possible to live and 
abide by the stipulations of the international law ; so that there 
might be no place left from whence to import the means and imple- 
ments of war. Cannot such a state of things be brought about ? It 



88 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

can be effected, first by the civilized nations among themselves ; then 
by their gradually bringing into their confederacy all the other 
-nations. The first step to be taken to this good end is the universal 
•education of the masses of the people high as well as low in every 
Nation, in the principles of self-denial, charity and true humility ; 
5and to this end, the principles of military discipline should not be 
taught in the schools, nor should anything be taught which would 
1;end to foster or cultivate a warlike spirit. There should be no 
panegyrics delivered by the teachers nor found in the school-books 
upon the virtues of warriors of past ages or of the present ; nor 
should an Alexander, a Caesar, a Frederick, a Bonaparte, a Welling- 
ton, or even a Washington, so far as he was a warrior, be held up to 
the admiration or the imitation of the students ; only the sciences 
and the arts which tend to peace should be taught ; the principles of 
pride and selfishness should be not only suppressed but eradicated ; 
and the principles of true virtue, of honest industry, of charity, and 
intelligent humility, should be universally inculcated and exempli- 
fied to the youth. Such a state of things, then, as we have contem- 
plated might be begun to be brought about by the universal educa- 
tion of the masses, commencing with all youth of the present gener- 
ation ; and, as the people would be continually advancing to a 
higher state of knowledge and civilization, the nations would become 
more peaceful, stable, and prosperous, would cultivate more the 
sciences and arts which tend to peace, and would become more 
closely united to each other in the bonds of charity and mutual good 
will. We have before explained how that man creates the moral 
world, and that the great object of a moral system is to enable men 
to live in association with each other according to order and right. 
Now this being so that moral system is certainly imperfect, and un- 
worthy of the name of world, which does not provide that men 
shall not hill each other by means of war. It implies not order, 
but disorder, and all its train of evil consequences. To the end that a 
better system may be established, and that as universally as possible, 
much may now be begun to be done by rulers and men of power and 
influence in all nations, yea and by eveiy teacher, every parent, and 
every individual both subjectively and objectively. This education, 
which as we have said is the first step towards the bringing in of a state 
of things for the better, permanently, must be as universally diffused 
as possible, and individually subjective as well as objective ; for each 
one must educate him or her self in the principles and practices of 
self-denial, humility and all the kindred principles which pertain to 
godliness as- well as teach others, as far as one can, the same princi- 



CHAEACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 89 

pies and practices. Then would love be the motive power to action, 
instead of, as before, pride and selfishness. 

But to return to our main subject, Prussia has to a great extent 
aggrandized herself, as Russia did, at the expense of her neighbors. 
It has subdued one nation after another by force of arms ; it has 
domineered over Austria ; it has humiliated France, and by its course 
of war and bloodshed it has attained the supremacy in the German 
States. And in other respects also the moral character of the Prus- 
sians is not what it ought to be. It has long enforced a very severe 
penal code. The following account is given by a traveller, who was 
in Berlin in 1819, of the execution of a man for murder, which shows 
that the execution of criminals in Prussia is frequently attended by 
a species of cruelty worthy of the worst days of the Inquisition : 
" Amidst the parade of executioners, officers of police, and other ju- 
dicial authorities, the beating of drums, and the waving of flags and 
colors, the criminal mounted the scaffold. No ministers of religion 
appeared to gild the horrors of eternity, and to soothe the agonies of 
the criminal ; and no supplicatory prayer closed his quivering lips." 
" Never," says the narrator, " shall I forget the one bitter look of im- 
ploring agony that he threw around him, as, immediately in stepping 
on the scaffold, his coat was rudely torn from his shoulders. He was 
then thrown down, the cords fixed around his neck, which were 
drawn until strangulation almost commenced. Another executioner 
then approached, bearing in his hands a hugh wheel, bound with 
iron, with which he violently struck the legs, arms, and chest, and 
lastly the head of the criminal. I was unfortunately near enough to 
witness his mangled and bleeding body still convulsed. It was then 
carried down for interment, and in less than a quarter of an hour from 
the beginning of his torture, the corpse was completely covered with 
earth. Several large stones which were thrown upon him hastened" 
his last gasp ; he was mangled into eternity.'''' Punishments, as we 
have before said, should not be more than proportioned to the crimes 
for which they are inflicted, and in every case should be designed 
for the benefit of the criminal, or of society, or of both. If the life 
of the criminal is to be taken, the object of the punishment cannot 
be his benefit ; and no benefit can accrue to society from his being 
treated with a greater degree of severity than his crime deserves. If 
the life of the criminal is not to be taken the object of the punish- 
ment should be his moral improvement, and the punishment should 
not be greater than he deserves. An unduly severe criminal code in 
any country is proof that that nation has yet to advance some de- 
grees before it can be called civilized. 

France is a nation which until very lately played an important 



90 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

part in tlie history of Europe. From being one of the provinces of 
the Roman Empire she was raised to the position of an independent 
state by Clovis in the 5th century, A. D. In the latter part of the 
8th century she was raised to a greater height of power by the con- 
quests of Charlemagne ; she afterwards lost a great part of the do- 
minions which she had acquired through him, and gained them again 
after a long interval through the conquests of Napoleon Bonaparte, 
but only to retain them for a very short time. France, before called 
Gaul, has as long as we have known her historically, been a nation 
addicted to war. She has, however, not been remarkably successful 
in war, never having attained to a very great degree of power, ex- 
cept under the two conquerors just named. Charlemagne is said to 
have carried on fifty-three campaigns. He was a remarkably fero- 
cious and cruel man. On one occasion, it is said that he beheaded 
4,500 Saxon prisoners on the same spot, which may serve as a speci- 
men of the butcheries of this ferocious warrior. This was the man 
who was crowned by Pope Leo in the church of St. Peter at Rome, 
in the last year of the 8th century ; and who is also inscribed as a 
Saint of the Roman Church. In him the Roman Empire of the west 
was considered to have been revived after it had been overthrown 
and trampled upon for some centuries by the Goths and Vandals, 
and other northern nations ; and from that time till the withdrawal 
of the French troops from Rome, in the time of Napoleon III., France 
has almost always been a zealous supporter of the Papacy. We need 
not here detail the wars of the Bonapartes, their rise, progress, and 
terminations ; they are very generally known, and equal in cruelty 
and the destruction of human life the battles of ancient times. We 
shall relate only a few instances of French barbarity in these wars. 
" After the taking of Alexandria by Bonaparte," sa,js the relater, " we 
were under the necessity of putting the whole of them to death at 
the breach. But the slaughter did not cease with the resistance. 
The Turks and inhabitants fled to their mosques, seeking protection 
from God and their prophet ; and then men and women, old and 
young, and infants at the breast, were slaughtered. This butchery 
continued for four hours, after which the remaining part of the in- 
habitants were much astonished at not having their throats cut." 
From what follows we can see that all this bloodshed was pre- 
meditated. " We might have spared the men whom we lost," says 
General Boyer, "by only summoning the town ; but it was necessary to 
begin by confounding our enemy." After the battle of the Pyramids, 
it is remarked by an eye witness, " the whole way through the desert 
was tracked by bones and bodies of men and animals, who had perished 
in these dreadful wastes. In order to warm themselves at night 



CHARACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 91 

they gathered together the dry bones and bodies of the dead, which 
the vultures had spared, and it was by a fire composed of this fuel 
that Bonaparte lay down to sleep in the desert."'* Miot gives the 
following description of a scene at Jaffa : " The soldier abandons 
himself to all the fury which an assult authorizes. He strikes, he 
slays, nothing can impede him. All the horrors which accompany 
the capture of a town by storm are repeated in every street, every 
house. You hear the cries of violated females calling in vain for 
help to those relations whom they are butchering. No asylum is 
respected. The blood streams on every side ; at every step you 
meet with human beings groaning and expiring, etc." Sir Robert 
Wilson, when describing the campaign in Polland, relates, that " the 
ground between the woods and the Russian batteries, about a quarter 
of a mile, was a sheet of naked human bodies, which friends and foes 
had during the night mutually stripped, not leaving the worst rag 
upon them, although numbers of these bodies retained consciousness 
of their situation. It was a sight which the eye loathed, but from 
which it could not remove." In Labaume's " Narrative of the 
Campaign in Russia," we are presented with the most horrible details : 
" palaces, churches, and streets enveloped in flames ; houses tumbling 
into ruins, hundreds of the blackened carcasses of the wretched inhabi- 
tants, whom the fire had consumed, blended- with the fragments ; hos- 
pitals containing 20,000 wounded Russians on fire, and consuming the 
miserable victims ; numbers of half-burnt wretches crawling ajaong 
the smoking ruins ; females violated and massacred ; parents and 
children half-naked, shivering with cold, flying in consternation with 
the remains of their half-consumed furniture ; horses falling in 
thousands, and writhing in tlfe agonies of death ; roads covered for 
miles with thousands of the dying and the dead, heaped one upon 
another, and swimming in blood, and these dreadful scenes rendered 
still more horrific by the shrieks of young females, of mothers, and 
children, and the piercing cries of the wounded and the dying, 
invoking death to put an end to their agonies." It is probable that 
some of our readers have been so affected by the description already 
given, that they have turned away their eyes in disgust from such an 
appalling spectacle of suffering and horror, but these are only a 
few instances out of thousands which the authentic histories of the 
French wars present before us. What untold sufferings have been 
caused by the wars which France has carried on in our own day ! 
Wars with Russia, with Austria, with Prussia, and last the fratricidal 
war which was waged at Paris between its own citizens at the 

* Miot's Memoirs. 



92 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

terminatioix of the late war with Germany. Yet France has long 
been considered a leading civilized nation of Europe. The French 
nation have been characterized as a vain, immoral, and licentious 
people, in their social state, especially the inhabitants of their chiei 
cities ; and these their sins may have sometimes brought destruction 
upon that people; but we are aware that the suffering and destruc- 
tion of the many are often caused by the pride and selfishness of a 
few, very often by the will of an individual, as we believe that 
last war with Germany may have been which humbled France to 
the dust and caused such immense loss and suffering to her people. 

The penal code in France has also been extremely severe. The 
execution of Damiens in 1757, for attempting to assassinate Louis 
XV., was accompanied with tortures, the description of which 
is enough to harrow the feelings of the most callous nature, tortures 
which could scarcely be exceeded in intensity, even though they were 
invented by an infernal fiend ; and yet they were beheld with a 
certain degree of apathy by a surrounding populace, and even coun- 
sellors and physicians could talk together deliberately about the best 
mode of tearing asunder the limbs of the wretched victim, with 
as much composure as if they had been dissecting a dead subject or 
carving a fowl. 

France has also distinguished itself for its massacres on account of 
religion. Of these, that of the French Protestants, on the Feast of 
St. Bfrtholomew, August 24, 1572, was perhaps, one of the most 
diabolical acts of perfidy and cruelty which have stained the 
character of that nation. Everything connected with this unexampled 
conspiiacy and assassination was atrocious and horrible. Ties of the 
most sacred nature were violated ; superstitious zeal was changed 
into an impious frenzy ; and filial piety degenerated into sanguinary 
fury. Under the direction of the infamous Duke of Guise, the 
soldiers and the populace, en masse, at the signal of the tolling of a 
bell, flew to arms, seizing every weapon that came in their way ; 
and thus rushing in crowds to every quarter of the city of Paris, no 
sound was heard but the terrible cry, "Kill the Huguenots." Every 
one distinguished for being attached to the reformed faith, without 
any distinction of rank, age or sex, was indiscriminately massacred. 
The air resounded with the horrid cries and blasphemous imprecations 
of the murderers, the piercing shrieks of the wounded and the groans 
of the dying. Headless trunks were every moment thrown into the 
court-yards or the streets, the gateways were choked up with the 
bodies of the dead and dying, and the streets presented a spectacle of 
mangled limbs and human beings, dragged by their butchers in order 
to be thrown into the Seine. Hotels and public buildings were 



ch/^lRacter of civilized modern nations. 93 

reeking with blood : death and desolation reigned on every side, and 
in all quarters carts were seen loaded with dead bodies, destined to be 
oast into the river, whose waters were for several days polluted with 
tides of human gore. The infuriated assassin, urged on by the cry 
that " it was the King's will that the very last of this race of vipers 
should be crushed and killed," became still more furious in the 
slaughter ; in proof of which one Cruce, a jeweller, displaying his 
naked and bloody arms, vaunted aloud that he had cut the throats of 
more than four hundred Huguenots in one day. The number of 
victims thus slaughtered in the city of Paris amounted to about 
6000 ; and in the provinces, at the same time, perished about 60,000 
souls. The news of this massacre was welcomed at Rome with the 
most lively transports of joy. The Cardinal of Lorraine gave a large 
reward to the courier, and interrogated him in such a manner upon 
the subject as plainly to indicate that he had been previouslj'' aware 
of the intended catastrophe. Cannons were fired, bonfires were 
kindled, and a solemn mass celebrated at which Pope Gregory XIII. 
assisted, with all the splendor which the Papal Court was accustomed 
to display on the happening of events the most significant and of the 
most important consequences.* 

In the civil wars on account of religion in France, in the early 
part of the seventeenth century, it is computed that about a million 
of men lost their lives ; and nine cities, 400 villages, 2000 churches, 
and 10,000 houses were burned and destroyed during their con- 
tinuance, besides the many thousands of men, women and children, 
which were cruelly butchered ; and 150,000,000 livres were spent in 
carrying forward these slaughters and devastations. It is said of 
Louis XIII., who prosecuted these wars, by one of his biographers and 
penegyrists, Madame de Motteville, that "what gave him the greatest 
pleasure was his thought of driving heretics out of the kingdom, and 
thereby purging the different religions which corrupt and infect the 
Church of God." 

But France has distinguished herself for a fanatical persecuting 
spii'it as well in an atheistical as in a religious or superstitious point 
of view. The first revolution in France, in 1789, was a revolution 
not merely in politics and government, but in religion, in manners, 
and in the common feelings of human nature. It is stated on 
good authority that a little before this revolution a numerous 
assembly of French Literati being asked in turn at one of their 
meetings by their president, " whether there was any such thing as 
moral obligation, answered in every instance that there was not." 



* Memoirs of Henry the Great. 



94 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Soon after that revolution the great body of the French infidels who 
then ruled the nation not only denied all the obligations which bind 
us to truth, justice, and kindness, but pitied and despised, as a con- 
temptible wretch, that man who believed in their existence. Atheism 
was publicly preached and its doctrines disseminated among the mass 
of the people. A professor was even named by Chaumette to 
instruct the children of the state in the myster}^ of Atheism. De La 
Metherie, the author of a philosophical journal, when discussing the 
doctrine of crystallization, made the monstrous assertion, " that the 
highest and most perfect form of crystallization is that which is 
vulgarly called God." In the National Convention, Gobert, Arch- 
bishop of Paris, the Rector Yangirard, and several other priests, 
abjured the Romish religion, and for their abjuration they received 
applause, and the fraternal kiss. The convention decreed that all the 
churches and temples of religious worship, known to be in Paris, 
should be instantly shut up, and that every person requiring the 
opening of a church or temple should be put under arrest as a 
suspected person and an enemy of the State. The consequences of 
the universal operation of such principles, and such a high-handed 
course of procedure on the part of those in authority, were such as 
might have been expected. They are written in characters of blood. 
A scene of inhumanity, cruelty, malignity and insatiable rapacity 
was presented to the world, which excited in the mind of every 
virtuous spectator amazement and horror. Savage atrocities were 
committed, which would have been shocking in the most barbarous 
and unenlightened age ; and perhaps at no time in no country was 
there more licentious practices and more degeneracy displayed. The 
ties of friendship were severed, the claims of consanguinity dis- 
regarded, and a cold-blooded selfishness prevaded the great mass of 
society. " The kingdom appeared to be changed into one great 
prison ; the inhabitants converted into felons, and the common doom 
of a man commuted for the violence of the sword and the bayonet, 
and the stroke of the guillotine." Such was the rapacity with which 
destruction was carried on that, in the short space of ten years, not 
less than three millions of human beings are supposed to have 
perished in that country, chiefly through the out-working of the 
malevolent principles of the human heart, and the seduction of a false 
philosophy. The following is a brief sketch of some of the scenes to 
which we allude, drawn by one who was an eye-witness and an actor in 
several parts of that horrible drama : " There were," says this writer, 
" multiplied cases of suicide, prisons crowded with innocent persons, 
permanent guillotines, perjuries of all classes, parental authority set 
at nought, debauchery encouraged by an allowance for those called 



CHARACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 95 

unmarried mothers, and six thousand divorces in the city of Paris 
within a little more than two years; in a word whatever is the most 
obscene in vice and most dreadful in ferocity."* Notwithstanding 
the incessant shout of "liberty and equality," and the boasted illumi- 
nation of philosophy, the most cruel persecutions were carried on 
against all those whose religious opions differed from the system 
adopted by the State. While infidelity was in power it wielded the 
sword of vengeance with brute ferocity against the priests of the 
Romish Church, who were butchered wherever found, hunted as 
wild beasts, frequently burned alive, or drowned in hundreds together, 
without accusation or trial. At Nantes, 360 priests are said to have 
been shot, and 460 drowned. In one night 58 were shut up in a 
barge, and drowned in the Loire ; 292 priests were massacred during 
the bloody scenes of the 10th of August, and the 2nd September 
1792 ; and 1135 were guillotined under the government of the 
National Convention, from the month of September, 1792, until the 
end of 1795 ; besides vast numbers who, hunted by the infidel repub- 
licans like owls and partridges, perished in different ways throughout 
the provinces of France. The bloody scenes which have been enacted 
in Paris in our own day, when Darboy, the archbishop, and several 
priests, besides thousands of other people, were killed by the Com- 
munists and Nationalists in their mutual struggle, correspond to the 
scenes we have just depicted. And the fact of these infidels or 
atheists, when they came into power, carrying on such violent perse- 
cutions plainly shows that the persecuting spirit is not confined to 
one sect, be they called papist or atheist, but is simply the working 
out of the evil principle in man. Men, however, are always inclined 
to leave the blame of their diabolical actions upon other things than 
themselves, often upon mere names or ideas. We gather also from 
the foregoing history of the reign of atheism in France, that, when a 
nation becomes too enlightened for its established religion or super- 
stition, it is sometimes apt to discard it altogether, and to adopt a sys- 
tem of principles the opposite to those of the old. The same thing takes 
place in the case of individuals. There is danger in such a course, 
and there hardly ever is any necessity of adopting extreme opinions 
upon one side or the other. Changes in the moral world, as in the 
natural take place gradually. A plant does not come to maturity in 
a moment nor a child to manhood in a day. Time is required for 
the intelligent adoption of a creed both by an individual and a 
nation ; and the truth is best arrived at and maintained by preserving 
the mean between opposite extreme opinions. A national religion 

* Gregoire. 



96 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

should not be discarded by the state until a better substitute can be 
made for it ; and the new system if established should receive the 
moral support and protection of the government of the state; if not 
established as in republics, where all religions are equally tolerated, 
but yet has become so generally prevalent as virtually to supplant 
the old, it should receive at least the moral support and protection 
of the government. Violent changes in any department of the moral 
world are productive of disorder ; and since, as we have said before, 
the fundamental idea of morality is order, when a change in any de- 
partment of the moral system is required, not only the change itself 
but the best manner in which the change can be brought about is to 
be considered by those who are to effect it. The object of govern- 
ment is not only to preserve order among the people but also to sub- 
serve and advance their interests and highest good ; and the necessity 
of the worship of the Deity being generally recognized as conducive 
to the happiness and order of the people, governments may well 
give their moral support and protection to that system of religion 
which combines simplicity with truth, and which can be practiced 
most intelligently by the masses of the people. 

As corroborative of the idea advanced with respect to the 
licentious character of the French, especially the Parisians, we ex- 
tract the following from Sir Walter Scott's visit to Paris in 1815. 

" The Palais Royale, in whose saloons and porticoes vice has es- 
tablished a public and open school for gambling and licentiousness, 
should be levelled to the ground with all its accursed brothels, and 
gambling houses, rendezvous the more seductive to youth as being free 
from some of those dangers which would alarm timidity, in places of 
avowedly scandalous resort. In the Salon des Etrangers, the most 
celebrated haunt of this Dom-Daniel which I had the curiosity to 
visit, the scene was decent and silent to a degree of solemnity. An 
immense hall was filled with gamesters and spectators. Those 
who kept the bank and managed the affairs of the establish- 
ment Avere distinguished by the green shades they wore to 
preserve their ejes, by their silent and grave demeanor, and by the 
paleness of their countenances exhausted by their constant vigils. 
There was no distinction of persons nor any passport required for 
entrance save that of a decent exterior ; and on the long tables which 
were covered with gold, an artizan was at liberty to hazard his 
week's wages, or a noble his whole estate. Youth and age were 
equally welcome, and any one who chose to play within the limits of 
a trifling sum, had only to accuse his own weakness, if he was drawn 
into deeper or more dangerous hazard. Everything appeared to be 
conducted with the most perfect fairness. The only advantage pos- 



CHARACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 97 

sessed by the bank, which is, however, enormous, is the extent of 
the funds by which it is enabled to sustain any reverse of fortune ; 
whereas most of the individuals who play against the bank are in 
circumstances to be ruined by the fiji'st succession of ill-luck: so that 
ultimatel}^ the small ventures merge in the stock of the principal 
adventurers, as rivers run into the sea. The profits of the establish- 
ment must indeed be very large to support its expenses. Besides a 
variety of attendants who distribute refreshments to the players 
gratis, there is an elegant entertainment with expensive wines, regu- 
larly prepared about three o'clock in the morning for those Avho 
choose to partake of it. With such temptations around him, and where 
the hazarding an insignificant sum seems at first venial or innocent, 
it is no wonder that thousands feel themselves gradually involved in 
the vortex whose verge is so little distinguishable, until they are 
swallowed up with their time, talents, fortune, and frequently also 
both body and soul. This is viae with her fairest vizard ; but the 
same unhallowed precinct contains many a secret cell for the most 
hideous and unheard of debaucheries ; many an open rendezvous of 
infamy, and many a den of usury and treason ; the whole mixed 
with a vanitv fair of shops for jewels, trinkets, and baubles 
that bashfulness may not need a decent pretext for adventur- 
ing into the haunts of infamy. It was there that the preachers 
of revolution found, amidst gamblers, desperadoes and prosti- 
tutes, ready auditors of their doctrines, and active hands to labor in 
their vineyard. It was here that the plots of the Bonepartists were 
adjusted ; and from hence the seduced soldiers, inflamed with many 
a bumper to the health of the exile of Elba, under the mystic names 
of Jean de I'Epee, and Corporal Violet, were dismissed to spread the 
news of his approaching return. In short from this central pit of 
Acheron, in which are openly assembled and mingled those charac- 
ters and occupations, which in all other capitals are driven to hide 
themselves in separate and retired recesses ; from this focus of vice 
and treason have flowed forth those waters of bitterness of which 
France has drank so deeply." Now if such a state of things as is here 
set forth existed at headquarters, right in the departments of the 
Royal Palace, what must we think existed in other and less public 
places in Paris, and in France? The great mass of people are gen- 
erally imitative, inclined to follow the example set them in high 
places. 

It has been the custom in the French Capital to register large 
numbers of public women who were made to pay from 25 to 50 dol- 
lars each, monthly, according to their rank, beauty or fashion. 1552 
kept mistresses were noted down by the police ; 380 brothels licensed 



98 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

by the prefect, and 12,076 public women were registered in the year 
1803. From the number of divorces it appears that marriage was 
looked upon as a mere temporary connection from which the parties 
might extricate themselves when they pleased, and illegitimate chil- 
dren, especially in Paris, are numerous beyond what thej' are in any 
other city. It seems hardly conceivable that a government should 
debase itself to authorize the practice of such licentiousness as is 
here represented, and to derive a large revenue from such infamous 
and polluted sources. No government Avhich authorizes or counten- 
ances such practices ma}^ expect to thrive or be prepetuated. Such 
practices enervate a people, yea, destroy them body and soul. They 
are sure to bring down upon the nation in which they exist, sooner 
or later, the retributive justice of the Governor of mankind. May 
it not truly be said that the htimiliation to which France was sub- 
jected at the termination of the first empire and in the late war with 
Germany, when her whole armies- were taken into captivity, which 
was succeeded by the mutual slaughter of her own people at Paris, 
were so many viiitations on this people for their wickedness? They 
doubtless were. And not onl}" that, but we fail to see that the sympa- 
thetic refinement, which is derived from a too free intercourse of the 
sexes with each other, while unmarried, is worthy of the name of 
civilization. It is altogether too contemptible and base for the name. 
Men and women should deny themselves if they cannot atford to live 
in honorable marriage. And men and women, be they young or old, 
should prefer to live on the humblest fare and clothed with the coars- 
est garments, even though their means were sufficient to aiford them 
a daintier kind, rather than practice luxurious living, or any species 
of licentiousness, or squander their time and talents which they 
possess in a too free intercourse with each other. Thus from the re- 
view we have been able to give of the moral character of the French, 
as indicated by their history, it is evident that though they are es- 
teemed a civilized nation they are yet far behind true civilization, 
and that, if they ever attain a high national character for morality, 
they will have to alter radically and completely their present moral 
principles and practices. 

In taking a review of the moral character of the Spaniards, as 
indicated by their history, we find it a good deal as we have found 
it in the case of the French. From the earliest historical records Ave 
have of Spain we find that country to have been the scene of savage 
warfare, on which the most ferocious passions were displayed. There 
the Romans, the Goths, the Vandals, the Moors, and the Arabs, fought 
and reigned at different periods. During certain periods of her his- 
tory, Spain possessed great power as a nation, and, as France, she 



CHARACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 99 

attained her power by war, and lost it in the same way. In the em- 
ployment of war, and otherwise, the Spaniards have displayed the 
most savage ferocity, and the most brutal as well as the most refined 
and exquisite cruelty. Spain has always been the champion of the 
Romish religion, and in this country that diabolical tribunal of the 
Inquisition was firmly established and manipulated. Considering 
indeed, the inhuman and refined cruelties which have been practiced 
by Spain on account of religion or superstition, that country may, 
with propriety, be called the peculiar seat of Satan. In the Nether- 
lands alone, from the time that the edict of Charles V. was promul- 
gated against the reformers, more than 100,000 persons were hanged, 
beheaded, buried alive, or burned, on account of professing the re- 
formed religion. The prisons were crowded with supposed heretics, 
and the gibbet, the scaffold and the stake filled every heart with 
terro. The duke of Alva, Spanish general to the Netherlands, and 
his bloodthirsty tribunal, spread universal consternation throughout 
the provinces ; and though the blood of 18,000 persons who in five 
years had been given up to execution for heresy, cried for vengence on 
this persecutor, and his abettors, yet they gloried in their cruelty. 
Philip II., in whose reign these atrocities were committed, 
hearing one day that thirty persons had a little before been burned 
at an Auto da Fe (Act of Faith), required that a like execution 
should be performed in his presence ; and he beheld with joy forty 
victims devoted to torments and to death. One of them, a man of 
distinction requested a pardon : "No," replied he coolly, "were it my 
own son I would give him up to the flames, if he obstinately persist- 
ed in heresy." 

The atrocities which the Spaniards committed on their conquests 
of some of the West Indian Islands, Mexico, and Peru, are almost 
beyond credibility that they should be performed by man, if we did 
not otherwise know the character of that people. The island of His- 
pania was their first settlement in the new world. They forced the 
inhabitants to labor as slaves for them digging gold, and, when the 
object of their cupidity was exhausted, they exterminated them, 
and the other natives most barbarously. Of two millions of inhabi- 
tants which the island contained when discovered by Columbus in 
1492, scarcely 150 were alive in 1545, only about fifty years after- 
wards. The conquest of Mexico by Cortez and his followers was 
marked with equal horrors. During their whole progress through 
that country the route of the Spaniards was marked with carnage, 
injustice, pei'fidy, and deeds of atrocious cruelty. On one occasion 
sixty caciques or chiefs of the Mexican Empire, and 400 nobles were 
burned alive with the utmost coolness and deliberation ; and, to com- 



100 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

plete the horrors of the scene, the children and relations of the 
wretched victims were assembled and compelled to be spectators of 
their dying agonies. On another occasion when the inhabitants oi 
the city of Mexico were dressed in their richest decorations, under 
a pretence of a pretended conspiracy, the Spaniards, in order to 
seize upon their valuable ornaments, fell upon them unsuspecting, 
and slaughtered 2000 of the nobles. Every right was violated by 
the Spaniards, which is generally held sacred by hostile nations. On 
every trival occasion the natives were massacred in great numbers, 
their lands apportioned among the Spaniards, the inhabitants reduced 
to the condition of slaves, and forced to labor, without payment, on 
all their public works, while the officers, distributed into different 
provinces, imitated all the excesses and barbarities of their avaricious 
commander. 

In the seige of Mexico alone no less than 100,000 natives are said 
to have fallen by the sword, besides those who perished by famine 
and other causes connected with warfare ; but, in their retreat from 
the capital, the Spaniards suffered a just retribution for their enor- 
mities, for numbers of them were butchered by the enraged Mexicans, 
and those who were taken alive were carried off in triumph to the 
temples, and sacrificed, with all the cruelty which revenge could 
invent, to the god of war, while their companions at a distance heard 
their dismal screams and piteous lamentations. 

Equal atrocities were committed in the expedition of Pizarro to 
Peru. In order that they might obtain the golden treasures of this 
country, they resorted to the basest treacherj^, and exercised the most 
cold blooded cruelties. Under the fairest professions of amity they 
seized upon the Inca or Emperor of Peru, who had received them in 
a friendly manner and had commanded his attendants to offer the 
strangers no injury, and slaughtered, with deliberate and unrelenting 
fury, above 4000 of his attendants, who never offered the least resist- 
ance, after which they passed the night in the most extravagant 
exultation over the plunder they had acquired from the bodies of the 
slain. The Inca, in order to regain his liberty, promised them as 
many vessels of gold as would fill an apartment 22 feet long, 16 feet 
wide, and 8 feet high, and, after having collected the promised 
treasure from all parts of his kingdom, and fulfilled his agreement, 
they not long after, under the most frivolous pretext, condemned 
him to be burned alive. The booty they acquired by such atrocious 
means amounted to about ten millions of dollars in gold. The day 
appointed for the division of this prey was the festival of St. James, 
the patron saint of Spain ; and, although assembled to divide the 
spoils of an unoffending people, obtained by treachery, cruelty and 



CHARACTEK OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 101 

slaughter, they had the hypocrisy and audacity to commence the 
transaction with a solemn invocation of the name of God, as if they 
expected heaven's blessing to descend upon the wages of their iniquity. 
It would be difficult to conceive that any beings exist in any region 
of the universe with worse moral character than these Spaniards 
proved themselves to be ; and it shows what an ineffably bad being 
man is capable of becoming when he chooses to work out the evil 
principles of his nature, and to give reins to his depraved passions 
and propensities. Here, indeed, we find the one characteristic 
extreme, that of badness ; let us see before we finish our review 
of the nations called civilized, whether we shall be able to find the 
other extreme, that of goodness ; for in the beginning of this re- 
view we stated that the two extremes exist in principle in man, 
either of which he maj^ develop if he chooses, to an almost unlimited 
degree. 

The savage practice of bull-fighting which was long in vogue in 
Spain, and which fascinated all classes from the prince to the peasant, 
presented spectacles of suffering of animals and men at which one 
may be allowed to shudder. It is said they were prohibited in 1805, 
to the deep regret of the most numerous part of the nation, and that 
another entertainment, an image of the bull-fight, was substituted in 
their place, and is still in some places retained. The bull-fights may 
be said to have represented the gladiatorial shows which were held 
at Rome, and in the principal cities of the Roman empire for many 
centuries ; in which gladiators (swordsmen) trained for the purpose — 
for the most part slaves or prisoners of war^fought with wild beasts 
for the entertainment of the people, who, in great numbers, surrounded 
the amphitheatre. These gladiatorial exhibitions were abolished by 
the Emperor Honorius, in A.D. 404. 

The cruel practice of the bull-fight does not argue a high state of 
civilization for the nations that delight in it. Under an impression 
of his great superiority in the scale of being, over the brute creation, 
man has always been accustomed to treat the lower orders of animals 
with excessive cruelty. This, however, does not seem so much to be 
wondered at since he is so cruel to his own kind ; it is all the work- 
ing out of the evil principle within him. We may assume with cer- 
tainty that the sufferings of these bulls and horses, wounded and 
dying, were quite as intense and exquisite, as were tliose of the 
wounded and dying men. And these animals were equally worthy 
of pity, if not more so, since they were not the cause of their suffer- 
ings, which was altogether unnecessary, and could as well have been 
avoided, and since they could not speak to make their sufferings 
known. Men should remember that the lower orders of animals have 



102 CREATOE AND COSMOS. 

feelings as they have themselves, and are susceptible in most cases, 
if not all, of as exquisite pain and suffering. We are often very 
much affected at seeing animals, especially horses, treated with such 
inconsideration and cruelty. They are made to di-aw too heavy 
loads, to travel too fast and to vk^ork too long hours, upon, perhaps, a 
scanty allowance of food by men who seem as thoughtless as they 
are themselves and infinitely more cruel. We have been a short time 
ago in a large city where the practice is to a great extent to yoke but 
one horse to a hack, which in all other cities with which we are 
acquainted is accustomed to be drawn by two horses, and still this 
horse is made to travel equally fast up and down hill, and to draw 
equally heavy loads (as many as they can get into the carriage), as 
if there were two horses attached. When men come to know what 
they really are, and that all other animals have feelings as well as 
themselves, and are as susceptible of pain and suffering ; that they 
are always under the Creator's eye, who is everywhere present to see 
and know what they do ; and that they are accountable for the man- 
ner in which thej^ treat these animals which he has entrusted to their 
care, which are also His creatures, they will then recognize the 
propriety, as well as necessity, of treating their animals more 
considerately and better than they have generally hitherto been 
accustomed to treat them. 

The empire of Austria has long been a leading state in Europe. 
Until the ascendancy of Prussia in our day she had the pre-em- 
inence among the German States. Like Russia and Prussia, in later 
times, she made herself great at the expense of her neighbors, 
absorbing one neighboring state after another until she attained her 
present dimensions. She comprises in her dominions various nations 
and languages, and her people generally are less enlightened than 
are the other German nations. The prevailing religion in Austria 
is that of Rome, and this nation like France has always been a stout 
supporter of the Papacy. As that state rose out of part of the 
Roman Empire, and has always been under the influence of Rome, 
most that will be necessary to sa}^ here with regard to its moral 
character is that it partook of the character of the Roman Empire 
in its two aspects of civil and religious, and the character of the 
Roman Empire we shall have to speak of more fully in the latter 
part of this book. Savage warfare has always there been jDracticed ; 
the principles of the Inquisition have there been carried out; and 
the Romish Churcli, as in other European states, has for many cen- 
turies there held sway both over the souls and bodies of men. So 
that in our review of the moral character of Rome, which will have 
especial reference to the doings of the Roman Church, we may have 



CHARACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 103 

glimpses of that of Austria, as Austria since her rise has always been 
a principal member of that Church. 

The modern Kingdom of Italy has very lately been formed. 
From a comparatively limited extent of territory, comprised in the 
state of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel, with the assistance of some able 
and talented statesmen, has extended his dominions over all Ital}''. 
He has even added the Papal States to his dominions and made the 
city Rome his national capital. He is a man who (whatever his 
secret motives may have been, they are best known to himself), for 
doing so well for his people and for humanity at large, in the cir- 
cumstances in which he was placed, is entitled to the consideration 
and respect of all civilized nations, and of all good people. Much 
fault has been found with him by Roman Catholics for having ap- 
propriated the Papal States ; but in appropriating the Papal domin- 
ions he only took away from the Pope what did not belong to the 
Pope, and what, according to the voice of the people, the Pope was 
misgoverning, and restored to the Kingdom of Italy its ancient capi- 
tal. The Popes have been accustomed to claim the Papal States 
and the city Rome as their dominions by right of donation by Con- 
stantine, which donation they claimed to have been confirmed nearly 
five hundred years after by Charlemagne. But history goes to prove 
the said donation of Constantino to have been a fiction, most proba- 
bly of the eighth century, and its confirmation by Charlemagne to 
have been no better ; for although both Pepin, the father of Charle- 
magne, and Charlemagne himself had pretended to make gifts and 
promises to the Popes of these dominions, yet Charlemagne at his 
death reckoned the city of Rome and the territories nominally gov- 
erned by the Pope as part of his dominions ; of this we may have 
occasion to speak again in the latter part of this work. The Pope, 
therefore, had no right to the dominion of Rome except the right of 
possession ; and the vote taken in the Papal dominions to ascertain 
the will of the people on the subject plainly proved that they wished 
the government transferred to the King of Italy. It was then a 
matter of duty as well of right for him to assume the government of 
the Papal dominions. It is much to be hoped that he will proceed 
even farther in his laudable course, and, as he has been the liberator of 
Italy civilly, become also its liberator religiously from the shackles 
of Popish or Romish idolatry. The Italians only need to become 
more generally and liberally educated in order to fit them for this 
more perfect freedom. But to this universal education they need 
to be encouraged, and assisted, and as in Prussia, required to attend 
by the government. In time past in that country education was not 
only not permitted or encouraged, put positively interdicted. A 



104 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

royal Sardinian edict, published in 1825, " directs that henceforth 
no person shall learn to read or write, who cannot prove the posses- 
sion of property above the value of 1500 livres (about 300 dollars). 
The qualification for a student is the possession of an income to the 
same amount." The people of Italy, as well as those of the other 
European states, have too long been prevented from education, and 
kept enslaved, body and mind, by the diversified machinery of the 
civil and religious power of the Catholic church. But Italy, as the 
other European states, is a warlike power, and maintains a large 
standing army ; yet it is hoped that, in the process of time, when her 
people have become enlightened by education and true religion, 
Italy, which has been the scene of so many conflicts, and has drunk 
the blood of so many myriads of the human race, shall become a 
peaceful nation ; her government joining heartily with the other 
civilized nations in disbanding their armies and police, and in inau- 
gurating and maintaing a reign of peace and righteousness in the 
world. There is much to be done, and some time will be required, 
in bringing the people of Italy, as well as of the other European 
nations, to that degree of enlightenment and civilization which we 
wish they had now attained. The sooner the movement is made in 
the direction we have indicated, and persistently carried out, the 
sooner will this great end be attained. The present and future 
rulers of Italy and of each of the other European states may, if they 
but will, do much toward the enlightenment and highest good of 
their people. 

England is a nation of great power and influence. If it be en- 
quired by what means this nation has come by her dominions, it may 
be answered that it was mainly by force of arms. The seven states 
of the Saxon Heptarchy waged war among themselves. After they 
had become united and their power became concentrated, England, 
under the Norman and other princes, carried on destructive wars 
with Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France, in the last-named country 
of which she maintained her power for some centuries. Scotland, 
however became united to England in more modern times and by 
peaceable means ; and the rise of the English power to its present 
state has been mainly accomplished since the union of these two 
countries nearly three centuries ago, since when the united nation has 
been called Great Britain. By her conquests on sea she has secured the 
possession of extensive colonial territories, and by the maintenance 
of a great naval power she retains them. England's naval wars have 
been destructive of life, and very fertile in the increase of her power. 
Her wars with France, with the Dutch, with her own colonies in 
America, with Russia, with India and China, have been ferociously 



CHARACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 105 

carried on, and with great loss of life and property to the people of 
these countries as well as to herself. By savage warfare, then, Eng- 
land has attained and maintains her power and influence among the 
nations of the earth. 

Without adverting to the oppressive landlord and tax system 
■which is in practice in great Britain and Ireland, by means of which 
the great mass of the people cannot do much more in the acquisition 
of wealth than obtain a bare subsistence, in order the better to illus- 
trate the moral character of Great Britain as a nation, we shall bring 
forward one or two instances of the manner in which she accumulated 
her wealth. 

In another age it will perhaps scarcely be believed, and in this 
age it is very little known, that Great Britain, distinguished for her 
zeal in propagating Christianity throughout the heathen world, has 
for many years derived a revenue from the worship of the idol Jug- 
gernaut, and other idols of similar description at Gya, Allahabad, 
Trepetty, and other places in Hindostan. From the year 1813 to 
1826, there was collected, by order of the British Government, 
from the pilgrims of Juggernaut alone about 1,360,000, rupees or 
$850,000, a great part of which was given to the support and main- 
tenance of the abominable worship of this idol. Dr. Buchanan, in 
his " Christain Researches," states, from official accounts, that the 
annual expense of the idol Juggernaut presented to the British Gov- 
ernment is as follows : 

RUPEES. DOLLARS. 

Expenses of the table of tlie idol 36,115 or 22,570 

Expenses of Ids wearing apparel 2,712 or 1,695 

Wages of his servants 10,057 or 6,295 

Contingent expenses at the different seasons of pilgrimage. .. . 10,989 or 6,865 

Expenses of his elephants and horses 3,030 or 1,890 

" of his annual state carriage or car, and tower of the 

idol 6,713 or 4,195 

Rup. 69,616 $43,510 
Forty-three thousand five hundred and ten dollars, paid annually 
by the British Government for the support of one idol, Juggernaut ! 
Some of our readers will say they never expected that Britain, which 
has displayed so much zeal in the dissemination of Bibles and Testa- 
ments and Tracts and orthodox Christain doctrine, would be guilty 
of any such practice. In the item "wages of servants" is included 
the wages of the courtesans that are kept for the service of the 
temple. 

Mr. Hunter, the collector of the pilgrim tax for 1806, told Mr. 
Buchanan that three state carriages were decorated that year at an 
expense of upwards of one thousand dollars, with English broadcloth 



106 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and baize. The following items show the gain of this association 
with idolataiy at some of the principal idol stations in India : — 

RUPEES. 

Net receipt of Pilgrim tax at Juggernaut for 1815 135,667 

at Gya for 1816 182,876 

" " at Allahabad for 1816 73,053 

" " at Kasliee-poor, Surkuree, Sumbal and Kawa, 1816 5,683 

" " at Tripetty and Madras for 1811 152,000 

549,279 

A rupee, though generally considered to be only of the value of 
half a crown or about sixty cents,*' is said to be received in the case 
of the pilgrims of India as equivalent in value to one pound sterling 
or five dollars to an inhabitant of England ; so that in this point of 
view rupees may be considered as equivalent to pounds sterling or 
five dollar pieces. 

Mr. Hamilton, in his " description of Hindostan," as quoted by 
Mr. Peggs in his " Pilgrim Tax in India," states, with respect to the 
district of Tanjore, that " in almost every village there is a temple 
with a lofty gateway of massive architecture, where a great many 
Brahmins are maintained partly by an allowance from government. 
The Brahmins are here extremel}^ loyal on account of the protection 
they receive, and also for an allowance granted them by the British 
Government, of 45,000 pagodas or 18,000 pounds annually, which is 
distributed for the support of the poorer temples." One can scarcely 
conceive of anything more inconsistent than the conduct of a nation, 
that professes itself to be Christian and will not allow that it is idol- 
atrous, supporting a system of idolatry the most revolting, cruel, 
lascivious and profane ? Yet a member of the British Parliament, 
C. Bullen, Esq., in his letter to the Court of Directors relative to 
Juggernaut in 1813, says : " I cannot see what possible objection 
there is to the continuance of an established tax, particularly when 
it is taken into considei'ation what large possessions in land and 
money are allowed by our government in all parts of the country for 
keeping up the religious institutions of the Hindoos, and the Mussul- 
mans." From all parts of India multitudes of idol-worshij)pers or 
pilgrims annually travel many hundred miles to pay homage to the 
different idols alluded to above. A tax is levied on those pilgrims 
graduated according to the rank or circumstances of the pilgrim, 
and amounting from one to twenty or thirty rupees. Those travel- 
ling to Allahabad, for example, are taxed at the following rates ; on 
ever}^ pilgrim on foot, one rupee ; on every pilgrim w"ith a horse oi 
a palanquin, two rupees ; on every pilgrim with an elephant, twenty 

* This is the silver rupee; the gold rupee is valued at 298. 2d. = $7.00. 



CHABACTBR OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 107 

rupees, etc. Vast numbers of deluded people flock to these temples 
every year. 

In 1825, the number that arrived at Juggernaut was estimated at 
225,000, and in some years they have been calculated to amount to 
more than a million. The deprivations and miseries endured by these 
people are almost inconceivable. Dr. Buchanan, who visited the 
temple of Juggernaut in 1806, gives the following statement: " Num- 
bers of pilgrims die on the road, and their bodies generally lie un- 
buried. On a plain near the pilgrim caravansera, one hundred miles 
from Juggernaut, I saw more than one hundred skulls ; the dogs, 
jackals, and vultures seem to live here on human prey. Wherever I 
turn my eyes I meet death in one shape or other. From the place 
where I now stand, I have a view of a host of people, like an army, 
encamped at an outer gate of the the town of Juggernaut, where a 
guard of soldiers is posted to prevent them from entering the town 
until they have paid the tax. A pilgrim announced that he was 
ready to offer himself a sacrifice to the idol. He' laid himself down 
on the road before the car as it was moving along with his arms 
stretched forward. The multitude passed him leaving the space clear 
and he was crushed to death by the wheels. How much I wished 
that the proprietors of Indian stock would have attended the wheels 
of Juggernaut, and seen this peculiar source of their revenue. I be- 
held a distressing scene this morning in the place of skulls, a poor 
woman lying dead or nearly so with her two children by her, looking 
at the dogs and vultures, which were near. The people passed by 
without noticing the children. I asked them where was their home, 
they said they had no home, but where their mother was. Oh, there 
is no pity at Juggernaut. Those who support his kingdom err, I 
trust from ignorance ; they know not what they do." 

"The loss of life," says Colonel Phipps, "by this superstition 
probably exceeds that of any other. The aged, the weak, the sick, 
are persuaded to attempt this pilgrimage, as a remedy for all evils. 
The number of women and children is also very great, and they leave 
their families and their occupations to travel immense distances with 
the delusive hope of obtaining eternal bliss. Their means of subsis- 
tence on the road are scanty, and their light clothing and little 
bodily strength are little calculated to encounter the inclemency of 
the weather. When they approach the temple they find scarcely 
enough left to pay the tax to government, and to satisfy the rapacious 
Brahmins ; and, on leaving Juggernaut Avith a long journey before 
them, their means of support are often quite exhausted. The work 
of death then becomes rapid, and the route of the pilgrims may be 
traced by the bones left by the jackals and vultures, and the dead 



108 CEEATOE AISTi COSMOS. 

bodies may be seen in every direction." It may be said, therefore, 
without any extravagance, that a certain portion of the British nation 
luxuriate upon the nicest dainties, and the choicest finery derived 
from the intolerable sufferings and the life's blood of the Hindoos ! 
Do they ? With regard to the number that perish on such occasions, 
Rev. Mr. Ward estimates that 4000 pilgrims perish every year on the 
route to and at holy places, an estimate which is considered by others 

as far below the truth. Captain F estimates those who died at 

Cuttack and Pooree, and between the two stations, at 5000. What 
a number of these deluded wretches must die before they reach their 
homes, many of them coming three, six, or nine hundred miles ! Mr. 

M , the European collector of the tax at Pooree, estimated the 

mortality at 20,000. 

Juggernaut is the most celebrated station of idolatry in India. 
All the land within twenty miles is regarded as holy; but the most 
sacred spot is enclosed by a wall 21 feet high, forming a square of 
about 65 feet. Within this area there are about fifty temples, but 
the most conspicuous building consists of one lofty stone tower, 184 
feet high and 282- feet square inside. The idol Juggernaut, his 
brother Bulbudra, and his sister Subadra occupy this tower. The 
roofs are ornamented with representations of monsters : the walls of 
the temple are covered with statues of stone, representing Hindoo 
gods with their wives in attitudes grossly indecent. The three idols 
alluded to are wooden busts six feet high, having a resemblance of 
the human head, and are painted white, yellow and black, with 
frightfully grim and distorted countenances. They are clothed with 
spangled broadcloth furnished from the export warehouse of the 
British Government. The car on which Juggernaut is drawn meas- 
ures 43-i feet high, has 16 wheels of 6^ feet diameter, and a platform 
34i feet square. The ceremonies connected with this idolatrous wor- 
ship are in many cases exceedingly revolting and obscene. At Rani- 
but, in the Province of Gurwall, is a temple sacred to Rajah Ishwara, 
which is principally inhabited by dancing women. The initiation 
into this society is performed by anointing the head with oil taken 
from the lamp, placed before the altar, by which act they make a 
formal abjuration of their parents and kindred, devoting their future 
lives to prostitution ; and the British Government by giving annually 
512 rupees to the religious mendicants who frequent this temple, 
directly sanction this system of obscenity and pollution? Many 
temples of impurity exist in other places in Hindostan. Tavernier 
mentions a village in which there is a pagoda to which all the Indian 
courtesans come to make their offerings. This pagoda is decorated 
with a great number of naked images. Girls of eleven and twelve 



CHARACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 109 

years old, who have been bought and educated for the purpose, are 
sent by their mistresses to this pagoda to offer and surrender them- 
selves to this idol. If, as we have seen, the French Government 
authorize prostitution at home, what do they more than the British 
Government does in India, only that they act a little more directly 
in the matter? Such an abominable practice is sure to bring its 
equivalent measure of punishment, sooner or later, upon the nation 
whose government allows or supports it. 

In order to induce ignorant devotees to leave their homes, and 
commence pilgrimages to these scenes of impurity and idolatry a set 
of avaricious villains, termed pilgrim-hunters, are employed to tra- 
verse the country, and by all manner of falsehoods to proclaim the 
greatness of Juggernaut and their idols. They declare, for example, 
that the idol has now so fully convinced his conquerors (the British) 
of his divinity, that they have taken his temple under their own 
superintendency, and that they expend 60,000 rupees yearly to pro- 
vide it with an attendance suitable to his dignity. These pilgrim- 
hunters are paid hy the British Grovemment. If one of them can march 
out 1,000 persons and persuade them to undertake the journey, he 
receives 1,500 rupees if they be of the lower class, and 3,000 rupees 
if they are persons belonging to the highest classes. And, what 
seems a very natural consequence, the procedure of the British Gov- 
ernment in relation to this S3^stem has led many of the natives to sup- 
pose that the British people approve o'f the idolatrous worship estab- 
lished in India. A Hindoo enquired of a missionary : " If Jugger- 
naut be nothing why does the company take so much money from 
those who come to see him ? " Mr. Lacy, a missionary, who went to 
succour the destitute on the road to Cuttack, during one of the festi- 
vals, relates the following incident : " You would have felt your heart 
moved to hear, as I did, the natives say : — ' Your preaching is a lie, 
for, if your Saviour and your religion are thus merciful, how do you 
then take away the money of the poor and suffer him to starve ? It 
is indeed no wonder that when the natives see a poor creature lying, 
about to die for want, they should reflect that the two rupees he has 
paid as a tax would have supported his life." Nor should itbe a pleas- 
ing reflection to an English mind that these two rupees form precise- 
ly the difference between life and death to many who have perished 
for want on their way home." Another missionary relates : "Passing 
one evening a large temple I caught a sight at one of the idols and 
exclaimed, sinful, sinful ! ! The native who was with me asked : 
' Sir, is that sinful for which the company gives thousands ? ' A 
man said to me a few days ago, ' If the government does not forsake 
Juggernaut, how can you expect that we should ? ' " In this way 



I 



110 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

the efforts of the Christian missionaries to convert the Hindoos are 
in ma"ny instances rendered of no avail. Could not the British na- 
tion endure to be less wealthy, and refrain from increasing their 
stock of riches by the support and encouragement of such a polluted 
system of idolatry, attended with such an amount of suffering, depri- 
vation and death to the people of India? But, doubtless, the great 
body of the British people are ignorant of any such practice "being 
authorized or countenanced by their government. Or, do the Brit- 
ish Government carry on this vile business till now ? People should 
prefer to live on herbs, and go clothed in the coarsest garments, 
rather than luxuriate on the most delicious fare, clothed in the finest 
and costliest garments, derived from such an unspeakably abominable 
and polluted source. 

Another olaring- instance of British moral or immoral character 
is found in their imposition by force of the drug opium upon the 
Chinese. We have stated before that opium is derived fi-om the 
juice of the poppy plant, which is cultivated largely in India. We 
shall now state some facts in relation to this subject from the work 
of a late writer on China, a Christian missionary, who has lived 
among the Chinese for a number of years, and is fully conversant 
with this subject:* " The profits of the opium trade to Great Britain 
are enormous; not less than twenty to twenty-five millions of dollars 
a year. According to the estimate of an English newspaper, publish- 
ed in China,! the total profits from the time when the trade began 
until the jear 1854 were, in round numbers, three hundred and ten 
millions of dollars, and from that time to the present it is three hun- 
dred and forty millions more. The total is about six hundred and 
fifty millions in sycee silver, that is, silver without alloy paid by 
weight. This is the actual net profit to the producer upon a trade 
which amounts to from sixty to eighty thousand chests a year, which 
are worth in all from forty to sixty millions of dollars. The extent 
of the responsibility of the British Government for the production 
and sale of opium I prefer," says the writer, "to state in the words of 
one of its own subjects. The Calcutta correspondent of the London 
Times thus presents the case for the consideration of the readers of 
that influential paper : ' What,' says he, ' are the facts ? As to Ben- 
gal, I have gone through the poppy fields of Shahabad, and have wit- 
nessed every detail of the manipulation in the enormous go-downs of 
Patna. Under a severe contract law, twice as penal as any that has 
ever been proposed for ordinary agricultural purposes, and scouted 



* " China and the United States," by Wm. Speer, D.D., a missionary of the American Pres- 
byterian Board. 

t The North China Herald of Shanghai. 



CHARACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. Ill 

by England, advances of money are annually made to the peasants 
of Behar, Benares, and elsewhere.* The state lies out of these ad- 
vances for a year. Its establishment of highly-paid officials, and 
oppressive or colluding native subordinates, supervises every detail, 
the preparation of the fields, the sowing, the weeding, the scraping 
of the capsules, the collection of the crude juice, its transit to the 
state factory, and its sale in Calcutta. Yet, in spite of its establish- 
ments, smuggling is the rule. The state of the case is this : China 
will have opium just as England will have gin, and Scotland whiskey. 
All facts go to show that the abuse of opium in China, though great, 
is by no means equal to that of alcohol in Europe. The moral ques- 
tion is, not whether China may be supplied with opium, but whether 
England as a nation, as the ruling power of India, ought, in its official 
and national character, to grow, manufacture, and export the drug, 
the use of which has, after two or three wars, been legalized in China. 
Yet this is the position of England at this moment in relation to 
three-fourths of the opium imported from India ? What is the effect 
of the opium trade upon Christian missions ? The writer and every 
man who has been engaged in the work of preaching the gospel, 
healing the sick, instructing the young, and disseminating the word 
of God, knows that the incessant and bitter objection urged by all 
classes to his efforts is that it is impossible that nations which 
carry opium in the right hand can carry any boon of mercy in the 
left. It (the opium traffic) is planting seeds of enervation, crime, 
and disease in the Chinese, who are coming to our shores, and crea- 
ting corresponding vexation and injury to us ; it keeps the sword ot 
war continually unsheathed and wet with blood, the torch of confla- 
gration constantly burning, and every puff of hostile wind distribu- 
ting its sparks amidst materials which are ever ready to burn hotly ; 
it makes the benevolent efforts of the preacher of the Gospel of mercy 
and of the Christian physician and teacher appear like shallow and 
abominable hypocrisy, and the word of God itself something false 
and hateful when offered by hands imbrued with so stupendous a 
crime against humanity and justice, against the conscience of man, 
and against the law of Heaven." Here we find a Christian nation 
itself the cause of the Gospel being virtually excluded from China, 
with its teeming population of four hundred millions of people. The 
same author says : " Would that it were possible to say that the 
hands of American merchants have not been stained by connivance 



* It will be remembered that the opium is grown in British India, and is thence exported to 
China, and that the British Government has, by means of war, compelled the Chinese Govern- 
ment to admit it to their country, in which its sale is now legalized, as is well known by the 
latter to the great detriment of the Chinese people. 



112 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

witli the crime of the opium trade in China ! "We are grateful to 
God that it has not been made ' an official and national business to 
grow, manufacture and export the drug ' by any other nation than 
Great Britain, and its Indian dependencies. But our ships have 
helped to convey and distribute the poison ; our merchants have par- 
taken to some extent of the profits of the work ; and we have given 
it a garment of respectability by the deceitful j)leas with which we 
have palliated its enormity."' That unjust practice of forcing its 
commodities upon other nations against their will has of old been 
the policy of England. The reader may remember that the war which 
resulted in the independence of the United States, which until then 
were British colonies, arose from the British Government having un- 
dertaken to compel the colonists to receive its cargoes of tea against 
their will. In the case of the Americans they did not succeed in 
their undertaking, but in that of the Chinese they did after two or 
three wars, so that now the sale and use of the drug is legalized in 
that country. Great Britain, therefore, notwithstanding the progress 
she has made in the sciences and the arts, and the great efforts she 
has made in the dissemination of religious and other kind of knowl- 
edge, has yet much national injustice to answer for, and still far to 
advance before she has attained to true civilization, of which the 
practice of true Christian morality is the beginning and the ending : 
" Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." 

Another unfavorable feature in the moral character of the British 
nation is the severity of its penal code. Among the variety of actions 
which men are daily liable to commit no less than 160 have been 
declared by Act of Parliament to be felonies without benefit of 
clergy, or in other words, to be worthy of instant death. Those who 
are found guilty of high treason are condemned by the law " to be 
hanged on a gallows for some minutes, then cut down while yet 
alive, the heart to be taken out and exposed to view, and the entrails 
burned." Though the most cruel part of this statute is said never 
to have been inflicted in modern times, yet its existence on the 
statute-book (does it now exist?) is a disgrace to the British nation, 
a disgrace which should be got rid of as quickly and as far as possi- 
ble. Instead of diminishing the number of offenders experience 
teaches that crimes are almost uniformly increased by an undue 
severity of punishment. This was strikingly exemplified in the 
reign of Henry VIII. , remarkable indeed for the number of its 
crimes, which certainly does not seem to have arisen from mildness 
of punishment. In that reign alone, says his historian, 72,000 exe- 
cutions took place /or robberies alone ; exclusive of the religious mur- 
ders, which are known to have been so numerous as to amount, on 



CHAKACTER OF CIVILIZED MODERN NATIONS. 113 

an avorage, to six executions a day, Sundays included, during tlie 
whole reign of that monarch.* The design of the institution of gov- 
ernment is, or ought to be, to subserve the benefit of the governed, 
to advance their highest interests ; but the government which will 
carry on such a wholesale slaughter among its people as that under 
the English raonarchs did seems certainly to have another object in 
view, not for the benefit, but for the injury and destruction of its 
people. 

If we enquire after the moral character of the United States as a 
nation, we shall find that it, too, has been affected with many of 
those imperfections which we have seen so glaringly to be in the 
case of those we have reviewed. By war it attained its existence as 
a nation, and by the exercise of war it has maintained its independ- 
ence and integrity, as well as extended its dominions. By the 
war of the revolution, ending in 1776, the independence was 
achieved, and by that of 1812 it was maintained. The United 
States has also carried on a war with Mexico, as a result of which 
the territories of the former have been extended westward to the Rio 
Grande and the Pacific Ocean, over Southern California. The States 
have also carried on another great war with its own people, dark and 
fratricidal in its character, and which, though it may be thought to 
be productive of many good results, yet there are many reasons to 
deplore. 

It appears that the wars which the first colonists carried on with 
the Indian tribes arose from their peculiar position in relation to 
those tribes ; but there are reasons to believe that the Indians were 
taken advantage of in too many cases by the white settlers of the 
Atlantic States. In their advance inland they drove the Indians 
before them, and gradually exterminated them as they advanced. If 
it be enquired what has become of all the Indian tribes which once 
inhabited the Northern, the Southern, and the Western States to the 
Mississippi River ; what has become of all the Indians that three 
centuries ago inhabited the Continent of America now thickly in- 
habited by white people ? The answer is plain ; they have in the 
main been exterminated by the whites, gradually, b}* means of war, 
and secretly. Many strange but likely stories are told by some of 
the old settlers around the Great Lakes of the ways in which they 
have known the Indians to be got rid of. And the means employed 
in one section of the country to get rid of them, or means equally 
effective, may also have been employed in other sections for the 
same purpose. Some of the Indians, doubtless, made their way into 



* Hume: Keign of Hcny VIII. 



114 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Britisli America, still beyond the reach of the whites, and some of 
them are provided for by the United States Government in territo- 
ries apportioned to them for a residence ; but the greater part of the 
Indians must necessarily have suffered extermination by the whites 
in their gradual settlement of the country. Since the formation of 
the United States Government, however, the Indians that have sub- 
mitted to it have been liberally dealt with, and a like liberal treat- 
ment has always been given by the British Government to the In- 
dians settled within their North American possessions. And it may, 
perhaps, be considered that the Indians by their uncalled-for aggres- 
sions on the ncAv comers, were, to a great extent, the cause of their 
own destruction. The two races might have lived together peace- 
ably and prosperously if they had mutually cultivated and exercised 
toward each other the proper temper and spirit, — there was abun- 
dant room for all on the wide Contient of America, — but they were 
mutually jealous, it appears, and suspicious of each other ; either did 
not feel themselves safe in the neighborhood of the other ; and 
thus arose their mutual warfare. Heretofore, in the history of man- 
kind we observe that when two races, speaking different languages, 
and differing from each other, perhaps, only triflingly in other res- 
pects, came face to face on the same soil, human barbarity has gener- 
ally necessitated the yielding of the one to the other. Instead of 
the principle of benevolence, that of malevolence is usually practised 
in such cases. Cannot a new era, an era of benevolence, of self- 
denial, of humility and peaceful industry be inaugurated? It can, 
if each one living will do their part towards it by always cultivating 
and exercising the right temper and spirit. 

The existence of slavery so long in the United States was the 
greatest moral reproach to the nation. The way, also, in which it 
was got rid of is a reproach. The pride and haughtiness of certain 
individuals of the rival parties — slave and free — kindled the flame 
of war, which for four years waged with such destructive violence. 
The result of the war — the abolition of slavery — was great, but how 
much better it would have been had the same result been accom- 
plished by peaceful measures and means. Slavery is an evil, which 
«very one must conscientiously know to be an evil, but because, an 
■evil exists must an equal evil be perpetrated in order to get rid of 
it ? Should the proud hearts of the leaders of the South and North 
not bend to an act of legislation by which the slaves might be eman- 
cipated by means of an equitable purchase, and slavery abolished? 
The thing was not impracticable, for it had been done before by the 
British Government in the case of their West Indian slaves. Or, on 
the other hand, should not those who held the slaves in bondage 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, KELIGIOUSLif. 115 

have acted benevolently toward them and set them free, and put them 
to work at a fair wages? It is time that such benevolence v^ere ex- 
ercised by human beings toward each other. It is said to be more 
blessed to give than to receive. Men have but a short time to live 
on this earthly scene, and though they be rich or poor, they will be 
all the happier and better for doing all the good that lies in their 
power, by acting benevolently and beneficently towards each other. 
There is no doubt of this. Let each one realize it for one's self. 
Your Creator is everywhere present, recognizes all your acts, and 
will be sure to reward the good acts, and, if you are unable to act, 
the good-will and intentions. You are also an accountable being, and 
wi]^ in yourself experience the consequences of your evil, whether of 
omission or of commission. A small moiety of the treasure which was 
expended in carrying on that atrocious war — the result of pride and sel- 
fishness in a few — might have been sufficient to have bought the slaves 
out at a fair price. And how many fathers, and husbands, and brothers, 
and sons, whom that war has laid low, would now be alive, a help 
and a comfort to their friends, and a blessing to their country ! The 
emancipated negroes would be equally well off, — perhaps better, — 
the country much more prosperous, and the people much happier. 
America, both South and North, would thus have given proof of a 
higher state of civilization, and of a higher moral character, than it 
now can be admitted to have attained. How long before men come 
to realize that their duty is to deny self, to subdue and eradicate 
pride, and to act benevolently and charitably towards each other ! May 
there not be less crime of a private and of a public nature cominitted 
in the United States ? Will not each individual, old and young, 
male and female, in the republic, leave nothing undone which they 
can do to bring about the era of righteousness, and peace, when all 
shall enjoy and be satisfied with the fruits of their own integrity, in- 
dustry and strictly moral living ? The country which has hitherto 
been the refuge of the poor and oppressed of all nations may thus be 
rendered of still greater benefit to mankind. 

Third, Illustrations from the nations called civilized especially in their 
religious aspect ; First, from the history of the Catholic Church of 
the Roman Empire. 

Heretofore in our review of the moral character of the civilized 
nations we have spoken of Rome and its empire with reference mainly 
to its civil aspect. Now we shall enquire what information history 
affords us as to the character and doings of the Catholic Church, 
whose head was the Pope. Hitherto we have not found that the 



116 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

nations called civilized ave exalted to a very great degree above 
those called uncivilized, in point of true moralit}- (although they 
are exalted in some degree), so that our readers may ere this have 
begun to suppose that if the nations called civilized have much in 
their moral character to entitle them to the name civilized, it must 
be found in the religion they profess. We shall see. 

The New Testament teaches us of the characters of the founders 
of the Christian Church. They are all said to have been men dis- 
tinguished for self-denial, for humility, for charity, and for active in- 
dustry in the cause which the}^ espoused, and endeavored to promote. 
During the early ages of Christianity- a goodly portion of the same 
spirit was manifested by the greater number of those who enrolled 
themselves as the followers of Christ. Even in the midst of the re- 
proaches and persecutions to which they were subjected during the 
two first centuries of the Christian era, a meek and forgiving dispo- 
sition, and a spirit of benevolence towards one another, and toward 
all mankind, distinguished them from the heathen around and con- 
strained even their enemies to exclaim : " Behold how these Christ- 
ians love one another ! " But no sooner was the Church combined 
with the State in the days of Constantine than its native purity be- 
gan to be sullied, and Pagan maxims and worldl}- ambition began to 
be blended with the pure doctrines of Christianity. Many of its 
professed adherents, overlooking the grand practical bearings of the 
Christian system, began to indulge in vain speculations concerning 
its doctrines whicli they could not understand ; to substitute a 
number of unmeaning rites and ceremonies in the place of love to 
God and man, and even to persecute, and destroy all those who re- 
fused to submit to their opinions and decisions. Pride and ambition 
usurped th^ place of humility and meekness, and the foolish mum- 
meries of monastic and ascetic superstition and austerity were sub- 
stituted in the place of the active duties of justice and benevolence. 
Saints were deified; the power of the clergy was magnified; religious 
processions were appointed ; pilgrimages were performed to the 
tombs of the mai'tyrs ; monasteries and nunneries without number 
were erected ; prayers were offered up to the departed saints ; the doc- 
trine of the Trinit}^ was instituted ; the Virgin Mary was recognized 
as a species of inferior deity ; the sign of the cross was regarded as 
capable of securing victory in all kinds of trials and calamities, and 
as the surest protection against the influence of malignant spirits ; 
the bishops aspired after wealth, magnificence, and splendor, which 
they have not yet ceased to do ; errors in religion were punished 
with civil penalties and bodily tortures ; and the most violent dis- 
ontes and contentions disturbed every section of the Catholic 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 117 

Church ; while the mild and beneficent virtues of the religion of 
Christ were either discarded or thrown into the shade. Of these 
and similar dispositions and pi-actices we might give details which 
would fill many volumes, and which would convince every 
impartial mind that the true lustre of Christianity was sadly ob- 
scured, and its heavenly spirit almost extinguished, amidst the mass 
of sujDerstitious observances, of vain speculations, and of angry feuds 
and contentions, which prevailed. Millot, in speaking of the state 
of the Church in the days of Constantine and the succeeding em- 
perors, justly remarks : " The disciples of Christ were inspired with 
mutual feuds, still more implacable and destructive than the factions 
that were formed for or against different emperors. The spirit 
of contention condemned by St. Paul became almost universal. New 
sects sprung up incessantly and combatted each other. Each boasted 
its apostles, gave its sophisms for divine oracles, pretended to be the 
depositary of the faith, and used every effort to draw the multitude 
to its standard. The Church was filled with discord; bishops 
anathemized bishops; violence was called into the aid of argument, 
and the folly of princes fanned the flame which spread with such 
destructive rage. They played the theologists, attempted to com- 
mand opinions, and punished those whom they could not convince. 
The laws against idolators were soon extended to heretics ; but what 
one emperor prescribed as heretical was to another sound doctrine. 
"What was the consequence ? The clergy, whose influence was al- 
ready great at court, and still greater among the people, began to 
withdraw from the sovereign authority that respect which religion 
mspires. The popular ferments being heightened by the animosities 
of the clergy, prince, country, law or duty were no longer regarded. 
Men were Arians, Donatists, Priscillianists, Nestorians, Eutychians, 
Monothelites, etc., but no longer citizens, or, rather, every man be- 
came the mortal enemy of those citizens whose opinions he con 
demned. This unheard-of madness for irreconcilable quarrels oi. 
subjects which ought to have been referred to the judgment of the 
church, never abated amid the most dreadful disasters. Every sect 
formed a different party in the State, and their mutual animosities 
conspired to sap its foundations."* 

At the pei'iod to which these observations refer, two erroneous 
maxims appear to have generally prevailed, which tended to under- 
mine the gospel system of morality, and which were productive of 
almost all the contentions, tumults, and massacres, which distinguish 
that era of the Christian Church. These were, first, that i-eligion coi> 

» MiUot's Modem Hist., Vol. 1. 



118 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

sisted in the belief of certain abstract and incomprehensible dogmas, 
and in the performance of a multitude of external rites and cere- 
monies ; and, second, that all heresies or differences of opinion on 
religious points ought to be extirpated by the arm of the civil power. 
Than such maxims nothing can be more repugnant to reason or 
subversive of genuine morality, or more inconsistent with the genius 
and spirit of the true religion of Christ. And yet, to this time, tliey 
are acted upon by four-fifths of the Christian world, notwithstanding 
the numerous examples which history fui'nishes of their futility and 
erroneous tendency. We shall state only two or three instances 
referring to this period. The Emperor Theodosius came to the throne 
of the Roman empire in the year 379, A.D. Being originally a pagan 
he was baptized into the Christian church in the second year of his 
reign, during a severe illness, which threatened his life, and on his 
recovery he professed great zeal for that church. Soon after his bap- 
tism, he dictated the following edict : " It is our pleasure that all the 
nations whicli are governed by our clemency and moderation should 
steadily adhere to the religion which was taught by St. Peter to the 
Romans, which faithful tradition has preserved, and which is now 
professed by the Pontiff Damasus, and by Peter, bishop of Alexan- 
dria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the teaching of the 
apostles, and the doctrines of the Gospel let us believe the sole deity 
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, under an equal majesty 
and a pious Trinity. We authorize the followers of this doctrine to 
assume the name of Catholic Christians ; and as we judge that all 
others are extravagant madmen, we brand them witli the infamous 
name of heretics, and declare that their conventicles sliall not longer 
usurp the respectable name of churches. — Beside the condemnations 
of divine justice they must expect to suffer the extreme penalties 
which our autliority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper 
to inflict upon them." * 

Theodosius declared apostates and Manicheans incapable of mak- 
ing a will or receiving any legacy ; and, having pronounced them 
worthy of death, the people thought tliey had a right to kill them as 
proscribed persons. He enacted a law condemning to the flames 
cousins-german, who married without a special license from tlie em- 
peror. He ajjpointed inquisitions for the discovering of heretics. 
He drove the Manicheans from Rome as infamous persons, and on 
their death ordered their goods to be distributed among the people. 
In the space of ten years, he promulgated at least fifteen severe edicts 
agaii.st nonconformists and heretics, more especially those who re- 



* Gibbon's Rome. 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 119 

jected the doctrine of the Trinity which, under his reign, was estab- 
lished by law ; and to deprive them of every hope of escape he sternly 
enacted that if any laws or rescripts should be alleged in their favor, 
the judges should consider them as the illegal productions either of 
fraud or forgery. Leo, another emperor, '• commanded every person 
to be baptized under pain of banishment, and made it a capital 
offence for any one to relapse into idolatry after the performance of 
that ceremony ;" as if men could be made Christians by a forced 
baptism or by a law of the state. Such edicts clearly showed that 
whatever zeal those princes or the clergy might manifest in favor of 
the Christian religion, they were totally devoid of the true spirit, 
and ignorant of the means by which its benevolent objects were to 
be accomplished. 

To illustrate the manner in which such edicts were carried into 
effect, the following instance may be stated : Hypatia, the daughter 
of Theon, the celebrated geometrician of Alexandria, exceeded her 
father in learning, and gave public lectures in philosophy with the 
greatest success ; nor was she less admirable for the purity of her vir- 
tues, joined to an uncommon beauty, and every accomplishment that 
could adorn human nature. But that excellent woman, because she 
would not accept of the established religion, and was supposed to be 
active against St. Cyril, the bishop, became an object of detestation 
to the Christian multitude. A set of monks and desperadoes, headed 
by a priest, seized her in the open street, hurried her into a church, 
where they stripped her naked, lacerated her body with whips, cut 
her in pieces, and publicly burned her mangled limbs in the market 
place.* St. Cyril, who was suspected of having fomented this tra- 
gedy, had previously attacked the synagogues, and driven out the 
Jews; their goods were pillaged, and several persons perished in the 
tumult. Such conduct plainly demonstrates the tendency of the 
human mind to abuse power, for the purpose of revenge and perse- 
cution ; and illustrates, also,what the ideas of these persecutors were 
of their pretended religion. 

About this time, and afterwards also, vain speculations about ab- 
struse and incomprehensible subjects occupied the mind and the 
time of theologists, engendered religious quarrels and disputes, and 
burst asunder the bonds of affection and concord. A play upon 
words and vain subtleties were substituted for clear conceptions and 
substantial knowledge ; which instead of directing the faculties of 
the human mind to the proper objects, tended to obscure the light 
of reason, and to usher in the long night of ignorance, characterized 



* MiUott's Modern History. 



120 ' CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

as the Dark Ages. It was a prevailing madness with these early 
theologists, who were obstinately tenacious of their opinions, and it 
has been too much the case with certain modern theologists to dis- 
pute about doctrines which they claimed to be incomprehensible, to 
render them more obscure by their attempts to explain them, never 
giving the proper explanation, and perpetually to revive the most 
angry contentions. 

The Arians rejected the divinity of Christ in order to maintain 
the unity of God ; the Nestorians denied that Mary is the mother or 
God, and gave two persons to Jesus Christ to support the opinion 
of His having two natures. The Eutychians, in order to maintain 
the unity of the person, confounded the two natures in one. This 
sect became divided into ten or twelve branches, many of them, as 
the Gnostics of the Primitive Church, maintaining that Christ was 
merely a phantom or appearance of flesh, but not real flesh. The 
Monothelites maintained that Christ had only one will, as they could 
not conceive two free wills to exist in the same person. Another 
sect maintained that Christ's body was incorruptible, and that from 
the moment of His conception He was incapable of change and of suf- 
fering. This chimera the Emperor Justinian attempted to establish by 
an edict. He banished the patriarch Eutychius, and several other 
prelates who opposed his sentiments, and was preparing to tyrannize 
over the conscience of men with still more violence, when, aftei' a 
long reign, death interposed, and removed him from tliis earthly 
scene. 

In such vain and preposterous disputes as these the minds of pro- 
fessed Christians were occupied, notwithstanding the perils with 
which they were then encompassed by the invasion of the barbarians. 
Councils were held to determine the orthodox side of a question ; 
anathemas were hurled against those who refused to acquiesce in 
their decisions ; princes interposed their authority, and the civil 
power stood read}^ to compel men to profess what they did not be- 
lieve and could not understand, while the essential truths of religion 
were overlooked, and its morality disregarded. "Religion," says 
Millot, " inspires men with a contempt of earthly vanities, a detesta- 
tion of vice, and indulgence for the frailties of our neighbors, invul- 
nerable patience in misfortune and compassion for the unhappy ; it 
inspires us with charity and heroic courage, and tends to sanctify 
every action in commoji and social life. How sublime and comfort- 
ing the idea it gives of the Di\inity ; what confidence in His justice 
and infinite mercy ; what encouragement for the exercise of every 
virtue; wherefore, then, such errors and excesses on religious pre- 
tences ? It is. because heresy, starting up under a thousand different 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY, 121 

forms, incessantly startles the faith by subtleties and sophistry, by 
which almost the whole energy of men's minds is absorbed in the 
contest. Disputes engender hatred ; from hatred springs every ex- 
cess; and virtue, exhausted with words and cabals, loses her whole 
power." How well it would be for the cause of genuine Christian- 
ity, and how promotive of the happiness of mankind, if the present 
and future generations would profit by the experience of the past ! 

As we advance in the history of the Christian Church through 
the Middle Ages the prospect becomes still more dark and gloomy : 
the human mind at that period appears to have lost its wonted ener- 
gy and power of determination ; the light of reason seemed well-nigh 
extinguished ; sophisms and absurdities of all kinds were swallowed 
and left undigested, and superstition displayed itself in a thousand 
different forms ; morality Avas smothered up under a heap of cere- 
monies, and arbitrary observances obtained the name of devotion ; 
relics, offerings, pilgrimages, and pious legacies were thought capable 
of opening the gate of heaven to the most wicked of men ; the Vir- 
gin Mary and the souls of departed saints were invoked ; splendid 
temples and shrines were erected to their honor, and their assistance 
was entreated with many fervent prayers ; an irresistible efficacy 
was attributed to the bones of martyrs, and to the figure of the 
cross, in defeating the temptations of Satan, in warding off all sorts 
of calamities, and in healing the diseases of the body and of the 
mind; works of piety and benevolence, as in Romish countries at the 
present day, were viewed as consisting chiefly in building and em- 
bellit:hing churches and chapels, in endowing monasteries, in hunt- 
ing after the relics of martyrs, in procuring the intercession of saints 
by rich oblations, in worshipping images, in pilgrimages to holy places, 
in voluntary acts of mortification, in solitar}^ masses, and in a variety 
of similar services which could easily be reconciled with the commis- 
sion of the most abominable crimes ; so that the worship of the in- 
visible Diety, the Creator of all, was exchanged for the worship of 
hair, bones, fragments of fingers and toes, tattered rags, images of 
saints, and bits of rotten wood, supposed to be the relics of the cross ; 
the canonizing of saints became the fruitful source of frauds and 
abuses throughout the Christian world ; lying wonders were invent- 
ed, and fabulous histories and legends composed to celebrate exploits 
that were never performed, and to glorify persons that never had a 
being; and absolution from the greatest crime could be easily ob- 
tained either by money or by penance. During the eighth and ninth 
centuries, there were perpetual contests as to images, whether or not 
they should be worshipped ; one emperor permitted, another prohibit- 
ed, their worship. An emperor, in the beginning of his reign, as Leo 



122 CEEATOB AND COSMOS. 

the Isaurian, bows down in abject homage to them, and thereby se- 
cures the favor of the Pope and his prelates ; in the latter part of 
his reign he breaks them to pieces, and thereby obtains their dis- 
pleasure and active opposition. Hence arose the term Iconoclasts, 
or image-breakers, in contradistinction to image-worshippers. The 
sect of the Iconoclasts was supported by six Emperors, and the whole 
Catholic church was involved in a noisy conflict between these two 
opposing parties for a period of one hundred and twenty years. 

The absurd principle that religion consists of acts of austerity 
produced the most extravagant behavior in certain devotees and re- 
puted saints. They lived among the wild beasts; they ran naked 
through the lonely desert, with a furious aspect, and with all the 
perturbations of madness and frenzy; they prolonged their wretched 
lives by grass and wild herbs ; avoided the sight and conversation of 
men, and remained almost motionless for several years exposed to 
the rigor and inclemency of the seasons ; and all this was considered 
as an acceptable method of worshipping the Diety, and of obtaining 
His favor. 

But of all the instances of superstitious frenzy vrhich disgraced 
those times none was held in higher veneration than that of a certain 
order of men called Pillar Saints. These were persons of a most 
singular and extravagant turn of mind, who stood motionless on the 
top ot pillars, expressly raised for this exercise of their patience, and 
remained there for several years the objects of the admiration and 
applause of a stupid and wondering populace. This strange super- 
stitious practice began in the sixth century, and continued in the 
east for more than six hundred years. The name and genius of 
Simeon Stylj'tes have been immortalized by the invention of this 
aerial penance. At the age of thirteen years, the young Syrian de- 
serted the profession of a shepherd, and threw himself into a monas- 
tery. After a long and painful novitiate, in which he was repeatedly 
saved from pious suicide, Simeon established his residence on a 
mountain, aboiit thirty or forty miles to the east of Antioch. With- 
in the space of a Mandra, or circle of stones, to which he had at- 
tached himself by a ponderous chain, he ascended a column, which 
was successively raised from the height of nine to that of sixt}^ feet 
from the ground. In this last and lofty station the Syrian monk re- 
sisted the heat of thirty summers, and the cold of as many winters. 
Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his dangerous situa- 
tion without fear or giddiness, and successfully to assume the differ- 
ent postures of devotion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude 
with his arms outstretched in the figure of a cross, but his most 
familiar practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton from the 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 123 

forehead to the feet; and a curious spectator, after numbering 1244 
repetitions of this act, at length desisted from the endless account. 
The progress of an ulcer in his leg might shorten, but it could not 
disturb this celestial life ; and the patient monk expired without 
descending from his column. This voluntary martyrdom must have 
gradually destroyed the sensibility both of the mind and body ; nor 
can it be presumed that fanatics who unnecessarily torment them- 
selves are susceptible of any lively sympathy for the rest of mankind. 
A cruel, unfeeling temper has distinguished the monks of every age 
'and country; their stern indifference is inflamed by religious hatred, 
and their merciless zeal has strenuously administered the office of the 
Inquisition. 

To the same irrational principles are to be attributed the revolt- 
ing practices of the Flagellants, a sect of fanatics who chastised 
themselves with whips in public places. Numbers of persons of this 
description of all ages and sexes made processions, walking two by 
two, with their shoulders bare which they whipped until the blood 
ran down in streamlets, in order to obtain the mercy of God and ap- 
pease His anger against their wickedness. They held, among other 
things, that flagellation was of equal virtue with baptism and the 
other sacraments ; that the pardon of all sins would be obtained by 
it, without the merits of Jesus Christ ; that the old law of Christ 
was soon to be abolished, and that a new law, enjoining a baptism of 
blood to be administered by whipping, would be substituted in its 
place. The enormous power that came to be vested in the ecclesiasti- 
cal rulers was another source of immorality, and of the greatest ex- 
cesses. The Pope and the clergy reigned over the greatest part of 
the Catholic church without control, and made themselves masters 
of almost all the wealth in every country in Europe. Many of them 
perpetrated crimes of the deepest dye, and the laity, thinking them- 
selves able to purchase the pardon of their sins for money, followed 
without scruple the example of their pastors. Every Christian 
country swarmed with lazy monks, and the most violent contentions, 
animosities and hatred reigned among their different orders, as well 
as between all ranks and orders of the clergy. " Instead of conse- 
crating ecclesiastical censures solely to spiritual purposes, they con- 
verted them into a weapon for defending their privileges, and sup- 
porting their pretensions. The priesthood, which was principally 
designed to bless, was most frequently employed in cursing. Ex- 
communication was made the instrument of damning instead of sav- 
ing souls, and was inflicted according to the dictates of policy or re- 
venge." The great and powerful, even kings and emperors, were 
excommunicated when it was designed to rob or to enslave them ; 



124 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and this invisible engine, which they wielded with an effective and 
a sovereign hand, was used to stir up dissensions among the nearest 
relations, and to kindle the most bloody wars. The generality of 
priests and monks kept wives and concubines without shame or 
scruple, and even the papal throne was at some times the seat of de- 
bauchery and vice. The possessions of the church were either sold 
to the highest bidder or turned into a patronage for the bastards of 
the incumbents. Marriage, wills, contracts, the interests of families 
and courts, the state of the living and the dead were all converted 
into instruments for promoting their credit and increasing their 
wealth. It was, therefore, a necessary consequence of such a state 
of things that vices of every description abounded, that bad morals 
prevailed, and the benevolence of the divine law was trampled under 
foot. 

The ignorance and superstition which the corruptions of Chris- 
tianity introduced were dexterously improved by the ecclesiastical 
rulers to enrich themselves, and drain the purses of the deluded 
masses. Each rank and order of the clergy had its peculiar method 
of fleecing the peoj^le and increasing its revenues. " The bishops," 
says Mosheim, "• when they wanted money for their private pleasures, 
granted to their flock the power of purchasing the remission of the 
penalties imposed upon transgressors by a sum of money, which was 
to be applied to certain religious purposes, or, in other -words, they 
published indulgences, which became an inexhaustible source of 
opulence to the episcopal orders, and enabled them to form and ex- 
ecute the most difficult schemes for the enlargement of their au- 
thority, and to erect a multitude of sacred edifices, which augmented 
the external pomp and splendor of the Church. The abbots and 
monks, equally covetous and ambitious, had recourse to other meth- 
ods for enriching their convents. They carried about the country 
carcasses and relics of the saints in solemn p)i'Ocession, and permitted 
the multitudes to behold, touch, and embrace those sacred and lucra- 
tive remains, at certain fixed prices. By this raree-show, the mon- 
astic orders often gained as much as the bishops did by their indul- 
gences."* The Pope at length assumed the chief power over this 
profitable traffic, and " when the wants of the church, or the demon 
of avarice prompted them to look out for new subsidies, published 
not only a universal but a plenary remission of all the temporal pains 
and penalties which the Church had annexed to certain transgres- 
sions. They even audaciously usurped the authority which belongs 
to God alone, and impiously pretended to abolish even the punish- 



* Mosheim's Hist., 12th Cent 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 125 

merts which are reserved in a future state for the workers of in- 
iquity, a step which the bishops, with all their avarice and presump- 
tion, had never once ventured to take."* 

By the sale of such indulgences the money was obtained by 
means of which the magnificent structure of St. Peter's Church at 
Rome was built. Pope Leo X. published a system of indulgences, 
suited to all ranks and characters of men, and offered a plenary re- 
mission to all who would contribute their money to the furtherance 
of this and other projects he had in view ; so that the foundations of 
this edifice, which has been so much admired, were laid, and its super- 
structure reared by the most diabolical and impious means, by the 
exercise of perfidy and insatiable avarice, and by the usurpation of 
the prerogatives of the Deity. This daring impiety was carried to 
such a pitch that indulgences were farmed out to the highest bidders, 
who, to make the most out of their bargain, procured the ablest de- 
claimers, and the most eloquent preachers, to extol the efficacy, and 
enhance the value of such wares. A graduated scale of prices was 
arranged for the remission of sins of every description, not even ex- 
cepting the most horrid crimes, such as the murder of a father, mo- 
ther, or Avife ; so that for ninety livres, or a few ducats, or a less 
sum, a pardon might be procured from the " Apostolic Chancery,' 
for crimes which all civilized nations determined to be worthy of 
death. All the provinces of Europe were in a manner drained to 
enrich those ghostly tyrants, Avho were perpetually gaping after new 
accessions of wealth, in order to augment the numbers of their 
friends, and the stability of their dominions ; and every stratagem 
was used to rob the subject without shocking the sovereign, and to 
levy taxes under the specious mask of religion. 

Such was the shameless rapacity which then prevailed, that even 
in that age of ignorance and servility, the eyes of the people began 
to open, and to perceive the vileness, impiety, and false pretensions 
of the ecclesiastical orders. Not alone private persons, but princes 
and sovereign states began to exclaim loudly against the despotic 
dominion of the Popes, the fraud, avarice, and injustice that prevail- 
ed in their councils, the arrogance and extortion of the legates, and 
the unbridled rapacity and licentiousness of the clergy and monks, 
until at length the Protestant reformers, with the double object, 
doubtless, of strengthening their own cause and weakening that of 
their opponents, brought to light such a scene of extortion and pro- 
fligacy as had never before been exhibited with such effrontery iu 
any country under heaven. 



• Mosheim's Hist., 12th Cent 



126 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

The public worship of the Deity was at that time little more 
than a pompous round of ceremonies, adapted rather to dazzle the 
eye of sense than to enlighten the understanding, or affect the heart. 
The sermons of the clergy were little else than fictitious reports of 
miracles, and prodigies, insipid fables, wretched quibbles and sense- 
less jargon, which deceived the multitude instead of instructing them. 
The authority of the holy Mother Church, the obligation of obedience 
to her decisions, the merits and virtues of the saints, the dignity and 
glory of the Blessed Virgin, the efficacy of relics, the adorning of 
churches, the endowing of monasteries, the utility of indulgences, and 
the burnings of purgatorj^, were the principal subjects on which the 
clergy descanted, and which employed the pens of eminent doctors 
of divinitj"-, because they availed to fill the coffers of the Mother 
Church, to augment her magnificence, and to advance her temporal 
interests as represented in the Papacy. 

A certain class of persons connected with the Romish Chiirch, 
designated by the title of the " Pope's Nephews," have always dis- 
tinguished themselves by their arrogance and rapacity. An Italian 
writer of the 17th century, who appears to have been a moderate 
Catholic, when sketching the characters of the existing cardinals, and 
the Pope's Nephews, relates, among other curious and melancholy 
pieces of history, the following circumstances : "A friend of mine had 
the curiosity to calculate the money that had been given to the 
Nephews, and he began at the year 1500, and, after a great deal of 
pains he found issuing from the treasmy of the Church, about seventy 
millions of double ducats,* all delivered into the hands of their kin- 
dred. And this is to be understood of visible moneys; for of private 
and invisible sums there may perhaps be twenty millions more. And 
those Romans that are within the town, and have more time to cast 
up what has been extorted from them, if they would take the pains 
to examine it more strictly, I am satisfied, would find it much more." 
The author, like a zealous Catholic, makes the following reflection on 
this fact : " If these seventy millions of double ducats had been spent 
in persecuting heretics, or in making war upon infidels, where 
would any infidel be ? These seventy millions would have been 
enough to have overrun all Asia, and (which is of importance too), 
the princes would have contributed as much more had they seen the 
Popes more tenacious against their kindred, and more free to the 
soldiers who were fighting for Christ." 

The same author states that "Innocent X., to satisfy the fancy of 
a kinswoman, spent a hundred thousand crowns upon a fountain, yet 



• A double ducat is about $2.50 in silver, or about $6.00 in gold. 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 127 ■ 

with great diJBficulty could scarce find forty thousand to supply the 
emperor in his war with the Protestants ; " and "• this good Pope 
would nevertheless leave to his cousin, to the house of Pamphylia, 
and other houses allied to that, about eight millions of crowns, with 
•which sum they flourish in Rome to this very day." Again: "The 
Barbarini were in Rome at the same time, and enjoyed a rent of four 
hundred thousand crowns, and yet in a war of so much importance 
to the Catholic religion they could not iind forty thousand. But, 
Oh, God ! (I speak it with tears in my eyes) aginst the most Catho- 
lic princes of Italy whole millions were nothing ; they could turn the 
cross into the sword to revenge their particular injuries ; but, in the 
relief of the emperor who was vindicating the Christian faith, they 
could not find as much as a few hundreds." " The infidels laugh, 
and the heretics rejoice to see the wealth of the Church so irrelig- 
iously devoured, while the poor Christian weeps at their merriment." 
"The heat and passion which the Popes show hourly for their 
Nephews to gain principalities for them, to bestow pension upon pen- 
sion upon them, to build palace upon palace for them, and to fill 
their coffers with treasures to the brim is that which cools the reso- 
lution of the zealousest prince, and exasperates the infidels in their 
wicked designs. A great shame it is indeed that the heretics should 
have more ground to accuse the Catholics than the Catholic has to 
impeach the heretic." And he adds the following apostrophe in 
reference to this subject: " Oh God! to what purpose will they keep 
so many jewels at Loretta, so much consecrated plate at Rome, so 
many abbeys for their Nephews, so much wealth for the Popes, if, 
abandoning their Commonwealth, and refusing it that humane supply 
that is necessary for the celestial glory, it be constrained to submit 
to the Ottoman power, which is threatening it now with the greatest 
effect? If the wealth of the Popes be devoured, the benefices of the 
cardinals given to the priests of Mahomet, the abbeys of the Nephews 
usurped by the Turks, the sacred vessels of Rome profaned by these 
infidels, and the seraglio adorned with the gems of the Loretta, God 
grant my eyes may never see that spectacle ! " * 

Thus, it appears, from the testimony of Catholic writers, that the 
immense sums which were wrested from the people by every species 
of fraud and extortion, instead of being applied to the maintenance 
and defence of the Church, as was pretended (which application, in 
the state in which the Church was then, would not have been an 
over-good one either), were wasted in luxury and extravagance by 
the Popes and their minions in selfish gratifications, in riot and 

* See a volume in Italian entitled "H Cardinalismo di Sancta Chiesa." Or the History of 
the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. 



128 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

debaucheiy, in accumulating wealth on the heads of their relatives 
and favorites, most of Avhom were infidels and debauchees, in gratify- 
ing the pride and avarice of courtesans, and in the most romantic' 
and ambitious projects. The single structure of St. Peter's, at Rome, 
is said to have cost the enormous sum of sixty millions of dollars, and 
in our age and* country would have cost, at least, three times that 
amount. What immense sums, then, must have been expended on 
similar objects intended merely for worldly ostentation by the Catholic 
hierarchy throughout the whole of Christendom, besides the millions 
that were expended in their pursuits of tyranny, sensuality and de- 
bauchery. The mind, when it reflects upon it, is almost overwhelmed 
at the thought that such sacrilegious enormities should have been so 
long continued with impunity, and that such immense treasures 
should have been consecrated for so many ages to the support of the 
kingdom of darkness, while the true Christian church was allowed to 
pine away in poverty, and compelled to liide its head in dens and 
caves of the earth. 

The Pope's revenues as a temporal prince, at the beginning of 
this century, have been calculated to amount to at least a million of 
pounds sterling, or five millions of dollars a year, arising chiefly from 
the monopoly of corn, the duties on wine and other products. Over 
and above these, vast sums were continually flowing into the pajoal 
treasury from all the Roman Catholic countries for dispensations, in- 
dulgencies, canonizations, annats, the pallia, the investitures of bishops 
archbishops, and other resources. It is computed that the monks and 
regular clergy who were absolutely at the Pope's devotion did not 
amount to less than two millions of persons, dispersed through all 
the Roman Catholic countries, to assert his supremacy over princes, 
and to promote the interest of the Church. The revenues of these 
monks and priests did not fall short of two hundred millions of 
pounds sterling, or a thousand millions of dollars, besides the casual 
profits arising from offerings and the people's bounty to the Church, 
who are taught that their salvation depends upon this kind of charity. 
In Spain alone the number of ecclesiastics, including the parochial 
clergy, monks, nuns, syndics, inquisitors, etc., amounted to 188,625. 
The number of archbishops was eight, and of bishops forty-six. The 
archbishop of Toledo alone had a revenue, which, according to the 
most moderate computation, amounted to four hundi-ed and fifty 
thousand dollars a year. In Portugal, in 1732, there were reckoned 
above 300,000 ecclesiastics out of a population of less than two mil- 
lions. The patriarch of Lisbon had an annual revenue of one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars, and the revenue of the patriarchal 
church above 1570,000. It is stated by Mr. Locke in the diary of 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 1:29 

his travels that the expense of the ecclesiastical establishment in 
France, at the time that he resided in that country, amounted to about 
twenty-four millions of pounds sterling, or one hundred and twenty 
millions of dollars. This may give some idea of what must have been 
the immense treasures of wealth collected by the Roman Popes and 
bishops, prior to the Reformation, when the whole of the European 
nations were in subjection to them, and when the newly discovered 
countries in the Western World were plundered to augment their 
revenues and to satiate their rapacity ! 

The theological speculations in which these ecclesiastics indulged 
corresponded to their degrading practices, and tended to withdraw 
the mind from the substantial realities both of science and virtue ; 
sophisms and falsehoods were held forth as demonstrations. They 
attempted to argue after they had lost the rules of common sense. 
The cultivation of letters, as well as of the arts, was neglected; elo- 
quence consisted in futile declamations ; and true philosophy was lost 
in the abyss of scholastic and sophistical theology. They endeavored 
to render theology a subject of metaphysical speculation, and of end- 
less controversy. A false logic was introduced which subtilized 
upon words, but gave no idea of things, which employed itself in nice 
and refined distinctions concerning objects and operations, which lay 
beyond their limited understandings, and Avhich could not be under- 
stood. The following are only a few instances out of many that 
might be brought forward of the questions and controversies which 
occupied the attention of bishops and scholarly doctors, and gave rise 
to furious contentions : Whether the conception of the Blessed Virgin 
was immaculate? Whether Mary should be denominated the mother 
of God or the mother of Christ? Whether the bread and wine used 
in the Eucharist were digested? In what manner the will of Christ 
operated ; and whether He had one will or two ? Whether the Holy 
Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son or only from the 
Father ? Whether leavened or unleavened bread ought to be used 
in the Eucharist? Whether souls in their intermediate state see 
God or only the human nature of Christ ? It was disputed between 
the Dominicans and Franciscans whether Christ had any property. 
The Pope pronounced the negative proposition to be a pestil- 
ential and blasphemous doctrine, subversive to the Catholic 
faith. Many councils were held at Constantinople to deter- 
mine what sort of light it was which the disciples saw at Mount 
Tabor. It was solemnly pronounced to be the eternal light with 
which God is encircled, and which may be termed his energy or oper- 
ation, but is distinct from his nature or essence. The disputes 
respecting the presence of Christ in the Eucharist led to this absurd 



130 CEEATOK AND COSMOS. 

conclusion, which came to be universally admitted : " that the sub- 
stance of the bread and wine used in that ordinance is changed into 
the real body and blood of Christ," and consequently when a man 
eats what has the appearance of a wafer, or a piece of bread he really 
and truly eats the body and blood and soul of Christ ; and when he 
afterwards drinks what has the appearance of wine, he drinks the 
very same body and blood, and soul, which, perhaps not a minute 
before he had wholly and entirely eaten ! 

At the period to which we now allude the authenticity of a sus- 
pected relic was proved by bulls. Councils assembled and decided 
upon the authority of forged acts with regard to the antiquity of a 
Saint, or the place where his body was deposited : and a bold mipostor 
needed but to open his mouth to persuade the multitude to believe 
whatever he pleased. To feed upon animals strangled or unclean, 
to eat flesh on Tuesday, eggs and cheese on Friday, to fast on Satur- 
day, or to use unleavened bread in the service of the mass, were by 
some considered as indispensable duties, and by others as vile abomi- 
nations. In short the history of the period is a reproach to the 
liuman understanding, an insult offered to reason, and a libel on 
the benevolent spirit which breathes through the true religion of 
Christ. 

Nothing can be more directly opposed to the spirit which this 
religion inculcates, than the temper and conduct of man}^, if not all, 
of those who arrogated to themselves the character of being " God's 
vicegerents on earth," and who assumed to themselves the sole direc- 
tion and control of the Christian church. In persons who laid 
claim to functions so sacred and divine it might have been expected 
that, at least, the appearance of piety, humility and benevolence 
would have been exhibited before the Christian world. But the his- 
tory of the Popes and their satellites displays almost everything which 
is directly opposed to such heavenly virtues. Their avarice, extor- 
tion, and licentiousness became intolerable and excessive, even to a 
proverb. To extend their power over the kingdoms of the earth, to 
.increase their wealth and revenues, to live in opulence and splendor, 
to humble earthly rulers, to alienate the affections of their subjects, 
and to riot in the lap of luxury, sensuality, and debauchery, seemed 
to be the great objects of their ambition. Instead of acting as the 
heralds of mercy, and the ministers of peace, they thundered anathe- 
mas against all who dared to call in question their authority; kindled 
the flames of discord and civil wars, armed subjects against their 
rulers, led forth hostile armies to battle, and filled Europe with con- 
fusion, devastation and carnage. Instead of applying the mild pre- 
cepts of Christianity and interposing their authority for reconciling 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, EELIGIOUSLy. 131 

enemies, and subduing the jealousies of rival monarchs, they on many 
occasions delighted to widen the breach of friendship and to fan the 
flame of animosity and discord. Dr. Robertson, when adverting to 
the personal jealousies of Francis I. and Charles V., remarks : "If it 
had been in the power of the Pope to engage them in hostilities, 
Avithoat rendering Lombardy the theatre of war, nothing would have 
been more agreeable to him than to see them waste each other's 
strength in endless quarrels.* 

Some of our readers may have ere this become impatient and dis- 
gusted with the characters which have been drawn of ghostly 
leaders of the people. They may, however, remember that these are 
but a few of the facts of a similar kind which history presents before 
us, and that they are not exaggerated. The Son of Man comes into 
the world not to destroj^ men's lives but to save them; but in such 
instances we behold his pretended vicars preparing and arranging the 
elements of discord, laying a train for the destruction of thousands, 
and tens of thousands, and taking a diabolical delight in contem- 
plating the feuds, the massacres, and the miseries, which their infernal 
policy had created. The decrees from the j^apal throne, instead of 
breathing the mildness and benevolence of the gospel, became thun- 
dering curses and sanguinary laws, and a set of fanatic enthusiasts or 
a lawless banditti were frequently appointed to carry them into effect. 
Not resting satisfied with the insurrections and the desolations they 
had caused among the European nations, they planned an expedition 
for the purpose of subduing Western Asia, and consequently of mas- 
sacring its inhabitants. Urban II., about A.D. 1095, travelled from 
province to province levying troops, even without the consent of 
their princes, preaching the doctrine of " destruction to the infidels," 
and commanding the people in the name of God to join in the holy war. 
Peter the Hermit, represented by historians as a man of hideous figure 
and aspect, covered with rags, walking barefooted and speaking as a 
prophet, inspired the people everywhere Avith an enthusiasm similar 
to his own. St. Bernard ran from town to town haranguing the pop- 
ulace, performing pretended miracles, and inducing all ranks, from 
the emperor to the peasant, to enroll themselves under the banner of 
the cross. Thousands of wicked and abandoned debauchees were 
thus collected ; and bishops, priests, monks, women and children 
were all enrolled in the holy army. A plenary absolution of all their 
sins was promised, and if they died in the contest they were assured 
of a crown of martyrdom in the world to come. With hearts burn- 
ing with fury and revenge this army of banditti, without discipline, 



* Robertson's Charles V. Book IL 



132 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

or sufficiency of provisions, marched in wild confusion through the 
Eastern parts of Europe, and at every step of their progress com- 
mitted the most horrible outrages. So inveterate was their hatred 
of the Jews wherever they found them, that many of these unfortu- 
nate beings, both men and Avonien. murdered their own children in 
the midst of the despair to which they had been driven b}- those in- 
furiated madmen; and when they had arrived at Jerusalem, and had 
taken the city by assault, they made a universal slaughter of the in- 
fidels. Such was the way in which the successors of the apostles 
and the vicars of Christ displayed their geneial benevolence, and 
their love for the souls and bodies of men. 

The establishment of the Inquisition is another mode in which 
the tyranny and cruelty of the Cliurch of Rome have been displa^-ed. 
The office of inquisitors of the faith was first instituted under Theo- 
dosius, and was, doubtless, retained and exercised to a greater or less 
extent in all the ages subseqent to him. But the Court of the Inqui- 
sition, which became so terribly notorious, was founded in the Twelfth 
Cenlury, by Father Dominic and his followers, Avho were sent by 
Pope Innocent III., in order to excite the Catholic princes to extir- 
pate heresy, and was, some time after, put into execution in Spain 
with awful effect. It is scarcely possible to conceive of any institution 
more diametrically opposed to the dictates of justice and humanity, 
and to the genius of the religion of the Gospel, than is this infernal 
tribunal. The proceedings against the unhapj)y victims of that court 
were conducted witli the greatest secrecy. The person granted them 
as counsel was not permitted to converse with them, except in the 
presence of the inquisitors ; and when they communicated the evi- 
dence to the accused persons tliey carefully concealed from them the 
name of the authors. The prisoners were confined for a long time 
until they themselves, by the application of the torture, became their 
own accusers ; for they were neither told their crime nor confronted 
with Avitnesses. When there was no shadow of proof against the 
accused person, he Avas discharged after suffering the most cruel 
tortures, a tedious and dreadful imprisonment, and the loss of the 
greatest part of his effects. When he was convicted and condemned, 
he Avas led in procession Avith other unforttinate A'ictims on the festival 
of the "Auto dafe " (Act of Faith), to the place of execution. He 
was there clothed with a garment painted with flames, and with his 
OAvn figure surrounded with those of dogs, serpents, and deA'ils, all 
open-mouthed, as if read}^ to devour him. Let the reader for a 
moment imagine himself in this situation, at the mercy of these 
fiendish men, simply because he could not conscientiousl}' confess 
his belief of their absurd doctrines ; he will thus the better realize 



CIVILIZED NATIOKS, KELIGIOUSLY. 138 

the position of these victims. Such of the prisoners as declared that 
they died in communion witli the Church of Rome were first strangled, 
and then burned to ashes. Those who died in any other faith were 
burned alive. The priesls told them that they left them to the devil, 
who was standing at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry 
them with him into tlie flames of hell ; as if there could possibly be 
any more real devil than these priests themselves, or any more real 
flames than those to which they subjected their victims. Flaming 
fuzees fastened to long poles Avere then thrust against their faces, until 
their faces were burned to a coal, which was said to be accomplished 
with the loudest acclamations of joy among the thousands of specta- 
tors. At last, fire was set to the furze at the bottom of the stake 
over Avhich the criminals Avere chained so high, that the top of the 
flame seldom reached higher than the seat they sat on ; so that they 
Avere roasted rather than burned. There could not be a more 
lamentable spectacle; the sufferers continually crying out while 
they Avere able : " Pity for the love of God," etc. ; yet it is said to 
have been beheld by people of all sexes and ages, with transports of 
joy and satisfaction ; and even the monarch, surrounded Avith his 
courtiers, has sometimes graced the scene Avith his presence, imagin- 
ing in his wicked ignorance that he was performing an act highly 
acceptable to God.* And yet there are amongst us Protestants, 
calling themselves "High Churchmen" and Avhat not else, Avho are 
really Papists and Jesuits except in name. How long before the 
cause of truth and humanity is asserted ? How long befoj-e the 
preachers of deceit and falsehood are left to preach to the AA'alls or to 
the Avinds ? And AA'hat Avere the crimes for Avliich those dreadful 
inquisatorial punishments Avere inflicted? Pei'haps nothing more 
than reading a book Avhich had been condemmed as heretical by the 
holy office; assuming the title of freemason ; irritating a priest, or 
mendicant friar ; uttering the language of a free thinker; declaiming 
against the celibacy of the clergy; insinuating hints or suspicions 
respecting their amours or debaucheries; or throAving out a joke to 
the dishonor of the Virgin Mary, or, at most, holding the sentiments 
of a Mahometan, or a Jcaa^ or of the followers of Luther or Calvin. 

In the year 1725, the inquisitors discovered a family of Moors at 
Granada in Spain, peaceably employed in manufacturing silks, and 
possessing superior skill in the exercise of this profession. The 
ancient laAvs supposed to haA^e fallen into disuse were enforced in all 
their rigor, and the Avretched family Avere burned aliA^e.j 

On the entry of the French into Toledo during the Peninsular 



* Bourgoing's Modern State of Spain. Enc. Brit. Art. Inquisition. t Id 



134 CREATOR A5D COSMOS. 

war, Gen. Lasalle visited the place of the Inquisition. The great 
number of instruments of torture, especially those for stretching the 
limbs, and the drop-baths which cause a lingering death, excited 
horror even in the minds of soldiers, hardened in the field of battle. 
One of these instruments, singular in its kind for refined torture, and 
disgraceful to humanity and the name of religion, deserves particular 
attention. In a subterraneous vault adjoining the audience chamber 
stood in a recess in the wall a wooden statue made by the hands of 
monks, representing the Virgin Mar}'. A gilded glory beamed round 
her head, and she held a standard in her right hand. Xotwithstand- 
ing the ample folds of the silk garments that fell from her shoulders 
on botli sides, it appears that she wore a breastplate, and upon a close 
examination it was found that the whole surface of the body was 
covered with extremely sharp nails, and small daggers or blades 
of knives, with the points projecting outwards. The arms and 
hands had joints and their motions were directed by machinery, 
placed behind the partition. One of the servants of the Inquisition 
was ordered to make the machinery manoeuvre. As the statue 
extended its arms and gradually drew them back, as if she would 
affectionately embrace and press some one to her heart, the well-filled 
knajjsack of a Polish grenadier supplied for this time the place of 
the poor victim. The statue pressed it closer and closer: and when 
the director of the machinery made it open its arms and return to its 
first position, the knapsack was found pierced two or three inches 
deep, and remained hanging on the nails and daggers of the murder- 
ous instrument. 

This infamous tribunal of the Inquisition is said, between the 
years 1481 and 1759, to have caused 34.6.38 human beings to be 
burned alive; and between 1481 and 1808 to have sentenced 288,214 
to * the galleys or to perpetual imprisonment. In the Auto of Toledo 
in February 1501, sixty -seven women -were delivered over to the 
flames for Jewish practices. This tribunal was exceedingly severe 
in its action against the Jews, who suffered in great numbers, and, 
as the heretics, they were condemned for very slight offences. A 
priest, who did not put up for being a zealot, wrote thus of the Jews : 
" This accursed race were either unwilling to bring their children to 
be baptized, or if they did they washed away the stain on returning 
home. They dressed their stews and other dishes with oil instead of 
lard : abstained from pork : kejjt the Passover ; ate meat in Lent ; 
and sent oil to replenisb the lamps of their synagogues, with many 
other abominable ceremonies of their religion. They entertained no 



' Histoire Abregee de 1' Inquisition. 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 135 

respect for monastic life ; and frequently profaned the sanctity of 
religious houses by the violation or seduction of their inmates. They 
were an exceedingly politic and ambitious people, engrossing the 
most lucrative municipal offices, and prepared to gain their livelihood 
by traffic, in whicli they made exorbitant gains, rather than by man- 
ual labor or mechanical arts. They considered themselves in the 
hands of the Egyptians, whom it was a merit to deceive and pilfer. 
By their wicked contrivances they amassed great wealth, and thus 
were often able to ally themselves by marriage with noble Christian 
families." The Inquisition entertained accusations against high and 
low, both Jews and Christians, upon pi'etexts the most frivolous as 
well as grave; and condemned by punishments, varying from death 
by fire to simple penance, delinquents who could not say they believed 
what to their mind was a lie. It accepted evidence, which even in 
its own day would not have been admitted in a civil court of law ; 
and the pretexts upon which condemnation frequently proceeded 
were such as to make them marvellous even in a barbaric age. Tor- 
tures of the most exquisite and excruciating kind were practised on 
the accused to make them confess or to induce them to accuse others ; 
and the hateful sj^stem of esi^ionage and secret prison-houses were 
adopted by the Inquisition at every place where its courts were estab- 
lished. The evidence on which Jews were condemned would be 
simpljr ludicrous had it not been so terrible in its effects. An author 
of high standing remarks on this subject : " It was considered good 
evidence of the fact, ^'. e., Judaism, if the prisoner wore better clothes, 
or cleaner linen on the Jewish Sabbath than on the other da3's of the 
week ; if he had no fire in his house the preceding evening ; if he 
sat at table with Jews, or ate the flesh of certain animals, or drank a 
certain beverage lield much in estimation by them; if he Avashed a 
corpse in warm water, or when one was dying turned one's face to 
the wall : or, finally, if he gave Hebrew names to his children, a pro- 
vision most whimsically cruel, since, by a law of Henry IL, he was 
prevented, under severe penalties, from giving them Christian names." 
Such testimony being accepted, the number of the condemned must, of 
course, be legion : and in the interval between the beginning of Jan- 
uary and the beginning of November, 1451, the first year in which 
the Inquisition was put into terribly active force, in Spain, there had 
perished by fire in Seville no less than 298 persons. Notwithstanding 
the plague which in this year visii ed Seville, sweeping off 15,000 of 
the inhabitants, the Inquisition still continued its fiendish work ; so 
that by the end of the year, or up to the ensuing first of January, 
2000 persons, many of them the most learned and respectable of the 
day, had perished at the stake in the province of Andalusia. Twice 



136 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

that number having managed to escape, were burned in effigy, and 
17,000 were condemned to lesser punishments; of which the least 
must have been a terrible infliction. Some few years after this, Avhen 
one Deza came into power as Inquisitor-General in Spain, in the first 
8 years he presided at Seville, he caused 2,592 persons to be burned 
alive, to say nothing about 35,000 condemned to various other pun- 
ishments, short of death, but illustrating that the tender mercies of 
the wicked are cruel. When the Reformation began to be proclaimed, 
the work of the inquisitors increased, and several hundreds of persons 
were annually burned alive in various parts of Sj^ain, as the conse- 
quence. But not only in Spain did the Inquisition carry on its 
work so devilishly : in her colonies, especially in South America and 
Mexico, the cruel office was set up, and the Indians who escaped the 
cruelties of the colonists as civil governors, experienced the rigorous 
punishment of them as religionists, and destroj'ed themselves in large 
numbers rather than fall into their hands. It is wonderful that there 
was no actual rebellion against the Inquisition in Spain, Avhich con- 
tinued for three centuries doing its terriljle work of human destruc- 
tion. Yet there was no upraising against it. ^len hated but feared 
a tribunal, whose spies were all around, even in the bosom of the 
family, and which dealt its blows so secretly and suddenly, and with 
such awful effects. Xine hundred families were burned alive in the 
Duchj- of Lorraine, in France, for being witches, by one inquisitor. 
Under this accusation it is said that upward of 30,000 women have 
perished by the hands of the inquisitors.* 

Torquemada, that infernal arch-inquisitor of Sjiain, brought into 
the Inquisition, in the space of fourteen years, no less than 80,000 
persons, of whom 6,000 were condemned to the flames and burned 
alive with the greatest pomp and exultation; and of that vast 
number there was not, perhaps, a single person who was not more 
pure in religion and morals than their tie a dish persecutors, f 

Does the Deity, then, whom the Inquisition professes to serve, 
take such intense delight in tlie sufferings of human beings ? Has 
that Being, whose sun clieers the habitations of the wicked as well 
as the good, commanded such blood-thii>tv monsters to act as his 
ministers of vengeance, to torment and destroy his rational creatures? 
Does the doctrine of the gospel, which the}^ profess to believe, 
inculcate such practices? The very thought is absurd and blasphe- 
mous. If they would do as God requires of them, to do good and be 
good, live godly lives, no such institution as the Inquisition would 
ever exist, nor any other evil work. But it is men themselves, of 



Inquisition Unmasked. t Kaime's Sketches. 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 137 

their own free will who inflict these sufferings upon their fellows. 
Man is the author, the agent, as he is the object of the cruelty. But 
some, perhaps, will suppose that the devil hardens man's heai't, and 
prompts him to the perpetration of such infamous crimes as that of roast- 
ing his fellow-men over a slow fire. Well, that is a very true supposi- 
tion in a certain sense. But really who or what is the devil? Why, he 
is the man himself, who acts according to his own will, and practices 
such unspeakable wickedness. Yes, my readers, man himself is that 
evil being, by what ever name he may be called ; of which fact you 
have partial evidence in the foregoing statements. Can anything 
be conceived of, as more intensely evil than a human being who will 
seize and subject his fellow-human beings to such unspeakable tor- 
tures as those peculiar to the Inquisition, and then roast them to 
death over slow fires, as we see these men to have done? The fore- 
going statements are of facts which we may believe to have occurred, 
just as if we were eye-witnesses of every one of them. The blood of 
these tens of thousands who have been so cruelly and mercilessly 
sacrificed, cries unto us from the ground, to tamper no longer with 
hypocrisy and deceit, to lay nside that old theory of a devil, or any 
Being leading men to do evil, against their will and alleged as an 
excuse for their evil acts, and to make men stand on their own bases, 
and account them responsible for their conduct and acts. In a pre- 
ceding part of this book we have shown that not only the globe on 
which we live is a concentration of spirit, but that man also is a 
spirit, and, behold, here we perceive him in the spirit of evil developed, 
we may say, to almost an infinite extent. The existence of cruelty 
in men evidences that the perpetrators of it are ignorant of the true 
God. They have no true knowledge of him, for if they had they 
would not be cruel. God is manifested in a human being patiently 
enduring for the truth, and for righteousness' sake amid all opposition 
from adverse influences, visible and invisible. And the devil is 
manifested in him who inflicts suffering undeservedly or \vantonly 
upon the true and righteous man, or upon any human being. In short 
words God is manifested in the life and conversation of the truly 
good and righteous man ; and the devil is manifested in the life and 
conversation of the evil and actively wicked man. And thus we 
have found a proper application for the term God, which means he 
that is good ; and also of the term devil, which means he that is evil ; 
and hence it is seen that the term Deity includes both of these, and 
infinitel}^ more in its fullest extent, and as avc have used it in the 
beginning of this book. In the New Testament the apostle John, in 
his 1st Epistle, says that " God is love ; " and in the same Epistle, as 
well as in his 2d, that "love is the keeping of the commandments; " 



138 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and ill another place of the New Testament it is said that " love is 
the fulfilling of the law ; " therefore it is quite evident that G od is 
manifested in the human being that keeps the commandments, or 
fulfills the law, which means the same thing ; that is, in the man 
who truly is and does good, lives a life of godliness. But in the 
case before us, as we have said, man is the sufferer, and man inflicts 
the suffering. Man is the author and agent as well as the object of 
the suffering. "VMieu a man commits an offence against the laws of 
his country, the law looks to the man himself for satisfaction for it. 
It looks not after a supposed or au imaginary being, of whatever 
name ; it looks after the real being, the direct perpetrator of the 
crime. The individual has committed an offence against mankind, 
and the latter looks to the individual himself for atonement for it. 
He Avould not be listened to, if, when brought before the Judge, he 
sought to justify himself by leaving the blame of his crime uj)on an 
imaginary being. Even so there is no necessity any longer of men 
blaming any other being than themselves for the evil they commit. 
The life of godliness implies a denial of pride and self; and here we 
repeat the true God is manifested in the character and conduct of 
the man who, in his daily walk and conversation, during his life 
long, evinces self-denial, long-suffering, humility, gentleness, meekness, 
truth and righteousness, who, in short, cultivates and displays all 
the true Christian graces, subjectively and objectively. Men can be 
good if. they will. They can also be evil if they will. Will men 
not henceforth universally choose to be good? How amiable the 
character of the man or woman who displays the spirit of charity 
and benevolence to all around, and to all mankind! And many, 
many such we have in the world in our time. But haw unlovely 
the character of one who displays the spirit of hatred and malignity 
to one's fellow-human beings to the extent we have seen it displayed 
in the case of the inquisitors, or to a far less extent I The Deity is 
everywhere present, and though unseen, his character, as indicated 
by the beneficent operations of nature around us, and by the testimony 
of good men of the past, condemns the hellish practices of the infa- 
mous agents of that superstition, whose character we have been 
reviewing. 

The horrid practice of dragooning, which was used by the Romish 
church for converting supposed heretics, was another melancholy 
example of religious cruelties and fanaticism. In the reign of Louis 
XIV. of France, his troops, soldiers, and dragoons, entered into the 
houses of the Protestants, where they marred and defaced their fur- 
niture, broke their looking-glasses, let their wines run about their 
cellars, threw about and trampled under foot theii- stock of provis- 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 139 

ions, turned their dining-rooms into stables for their horses, 3.nd 
treated the proprietors with the severest contumely and cruelty. 
They bound to posts mothers that gave suck, and allowed their 
sucking infants to lie languishing in their sight for several days and 
nights, crying and gasping for life. Some they bound befoi'e a great 
fire, and after they were half roasted let them go. Some they hung 
up by the hair and some by the feet in chimneys ; smoked them with 
wisps of hay until they were suffocated. Women and maids were hung 
up by their feet and by their armpits, and exposed stark naked to pub- 
lic view. Some they cut and slashed with knives, and, after stripping 
them naked, stuck their bodies with pins and needles from head to 
foot, and with red hot pincers took hold of them by the nose and 
other parts of the body, and dragged them about the room until they 
made them promise to be Catholics, or until the cries of the wretched 
victims, calling upon God for help, induced them to let them go. If 
an}' endeavored to escape from those cruelties they pursued them 
into the fields and woods, where they shot at them as if they were 
wild beasts ; and they prohibited them from leaving the kingdom on 
pain of the galleys, the lash, and pei'petual imprisonment. On such 
scenes of desolation and horror the Romish clergy feasted their eyes, 
and made them a matter only of laughter and sport.* What fiendish 
crimes for those calling themselves civilized to perpetrate ! Could 
an American savage or a New Zealander have devised more barbarous 
and exquisite cruelties ! 

In the Island of Great Britain the flames of persecution have 
sometimes raged with unrelenting fury. During the last two or three 
years of the short reign of Queen Mary, it is computed that 277 per- 
sons were committed to the flames, besides those who were punished 
by fines, confiscations, imprisonments, or otherwise. Among those 
who suffered by fire there were five bishops, twenty-one clergymen, 
eight lay-gentlemen, and eighty-four tradesmen : one hundred hus- 
bandmen, fifty-nine women, and four children. Hunter, a .young- 
man of about nineteen years of age, was one of the unhappy victims 
of the Zeal of Queen Mary for Popery. Having been inadvertently 
betrayed by a priest to deny the doctrine of transubstantiation, he 
absconded to keep out of harm's way. Bonner, that notorious popish 
executioner, threatened ruin to the father if he did not deliver uj) the 
son. Young Hunter, hearing of his father's imminent peril, presented 
himself, and was burned to death instead of being rewarded for his 
filial piety. A woman of the island of Guernsey was brought to the 
flames without regard to her advanced pregnancy, and she was de- 



* Euc. Brit. Art. "Dragooning." 



140 CREATOB AND COSMOS. 

livered of a child in the midst of the flames. One of the guards 
snatched the infant from the flames to save it, but the magistrate 
who superintended the execution ordered it to be thrown back, being 
resolved, he said, that nothing should survive which sprung from 
a parent so obstinately heretical.* The Protestant reformers also 
did somewhat in the work of persecuting and burning those who 
opposed their tenets; but their doings we shall have necessarily to 
advert to in the latter part of this book. 

When we consider on the one hand the j)urity of faith and morals 
which generally distinguished the victims of persecution ; and on the 
other, the proud, pampered priests and prelates, abandoned without 
shame to every species of wickedness, we can scarcely find words 
sufficiently strong to express the indignation and horror which arise 
in the mind when it views the striking contrast, and contemplates 
such scenes of impiety and crime. Could a religion which breathes 
peace and good will to men be more basely misrepresented ; or do 
the annals of the human race present a more striking display of the 
perversity and moral badness of mankind than we have in the case 
of the Catholic hierarchy? To represent religion as consisting in the 
belief of certain incomprehensible dogmas, and then to undeitake to 
compel men to believe these dogmas, which they could not possibly 
understand, and to inspire them to benevolence by racks and tortures 
and fires, is as absurd as it is impious and profane, and represents the 
Deity as delighting in the torment and death, rather than willing the 
life and salvation, of his creatures. 

Wherever religion is viewed as consisting chiefly in the observ- 
ance of a number of absurd and unmeaning ceremonies, it is to be 
expected that tlie pure morality inculcated in the New Testament, 
and in the Ten Commandments, will seldom be exemplified in human 
conduct. This is strikingly the case in those countries, both of the 
Eastern and Western world, where the Catholic religion, both Greek 
and Romish, reigns supreme. Mr. Howison, in his " Foreign 
Scenes," when speaking of the priesthood in the island of Cuba, 
says : " The number of i^riests in Havana exceeds four hundred. 
With a few exceptions they neither deserve nor enjoy the respect of 
the community. However, no one dares openly to speak against 
them. In Havana the church is nearly omnipotent and every one 
feels himself under its immediate jurisdiction. Most persons, there- 
fore, attend mass regularly, make confessions, uncover when passing 
a religious establishment of any kind, and stand still on the streets 
or stop their volantos, the moment the vesper bell begins ringing. 



* Kaime's Sketches. 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 141 

But they go no farther, and the priests clo not seem at all anxious 
that the practice of such individuals should correspond to their pro- 
fession. The priests show by their external appearance that they do 
not practice those austerities which are generally believed to be 
necessary concomitants of a monastic life. The sensual and un- 
meaning countenances that encircle the altars of the churches, and 
the levity and indifference with which the most sacred parts of the 
services are hurried through, would shock and surprise a Protestant 
were he to attend mass with the expectation of finding the monks 
those solemn and awe-inspiring pei-sons which people who liave never 
visited Catholic countries often imagine them to be." This account 
of Mr. Howison we know to correspond with fact ; for we have had 
a like account from a person who had resided in Cuba for some time. 
Of the city of Montreal in Canada the Roman Catholics number 
much the largest part of the population. The Church of Rome 
flourishes there, and its worship is carried on with great pomp and 
ceremony. We were present there one Sunday of late, June 11th, 
1871, when the Feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated with great 
eclat. A grand procession took place, which when moving extend- 
ed nearly a mile and a half in length. There were the various 
orders of the nuns, the Gray, Black nuns, etc.; and of the clergy. 
Friars or Monks, each having (as we suppose) its appropriate place 
in the ranks. Here and there at intervals in the long procession 
were schools of boys dressed neatly in black or gray suits, and 
schools of girls dressed in white with white flowing veils. Some of 
these boys and girls, we learn, were wards of the church, attending 
school in the convents ; and they appeared intelligent and cheerful. 
Here and there were societies of men, who, as we were informed, be- 
longed to the Temperance and other orders, and of women who did 
not appear to belong to any particular order, but were out display- 
ing their zeal for the church. At the head of each column or order 
was borne a silken flag variously figured, each flag having inscribed 
upon it the motto of the order, mostly in French or Latin. At in- 
tervals they were chanting lustily the hymns of the occasion to time 
kept by some of the priests ; and they sung in French or Latin. 
The sidewalks along the line of march and the avenues leadmg to 
it, as well as the windows and balconies, were crowded with specta- 
tors. When the canopy approached under which was borne the Cor- 
pus Christi, and accompanying which the bishop and other clerical 
dignitaries were supposed to be, arrayed in their gorgeous robes of 
office, the Catholics on both sides of the line of march uncovered 
tlieir heads, and knelt down on the sidewalk or on the side of the 
street, or wherever they happened to be, until the canopy had passed. 



142 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

This operation of uncovering and kneeling was repeated at every 
point of the way along which the procession moved. It seems, in- 
deed, strange that such senseless ceremonies should be practised in 
British America, in the latter part of the 19th century. The practice 
of the Romish clergy, Avho, giving their whole attention to the sub- 
ject of religion, must know better things, of imposing thus upon an 
ignorant and credulous populace, appears, to say the least, immoral. 
The following extract is from a modern writer on Italy : " When 
V^esuvius thunders aloud, or when an earthquake threatens them 
with destruction, when the fievj streams vomited from the roaring 
mouth of the volcano roll on, carr3dng desolation over the plain be- 
low, when the air is darkened by clouds of smoke and showers of 
ashes, the Xeapolitans will fall on their knees, fast, do penance, and 
follow the procession barefooted ; but as soon as the roar has ceased, 
and the flame has disappeared, and the atmosphere has recovered 
its wonted serenity, they return to their wonted mode of life, the}' 
sink again to their former level, and the tinkling sounds of the tum- 
berella call them again to the lascivious dance of the tarentella." 
As an evidence of the litigious character of the Neapolitans, the 
same author remarks : " That there is scarcely a landholder but has 
two or three cases pending before the courts ; that a lawyer and a 
suit are indispensable appendages of property ; and that some of the 
principal families have suits that have been carried on for a century ; 
and for which a certain sum is yearly appropriated, although the 
business never advances ; and at last the expenses swallow up the 
whole capital." " The infinite numbers of churches," says another 
late writer, " is one of the most efficient causes of the decline of the 
religion of Rome, whose maxims and practices are diametricallj- 
opposite to those of the Gospel. The Gospel is the friend of the 
people, the consoler of the poor. The religion of Rome, on the con- 
trary, considers all nations as great flocks, made to be shorn or eaten 
according to the good pleasure of the shepherd ; for her the golden 
lever is tlie lever of Archimedes. The favors of the Church are only 
showered on those who pay ; with money we may purchase the right to 
commit perjury and murder, and be the greatest villain at so much j)er 
crime, according to the famous tariff printed at Rome, entitled "Taxes 
of the Apostolic Chancery."' In a conversation which Bonaparte 
had with his friends at St. Helena, on the subject of religion, as re- 
lated by Las Casas, in his journal, the Emperor said, among man}^ 
other things : " How is it possible that conviction can find its way to 
our hearts, Avhen we hear the absurd language, and witness the acts 
of iniquity of the greatest number of those whose business it is to 
preach to us? I am surrounded with priests who preach incessantly 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 143 

that their reign is not of this world, and yet they lay hands on all 
they can get. The Pope is the head of that religion from heaven, 
and he thinks only of this world, etc. The Emperor ended the con- 
versation by desiring my son to bring him a New Testament, and 
taking it from the beginning he read as far as the conclusion of the 
speech of Jesus on the mountain. He expressed himself with the 
highest admiration at the purity, the sublimity, the beauty of the 
morality it contained, and we all experienced the same feeling." 
Had Napoleon, in his youth, taken that which he now heard read as 
the rule of his life, and lived according to it, what an amount of 
human suffering and destruction, which he caused, might have been 
spared, and how much a happier man he would have lived and died 
himself! Such facts as these we have adduced may give some idea of 
what the state of morality is in all Catholic countries, and what 
may be the height of civilization to which they have attained. 

Second, from the liistor-y and observation of Protestantism. 

Now, if we take a cursory glance at the Protestant branch of the 
Catholic Church, we shall observe a similar spirit in operation in it, 
as Ave have seen prevailed in the earl}^ Church under the Christian 
Roman emperors. The Church was at that time split up into a num- 
ber of sects, each distinguished from the other by its peculiar tenets. 
Protestant Christians are also divided into a great number of 
sects, each distinguished from the others by its peculiar tenets 
and opinions as to mode of worship, Church government, etc. The 
differences between these sects Avhich, in time past, were wide, are 
now becoming much narroAver. All these sects profess to believe 
the orthodox Catholic creeds, such as the Apostles' Creed, the Ni- 
cene Creed, and, some of them, the Atlianasian Creed, and the two or- 
thodox sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; but their belief 
in these creeds, etc., are very general, and they all differ from each 
other in manj^ particulars. 

The Protestant Church has been distinguished to a considerable 
extent hj the spirit of persecution Avhich raged Avith such unmitigating 
violence in the Romish Church. The Reformation had scarcely 
been begun in Germany and England, when a series of persecutions 
were begun against dissenters from the doctrines of the reformers ; 
and it is of late that these persecutions have ceased. Luther and 
Calvin did their part in this Avork in the continental countries of 
Europe ; and notwithstanding the unjust and cruel punishments 
Avhich English Protestants endured at the hands of Popish priests 
and princes, a short time only elapsed after they had themselves 



144 CREATOR AKD COSMOS. 

risen to power before they began in their turn to harass their dissent- 
ing brethren Avith vexations, and persecutions, and fines, and 
imprisonments, until many of them were compelled to seek a dwelling- 
place in a distant land. And shortly after the English independents 
had established themselves in America, they, in turn, set on foot a 
persecution against the Quakers no less furious than that to which 
they had themselves been subjected in the country fj'om which they 
had fled. They apprehended and imprisoned a number of those 
peaceably disposed and worth)'- persons, and seized upon the books 
they had brought out from England with them, and burned them. 
By a law which had been enacted against heretics in general, 
sentence of banishment was pronounced against them all ; and 
another law punished with death all Quakers who should return 
into the jurisdiction after banishment; and it is a fact that four 
persons suffered death uiider this impolitic and unjust law.* 

Nor did the reformed clergy in Scotland lose sight of that magis- 
terial bearing, which was assumed by the Romish Clergy. Upon a 
representation in 1646 from the commission from the Church of 
Scotland, James Bell and Colin Campbell, bailiffs of Glasgow, were 
committed to prison by the Parliament, merely for having said that 
" kirkmen meddled too much in civil matters."' f And even so late 
as the middle of the last century, when Whitefield, Wesley, and 
other earnest and pious men began to address the ignorant villagers 
of England upon the important subject of religion, " a multitude has 
rushed together, shouting and howling, raving and cursing," and 
accompan5-ing their ferocious cries and yells with loathsome or 
dangerous missiles, dragging or driving the preacher from his hum- 
ble stand, forcing him and those who wished to hear him to run for 
their lives, sometimes not without serious injury before they could 
escape. And these barbarous tumults have in many cases been well 
known to be instigated by persons, whose advantages of superior 
condition in life, or express vocation as instructors of the people, has 
been infamously lent in defence of the perpetrators, against shame or 
remorse or legal punishment for the outrage. And there would be 
no exaggeration in affirming that since Wesley and Whitefield began 
to conflict with the heathenism of that country, there have been in 
it hundreds of instances answering to this desciption. Yet the well- 
meaning and zealous men, who were thus set upon by a furious 
rabble of many liundreds, the foremost of whom acting in direct vio- 
lence, and the rest venting their savage delight in a hideous blending 
of ribaldry and execration, of jibing and cursing, were taxed with a 



* Morse's American Geography. f Kaime's Sketches. 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 145 

canting hypocrisy or a fanatical madness, for speaking of the pre- 
vailing ignorance in terms suitable to the state of the case. 

But we need, not go back over half a century in order to 
find instances of religious intolerance among the Protestant commu- 
nites and churches; our own times unhappily furnish examples of an 
intolerant and persecutiing spirit, though we are happy to be able 
to say that this spirit is fast disappearing among Protestants. About 
fifty years have elapsed since the Methodist chapel in Barbadoes was- 
thrown down, and demolished by the "mob-gentry," and with the 
connivance of the public authorities of that island ; * and Mr. 
Shrewsbury, a worthy missionary at that station, was obliged to fle& 
for his life. Previous to this outrage he suffered insult, contumely^ 
and reproach. He was abused as a villain, and hissed at on the 
streets, not by the mere rabble, but bj' the great vulgar, by merchants 
fi-om their stores, and individuals in the garb of gentlemen. By suck 
characters his chapel was surrounded and partly filled on Sunday, 
during the hours of worship. Their glass bottles had been previ- 
ously prepared and filled with a mixture of oil and asafoetida, and all 
on a sudden they were thrown with great violence among the people, 
and one was aimed at the head of the preacher ; and during the 
whole time of worship, stones were rattling against the chapel from 
every quarter. On the next Sabbath an immense concourse of people 
assembled, breathing out threatenings and slaughter, and from twen- 
ty to thirty of the gentlemen mob planted themselves around the 
pulpit, apparently ready to perpetrate any mischief. Men wearing 
masks, and having swords and pistols, came galloping down the 
street, and presenting their pistols fired them at the door ; and it 
was originally designed to have fire-crackers among the females, to 
set their clothes on fire. At length on an ensuing Sabbath this 
execrable mob, consisting of nearly two hundred gentlemen and 
others, again assembled with saws and hammers, axes, crowbars, and 
every other instrument necessary to execute their infamous purpose, 
and in the course of a few hours, the lamps, benches, pews, pulpit, 
and even the walls, were completely demolished. They entered the 
dwelling-house of the preacher, broke the windows and doors, threw 
out the crockery-ware, chopped up the tables, chairs, and every arti- 
cle of furniture ; tore the preacher's manuscripts and destroyed his 
library of more than three hundred volumes. All this was done 
under the light of the full moon, in- the presence of an immense 
crowd of spectators, without the least attempt being made either by 
the civil or military authorities to check them, while the unfortunate 



Report of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in 1824. Debates in Parliament, 1825. 

10 



146 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

preacher with his wife in an advanced state of pregnancy had to flee 
to a neighboring island to save his life ! Such is the civilized and 
humane conduct of gentlemen of the 19th century, gentlemen who 
would no doubt consider it very unhandsome were they compared to 
the Vandals and Tartars or to the rude and barbarous savages of 
Caffraria or New-Zealand. How utterly abominable is the pride, 
hypocrisy, and deceit of the human heart exhibiting itself in such 
disgraceful and wicked proceedings? And such emissaries, often 
weak-minded and giddy-headed, in common parlance having no mind 
of their own, are sometimes set on to their barbarous work, perhaps 
by the sneering suggestion of others who are not so easy to be dis- 
covered, and, who if they are suspected and questioned, will not 
only pretend their total ignorance of it, but express their sympathy 
with the sufferer, although they are themselves the real and 
prime causes of the whole barbarity. Several instances of this kind 
have come under our own observation, one of which we shall relate. 
In a college * which we for some time attended, we had a worthy man 
for our president, a man, we had reason to believe, of a good Christian 
temper, and of a sound missionary spirit. He was accustomed to 
teach certain branches of knowledge, and had a recitation room, 
as the professors, set apart for the purpose of teaching in. Into this 
recitation room, situated on the second story, and containing bench- 
es, chairs, fire apparatus, tables, books, etc., there Avas brought one 
night a full-grown cow ; and what must one think was the surprise 
of the president on his coming next morning to meet his class, at 
finding such a tenant occupying his recitation room, which last, in- 
deed, was in an exceedingly disordered and filthy state! Some of 
the giddy-brained students who were discovered to have done this 
disgraceful deed suffered such penalties as the president and faculty 
thought proper to impose ; but any careful observer who was present 
:and knew the circumstances of the president in relation to some 
other influentials, would at once suspect that those who performed 
the Avrongful transaction were not the prime causes of it, but were 
incited to it by perhaps the sneering suggestion or remark of an- 
other, who, were he earnestly asked about it afterwards, would promp- 
tly disclaim all knowledge or intention on his part, concei'uing it 
before it happened, and would most likely pretend the deepest sym- 
pathy for the sufferer. Such is the deceit of the human heart ; and 
such are the devious ways of the old serpent. This worthy man 
was soon afterwards made a bishop, which office he now holds. 

About the same time of that transaction which we have related 



* The college to which we refer here is not that from which we graduated. 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 147 

as taking place in regard to the Methodist church at Barbadoes, the 
autliorities of Demerara set on foot a persecution against Mr. Smith, 
a missionary from the London Society, under various pretexts ; but 
his real crime in the eyes of his persecutors was his unwearied zeal 
in instructing the negroes iu the knowledge of religion. He was 
condemned to death by a court-martial, in opposition to every prin- 
ciple of justice. He died in prison, was refused the privilege of 
Christian burial, and his friends were prohibited from erecting a stone 
to mark the spot where his body was laid. The whole details of 
this transaction present a scene of savage barbarity, scarcely to be 
surpassed in the history of Europe. The death of this missionary 
was that event which prepared for the overthrow of the slave system 
in the British West Indies. It called forth one of Lord Brougham's 
noblest speeches, and stirred the heart and conscience of the English 
people. The blood of martyrs is sometimes the seed of freedom as it 
is of the church ; and the execution of John Brown, in Virginia, cor- 
responded in its effects to the murder of this worthy missionary in 
the West Indies.* 

In Switzerland, where formerly Protestantism had its stronghold, 
the demon of religious persecution has, even in the 19th century, 
raised its head. The council of state of the Pays de Vaud, at the 
instigation of the clergy, on January 15th, 1825, published a decree 
" prohibiting under the penalty of severe fines and imprisonments, 
a'll meetings for religious worship or instruction, other than those of 
the established church." And in the following May another decree 
was issued, which denounced "fines, imprison'ment, or banishment, 
upon the most private kind of religious assembly, or even the admis- 
sion of a single visitor to family worship." f In pursuance of these 
disgraceful laws several ministers and private Christians of high 
character for piety and learning were bauislied from the Canton, 
some for one, and some for two years, cut off from all means of sub- 
sistence, unless possessed of independent fortunes, or able to procure 
it by labor, and some of them perhaps left to starve and perish in 
foreign lands. If they returned before the expiration of their sen- 
tence, death was the penalty to be inflicted. One poor man, a school- 
master, in the principality of Neufchatel, was condemned to ten 
years' banishment. He was brought out from prison, tied with cords, 
and compelled to kneel in the snow in the public square to hear his 
sentence read. His crime was that of gathering together a few fel- 
low-Christians in his own house, to whom the Lord's Supper was 
there administered by a clergyman. 

* Report of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, for 1824. Debates in Parliament, 1825. 
+ Cong. Magazine, June, 1825. 



148 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Nor has Eagiand been free from the spirit of persecution and 
intolerance in the 19th century. At Kenneridge, in Dorsetshire, a 
worthy and excellent individual belonging to the Wesleyan denomi- 
nation, had attended on a green where twenty or thirty persons were 
accustomed to congregate on Sunday afternoons to listen to the 
truths he thought it important to declare. The English Church cler- 
gvmau of the parish appi'oached with a retinue of servants and com- 
manded him to desist. The preacher took no heed to the command 
and proceeded to read the text. The clergyman then commanded the 
tithing man to seize him (which he had the power to do as a civil 
magistrate, for the clergymen of the Church of England very com- 
monly fill the office of justice of the peace as well as that of a priest). 
He Avas directed to be conveyed to Wareham jail ; and to every 
question the preacher put as to the ground of his being arrested, the 
reverend and worthy clergyman only replied by brandishing his 
walking-stick. Instances have occurred in which clergymen of this 
establishment have refused to bury the dead. At Chidds Ercal, in 
Shropshire, tlie child of a poor man was refused interment, and the 
father was obliged to carry it six miles before he could inter it in a 
cemetery. At Catsfield, in Sussex, a similar infamous act was com- 
mitted. At the moment the bell had tolled, when the earth was about 
to fall upon the coffin, and when the relations standing by wanted all 
the consolation Avhich religion can afford, at this moment the clergy- 
man appeared, but advanced only to give pain to the mourners, and 
to agonize their hearts by saying : " Now that you have waited an 
hour until it suited me to come, I will not inter your child ! I did 
not know that you were dissenters; take your child somewhere else, 
take it where you please, but here it shall not lie in consecrated 
ground." Just as if all places on the surface of the earth were not 
equally consecrated ; or, as if a cemetery or church-yard was a better 
and holier place to inter a dead body than any other place a person 
might choose. It is certain that a cemetery or churchyard, in the 
common acceptation of the term, has no superior sanctity over any other 
spot of ground; its superiority in this respect. is merely imaginary, 
and arises to the mind from the custom of mankind in all the ages of 
history being to bury their dead in certain places set apart for that 
purpose. In America, where many of the old superstitious notions 
have been given up, people very commonly, especially in New Eng- 
land, have each family their own burying ground on their own farm. 
This is as good a plan to follow as any other a person may choose 
with respect to the place of burial of the dead. This English family, 
however, to which we have just alluded, were not allowed to bury 
their child in the church-yard, and had to carry it eleven miles from 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 149 

the abode of its parents before they consigned it to its kindred dust 
in what they considered conseci'ated ground. 

At Mevagissey, in Cornwall, the rector refused to allow the corpse 
of a dissenter to be brought within the church, and, therefore, read 
the burial service in the open air. At Wellingborough, a clergyman, 
in opposition to a custom which had been practised for sixty years, 
issued orders that no bell should toll when a dissenter expired. He 
boldly avowed " that he would never allow the passing bell to be 
tolled for a marriage when the parties were dissenters." In reference 
to this case an appeal was made to the bishop of Peterborougli, who 
wrote a long letter on the subject, in which he defended the conduct 
of this Wellingborough rector. At Newport Pagnel two persons of 
decent appearance, teachers of Baptist societies, were collecting sub- 
scriptions for the erection of a new place of worship. After arriving 
at the residence of the parish clergyman they were taken before a 
clerical magistrate, who, upon the evidence which the other clergyman 
offered, that they were rogues and vagrants, committed them to 
Aylesbury jail, where they were confined for three weeks, in common 
with the basest felons, among convicted thieves of the most abandoned 
character ; nay, more, they were sentenced to the tread-mill, and 
kept at hard labor there, though during the whole time of their 
incarceration one of them was afflicted with spitting of blood. Their 
papers were seized upon, their money was taken from them, and by 
means of it the expense of sending them to prison was defrayed. 

Since the time to which these instances refer the " Society for 
the Protection of Religious Liberty," has been formed, and has 
brought forth to public view many similar instances, some of them of 
a more barbarous nature. And were it not for the protection which 
this society affords to the victims of religious intolerance it is high- 
ly probably that vexation, persecutions, insults, fines and imprison- 
ments on account of differences in religion would now be much 
more common than they are in England. Were such individuals as 
these to Avhom we have alluded permitted by the law to carry their 
intolerant spirit to its utmost extent, dissenters would have no 
security either for their lives or their property, and the fires of Smith- 
field might again be kindled to consume the bodies of all who re- 
fuse to conform to the dogmas of a national Church. 

The main history of the Protestant Churches since the reforma- 
tion, in which there is much of a persecuting spirit displayed, we 
have purposely left untouched in this review. There are certain 
subjects we have to deal with in the latter part of this book, which 
will require these historical facts to which we now allude to illus- 
trate them. By the time, therefore, the reader has advanced that 



150 CREATOR A^T) COSMOS. 

far he will be able to learn much more as to the moral character of 
the reformed Churches as represented in history. It would have 
given us pleasure in our review thus far to have been able to present 
before the eye of the reader a more cheei-ful picture of the moral 
character of the civilized nations, and of the Christian Church ; but 
facts are stubborn things, and there is no resisting the foi-ce of the 
evidence which they adduce. We intend, however, to relieve some 
of the dark shades of this picture by exhibiting some faint radiations 
of truth and benevolence, which ajjpear amid the surrounding gloom. 
The dawn of a brighter day has appeared to gild our horizon. The 
Pope's temporal power has been taken from him, and his spiritual 
power and influence will coniinually henceforward wane, to be con- 
sumed and destroyed gradually until its end. Some of the Protest- 
ant establishments also are failing, that of the Irish Church having 
completely given way while one of an improved model has taken 
its place. Substantial knowledge is being more generally diffused 
among all classes of the people ; the shackles of despotism are burst- 
ing asunder ; the darkness of sujjerstition is gradually dispellinsr ; 
the spirit of persecution is borne down by the force of truth and of 
common sense; and the rights of conscience are being more generally 
recognized. Philanthropic institutions of various descriptions have 
been established ; missionary societies are extending their labors to 
almost every land ; and now the far-off continents are to some ex- 
tent coming under the influence of Christian civilization. 

The light of science now shines with a greater lustre than at any 
previous period of which history informs us. The Telescope has 
opened up to us distant scenes of the universe, and has enabled us 
to calculate the distance, character, and motions of the moon and 
planets. The microscope has introduced us to the invisible worlds 
of matter far beyond the ken of the unassisted eye. The electric 
Telegraph enables us to communicate momentarily with all parts of 
the earth. The Magnetic needle directs our course around the 
globe or to any point beyond the seas. The power of steam has 
been greatly developed to the use and convenience of mankind. 
The progress of invention has tended greatly to abridge human labor. 
Agriculture is practised more skilfully and advantageoush^ than in 
former times. The arts, both useful and ornamental, are extensively 
cultivated. The use of the art of printing puts substantial knowl- 
edge within the reach of all, even the poorest. Literature and 
practical science are the order of the day in our schools and acad- 
emies, and the youth of a dozen of years, whose time has been well 
employed in study, possesses more definite science at his command 
than the aged man of five centuries ago. But here the question 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, RELIGIOUSLY. 151 

arises : is it possible, judging from what we know of the past history 
of mankind, to bring the inhabitants of this world to a general ob- 
servance of the laws of benevolence, which is the true index of high 
moral character and civilization ? To such a question, we have an- 
swered frequently before that man has it in his power to cultivate 
the spirit of benevolence or of malevolence, either of which he 
chooses ; but in this connection we answer it thus : that ivhatever 
man has accomplished man may accomplish. Amidst the darkness, 
depravity and wickedness with which the earth has been generally 
enveloped individuals have occasionally arisen who have shone as 
lights in the moral world, and exhibited bright patterns of true 
Christian temper and of active benevolence. The founders of the 
Christian faith appear to have belonged io this class. The Apostle 
Paul had his mind imbued with a large portion of the spirit of philan- 
thropy. He voluntarily undertook a tour of benevolence to the na- 
tions, and notwithstanding the persecutions, the reproaches, the 
stripes, and imprisonments which he encountered; and notwithstand- 
ing the perils in the waters, perils of robbers, perils by his own 
countrymen, perils in the city and perils in the wilderness to which 
he was subjected ; and in the face of death itself, he prosecuted, with 
a noble heroism, his labor of love, purely for the sake of promoting 
the best interests of mankind. All who at the same time engaged 
in the same benevolent undertaking sacrificed all private interest 
and selfish consideration in order to bring men to a belief of the 
doctrine which they had themselves espoused. 

In modern times many individuals have arisen and distinguished 
themselves and reflected honor on their race by the benevolence 
which they displayed. The name of John Howard is familiar to 
every one who is at all acquainted with the annals of philanthropy. 
This excellent man devoted his time, his strength, his genius, his 
literary acquisitions, his fortune, and finally his life, to pursuits for 
the benefit of humanity and to the unwearied prosecution of active 
benevolence. He ti-avelled over every country of Europe and into 
the adjacent regions of Asia, impelled by the spirit of true Christian 
love in order to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain, and to de- 
vise schemes for the relief of human wretchedness wherever it existed. 
And in the execution of this scheme of benevolence the energies of 
his mind were so completely absorbed, that he never suffered him- 
self for a moment to be diverted from his purpose even by the most 
attractive of those objects, namely, the pleasure of music, which for- 
merly possessed all their most powerful influence upon his curiosity 
and taste. Also, Walter Venning, who has been denominated by 
Prince Galitzin the Second Howard, followed the course of his illiis- 



152 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

trious predecessor, and with the most fervent Christian zeal devoted 
his short but very useful life to the alleviation of human misery, and 
to the promotion of the best interests of thousands of wretched indi- 
viduals, who were all but lost. He withdrew from the ordinary 
routine of what is termed genteel society in order that he might de- 
vote all the energies of his soul to benevolent occupations. He com- 
menced his philanthropic career by co-operating in the organizations 
of " The Society for the Improvemement of Prison Discipline," which 
was founded in London in 1816 ; and he afterward visited the prisons 
in the cities of St. Petersburgh, Novgorod, Tver, Moscow, and other 
cities in Russia. The prisons, hospitals, workhouses, madhouses, 
houses of correction, and the abodes of misery of every description 
in St. Petersburgh were visited by him daj' after day ; and many a 
prisonerbowed down with affliction and iron, was cheered, instructed, 
comforted, and served by his ministrations ; for, it is said, that his 
philanthropy extended both to the bodies and souls of men. This 
truly benevolent person died in the city of St. Petersburgh in the 
year 1821, in the fortieth year of his age. 

In our own day we have had a noble example of generosity and 
benevolence in George Peabody. An American by birth, having 
amassed a large fortune by the industries of trade and commerce in 
London, he liberall}" bestowed a goodly portion of it to provide 
shelter and comforts for the poor of that vast metropolis. In his 
native state he founded libraries for the instruction and enlighten- 
ment of the people, and his generous beneficence, and magnificent 
donations to worthy objects, ensure to him the respect of mankind 
in after ages. IMen, who have anj' pecuniary legacy to bequeath to 
mankind, should, like George Peabody, always keep the poor and the 
indigent prominently in view. As the poet Homer, for the honor of 
whose birth-place, we are told by Cicero, several rival cities disputed, 
so this worthy man had the honor of bis burial amicablj- disputed by 
two great nations, England and America. 

Many other examples might be adduced from the history of our 
times, and illustrious characters now living, both men and women, to 
demonstrate that a noble and disinterested benevolence is a principle 
capable of being developed and exercised even in the present de- 
generate state of mankind. We find parents sometimes displaying a 
high degree of benevolence toward their children ; and sacrificing 
their ease and their personal interests in order to secure their health, 
their happiness, and their future good. We find bosom friends as 
David and Jonathan, and as Damon and Pythias, rejoicing in each 
other's welfare, and encountering difficulties and dangers in promot- 
ing the interests of the objects of their friendship. What then 



CIVILIZED NATIONS, KELIGIOUSLY. 153 

should hinder such dispositions from becoming universal ? What 
should hinder them from being cultivated and exercised by all 
rational beings ? Would not the universal exercise of such disposi- 
tions be highly desirable ? Would it not tend to banish war and 
discord from the world, and promote peace on the earth and good- 
will among men ? Why then are such dispositions so rarely to be 
met with? Not because the universal exercise of them is a thing 
impossible, but because men, actuated by pride and selfishness, are 
unwilling to give full scope to the cultivation and exercise of the 
benevolent affections ; because they have never yet persisted in their 
endeavor to bring these into full operation. If all the energies of the 
intellect, and all the treasures which have been expended in foster- 
ing malignant passions, and in promoting contentions and warfare, 
had been devoted to the great object of cultivating and exercising 
the principle of benevolence, and distributing happiness among men, 
the moral, yes, and natural, aspect of our globe would long ago have 
assumed a very different appearance from what it now presents to 
view. 

We have examples before us not only of a few insulated individ- 
uals, but of societies where the principle of active benevolence to a 
greater or less degree pervades the whole mass. The people denom- 
inated Quakers have always been distinguished for their humane 
and peaceable dispositions, their probity and hospitality towards 
each other, their unostentatious liberality to indigent and suffering 
humanity, the modest cheerfulness of their manners, their opposition 
to war, and the active zeal they have displayed in promoting the moral 
welfare of mankind. We give the following extract from a daily paper 
of February 25th, 1872 : " M. Drouyn de Lhuys, in his capacity as 
President of the French Soci^tedes Agriculteurs, has written a letter 
which sets forth the help given to France by the English Quakers dur- 
ing the war. These generous people have bestowed in the most unos- 
tentatious way aid to the extent of four millions of francs in the 
period named. The sum has been proved by regular accounts writ- 
ten by M. de Lhuys, kept with the exactitude of a commercial house. 
He expresses the gratitude of a Frenchman in manly and affectionate 
terms, not only for the help given, but for the delicate manner in 
which it has been bestowed. There is something fine and touching 
in these friends, the .professed advocates of peace, thus giving out of 
their moderate possessions to repair the ravages of war." Thus the 
spirit of benevolence has to make repairs for the damage done by 
the outworkings of the spirit of malevolence ; and it is quite as im- 
portant that men should do the justice to themselves and to man- 
kind, of restraining and eradicating the spirit of malevolence, that 



154 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

delights in war and every evil work, as it is that they and all others 
should cultivate and exercise the spirit of benevolence, which delights 
in all that is good. The Quakers are also distinguished for the sim- 
plicity and purity of the creed they profess. The Moravians are 
likewise distinguished for their affectionate intercourse with each 
other, the liberality of their dispositions, the peaceableness of their 
temper, the purity and simplicity of their lives, and their missionary 
efforts for converting the heathen to the truths of the Gospel. 
Would that the whole race of mankind were Quakers or Moravians 
(if they will not be more perfect), notwithstanding their peculiarities 
of opinion. With all their faults society would then present a more 
beautiful and alluring aspect than it has yet done ; peace and in- 
dustry would be promoted ; the fires of persecution would never be 
kindled ; the sciences and the arts that tend to peace and order 
would be cultivated ; philanthropy would be exercised by the nations; 
and the people would cultivate the spirit of benevolence toward 
each other, and learn war no more. 

Other things which tend to illustrate further the probable permanent 
. existence of the cosmos, or of the order of nature and man, in the 
main, as now existing. 

After our review of the moral character of mankind in its two 
aspects of bad and good ; and after having illustrated that man 
himself is the former of his own character and determines which of 
these it shall be ; Ave now think it proper, for the sake of digression, 
variety and information, to turn the attention of our readers to other 
things connected with our subject which tend to illustrate further the 
probable permane7it existence of the cosmos or of the order of nature and 
man, in the main, as now existing. 

First, then, we will state as we have done before that there is no 
evidence except what is derived from allegorical records, susceptible only 
of a like literal interpretation as is given to the ancient cosmologies, which 
goes to prove the contrary of the probable permanency of the cosmos; and 
such it is well known, is no evidence.* But having before b/ought for- 



* It is easily seen, however, that tlie ■ lestion of the permanent existence of the cosmos as 
to the phenomena of forms, changes, etc., can only be of secondary importance if it be 
allowed that the substance of these bodies has never not existed, t If any one should 
undertake to say that these bodies assumed or were given their present forms and motions at 
some period of the past from their substance existing before in a nebular state, it would be well 
for such an one tn say at what time that change took place, and how long their substance had 
existed in that supposed nebular state before it became into these globular forms, and in what 
state it existed before it became into the supposed nebular state. For if men allow themselves 

t See page 10. 



ORIGIN OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 155 

ward arguments which tended in general to illusti:ate this as to the 
phenomena of form, motion, &c., the reader will readily understand 
that these arguments apply to the existence of man and of all other 
animals, and to plants, as well as to the phenomena of the celestial 
spheres, to light, colors, &c., for all things are embraced in the cos- 
mos ; and will now be pleased to accompany us while we illustrate 
this subject in general and at length. 

Solomon was a wise man and uttered the truth when he said that 
there is no new thing under the sun. Paul, or any other, was a wise 
man also, who said : If a man shall not sow neither shall he reap, 
and whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. It is a fact 
known to all common observers that all plants and animals bring 
forth after their own kind. The farmer does not expect to reap if he 
do not sow or plant, nor does he expect that a blade of rye will 
spring from a grain of wheat that lie has sown, neither of barley or 
of buckwheat or any other than a blade of wheat ; and he is never dis- 
appointed in this expectation. Nor does he expect that any of his 
domestic animals will bring forth other than young of their own spe- 
cies, unless he has crossed the species for the purpose of producing a 
hybrid, as for example, a mule, the result of the crossing of the ass and 
horse species. 

Of all the known species of plants — and there are reckoned as 
known, we believe, about ninety thousand species-there is not one that 
produces other than its own kind. Also, each of these species is distin- 
guished by having varieties in it, and each of these varieties brings 
forth after its own kind. For instance the species oak, of the genus 
quercus, is distinguished by such varieties as the white oak, red oak, 
etc., as almost every one knows, and each of these varieties propa- 
gates after its own kind. The seed of the red oak will bring forth a 
red oak, that of the white oak a white oak, etc. Also, of the birch 
species there are several varieties, and each of these brings forth its 
own kind. And so it is with all the other species of plants and their 
varieties, unless, as some say happens, and which is not improbable 
to take place, that a different variety may arise within the same 
genus from the pollen of a plant of one variety falling upon and fer- 
tilizing the seed of a plant of another variety of the same genus, 
whence a new variety, a cross between these two varieties of the 
same genus or species might arise. 



to launch out into the region of conjecture with respect to this subject, there is do knowing 
where thej' will terminate their speculations and theories concerning it. * 

* See Herbert Spencer's " Principles of Philosophy," in which he undertakes to illustrate 
an infinite series of Evolutions and Dissolutions of the forms of Matter, which is as impossible 
to conceive as infinite space or infinite time, i. c, it is to us as nothing. 



156 CREATOR A2sT> COSMOS. 

Of all the kuown species of animals — and there are reckoned as 
known nearly as many as there are of plants, without reckoning the 
microscopic species — the general natural rule is that each species, as 
well as their several varieties, brings forth after their own kind. This 
they do permanently, unless, as we have said before, a hybrid is pro- 
duced by the arbitrary government of man. Thus in the animal king- 
dom propagation according to species and kind is the gieat rule ; hy- 
bridism the very rare exception. But it is an absolute fact, to 
which there is no known exception, that no plant or animal of any 
kind whatever can be produced unless the seed exists before from 
whence it is to spring. So then, not only are all plants and animals 
propagated in succession from their own kinds, but neither plants 
nor animals of any kind could exist had not their seed pre-existed to 
give them birth. And conversely the seeds could not exist had not 
the plants and animals existed to produce them. The seeds, there- 
fore, of all the plants and animals in the earth must have always 
existed and consequently the plants and animals themselves must 
have existed and been pi-opagated, were they not produced from non- 
existence at some past time in some way of which we have no ex- 
perience. 

Xow propagation according to kind has taken place in all the 
periods of time of which we have historical records. These last go 
back in the case of Egypt and some other Eastern nations for a 
space of nearly 4000 j'ears. This is the extent of time to which we 
have the written experience of mankind, (unless we receive the 
writings of the Hindoos and Chinese, which extend back for many 
thousand vears before, and which are doubtless as authentic as the 
Egyptian records) and thus far may we profit from it. What has, 
th'en, existed and been taking place with such undeviating regularity 
for such a length of time, and what we see now existing and taking 
place, with no signs of its discontinuance, we may be allowed to sus- 
pect is permanent, always existing, always taking place, since no evi- 
dence exists to the contrary. 

But geology, or the knowledge which man has obtained of the na- 
ture and consti'uction of the earth's crust, may have something to 
teach us concerning the earth. This knowledge is indeed very limited, 
since geology has only been pursued for a short time, but it has 
nevertheless already done something, as did astronomy a good deal, 
towards the removal of erroneous and superstitious notions. The latter 
of these, which is a definite science, — i. e., accounts well for all the 
celestial phenomena concerning the motions and modes of existence — 
does aAvay with the old Hebrew idea of creation from every mind 
that has made it a studv. Geologv, which cannot be called a defi- 



LOSS AND GAIN OF LAND. 



157 



iiite science,but only an accumulation of scraps and gleanings of knowl- 
edge derived from observation and examination of small parts of the 
earth's surface, has still so far effected as to show tlie falsity of the old 
idea of the earth and all visible things having been made to exist out of 
nothing in six literal dayS. Though the earth's centre is about four thou- 
sand miles from its surface yet geologists in their researches have not 
penetrated more than a mile or two* of that distance, and this only 
in detached spots ; while the great extent of the earth's surface, and 
its whole interior, remain still unexplored. From this it need not 
be inferred that scientific men must necessarily be altogether igno- 
rant of the approximate density and consequently weight of which 
the bodies must be which go to make up the earth's interior and 
central regions ; this knowledge they claim to come to, at least ap- 
proximately, from a consideration of the earth's position in space and 
of tlie force of gravity which it exerts on the moon and planets 
situated at different distances from it. About three-fourths of the 
earth's surface is covered with water. Take a small artificial globe, 
such as they use in schools, and bringing the south pole under your 
eye and then viewing it all round you will see the great dispropor- 
tion of the extent of the dry land to that of the water upon the 
earth's surface. The bottoms of the seas, lakes, and oceans then, as 
well as most of the dry parts of the surface of the earth remain unex- 
plored by geologists. Hence it is seen how little information, com- 
paratively speaking, geology affords us concerning the earth. But it 
gives us some information. It proves, as well as does the common 
experience of mankind, that parts of the earth which are now dry 
and subject to cultivation were at certain periods of the past a prey 
to the waves. We have seen a house in one of the western counties 
of New York State built of such limestone as is mainly made up of 
water shells, some of the shells larger than our fist, and these stones 
are from the farm on which the house is built. A great part of this 
section of country, especially the valley parts, present a like geological 
formation, indicating that at some time it was covered with water. 
There are large lakes in the vicinity, and one might suppose, Avitli 
respect to the particular section of country to which we allude, that 
at some time in the past the waters of Lake Ontario extended to a 
considerable distance south of its present southern boundary, but 
that the gradual enlargement of the St. Lawrence river by the con- 
stant flow of the water through it, by means of which a greater 
volume of water could pass through from the Great Lakes to the 



* Tills means below the level surface. If we consider the heights of some mountains which 
are the result of upheaval from below the earth's surface, we find geologists have knowledge 
of the interior of the earth at certain places for twelve or fourteen miles. 



158 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Atlantic, may haA^e drained it by degrees. There is, however, no 
sufficient reason to believe that at any period of the past the waters 
at large covered a greater extent of the earth's surface than they do 
now, or that more than comparatively small portions of land are at 
any time lost or set free by the water. People livino- near the sea 
shore have constant experience of the wearing effects of the action 
of the waves on the coast. This is especially the case where the 
coast barrier is of a soft clayey character. When it is of hard and 
resisting substance, as rock, the wearing effect is not so noticeable 
during the lapse or two or three generations of men. But the effect 
on some coasts by the waters heaping up sand and other material, is 
that land is made. This is noticeably the case around some of the 
great lakes of North America ; and some geologists go so far as to 
say that all the land between the Mohawk and Pludson rivers and 
the Atlantic Ocean, comprising a large part of eastern New York 
and New England, has been thus made, and by upheaval. 

Also, at the mouths of rivers there is much land made by deposits 
from the waters. The delta of the Mississippi is of this character, 
the extent of which is at least 12,300 square miles, and this is com- 
puted by Sir Charles Lyell to have been 33,500 years in the course 
of formation. The Ganges performs even a greater work of deposit- 
ing than this. In the four rainy months, at 500 miles from its mouth, 
it was found to bear seawards 577 cubic feet of solid matter per sec- 
cond. Its annual discharge has been computed to be 6,368,077,440 
cubic feet ; an amount of matter equal in weight to sixty great 
pyramids of Egypt, although the base of that immense pile covers 
eleven acres, and its apex is 500 feet above the level of the plain. 
Yet even this does not measure the depositions Avhich are going on 
in the upper part of the Bay of Bengal ; for it is considered the Brah- 
mapootra contributes as much as the Ganges does to the sedimentary 
accumulation. From this we may form some conception of what 
great extents of land there are constantly being made by the deposi- 
tions of all the rivers in the world which empt}^ into the seas and 
oceans; for every ri^'^er bears down to the ocean an amount of matter 
in proportion to the volume of water it discharges, and the nature of 
the country which it drains.* 

An admirable illustration of this subject is offered to us in the 
lake of Geneva. The river Rhone passes through this lake. It 
enters the lake at the upper end, its waters discolored by the mud ; 
but on leaving the lake its waters are transparent blue, the mud hav- 
ing been deposited in the lake. As this has been going on for cen- 



See, further, Lyell's " Principles of Geology," pp. 273, 283. 



LOSS AND GAIN OF LAND. 159 

turies we may expect to find some evidences of the -work of the river. 
This is given us in the alluvial tract which stretches from the head 
of the lake for six or seven miles. It is a marshy plain, higher than 
the level of the water, and occupying what was once the bed of the 
lake. If this state of things continues the Rhone will eventually 
511 up the whole lake. The rate of the advance of the delta may be 
gathered from the fact that the Roman town Portus Valesia, which 
stood on the margin of the lake is now more than a mile and a half 
inland, the river having added to its delta this quantity in about 
eight centuries. By soundings it is found that the mud deposits 
reach some two miles from the river's mouth. On these alluvial 
tracts wild grasses are generally found growing, that is, species 
peculiar to the waters and to marshes, and these are often mixed 
with some of the cultivated grasses, the seeds and plants of which 
have been brought down and deposited by the waters of the river. 

Examples of the loss of land by the waters, especially by the 
action of the waves on coasts, are of frequent occurrence on the 
coasts of Britain. Thus, on the coast of Yorkshire from Bridlington 
to Spurin,a distance of 36 miles, it is computed that the waves eroded 
2\ yards annually, so that the sea has encroached two miles within 
the last fifteen centuries. Many old maps of Yorkshire, indicate 
that v ill asres once stood where now the waves hold undisputed sway, 
and ports mentioned in past history are no longer to be found. The 
same destruction is taking place on the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk. 
The sea-port towns are being driven back by the encroaching waters. 
The sites they occupied in past years now form their harbors. Bet- 
ween Cromer and Mundesley, according to the Ordnance survey of 
1838, the cliff has receded at the rate of fourteen feet a year. On 
the same coast, as in Yorkshire, many villages are only historical 
remembrances. The church-tower of Eccles is still seen rising out 
of the seasand, but all other remnants of the village have long since 
succumbed to the action of the waves, or have been covered with 
sand-hills which are dispersed along that coast. Dunwich, on the 
coast of Suffolk, offers another remarkable instance of the conquests 
of the sea. What is now a small villaQ'e was once a largfe and flour- 
ishing seaport ; records of the town are preserved from Doomsday 
book, from which we learn that the sea must have encroached on the 
land to the distance of several miles. Also, the Goodwin sands, 
which are from three to seven miles from the coast of Kent, nearly 
opposite to Ramsgate, tradition informs us were once the estates of 
the Earl Godwin. England is, however, indebted to the sea for a 
recent gift of large tracts of land in Lincolnshire, and Cambridge- 
shire, and the 300 miles called the " Humber Warp." Other countries 



160 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

are far more indebted ; Holland and Denmark are well-nigh wholly 
the products of the German ocean deposited in the most recent 
geological periods; and Tyre and Sidon, celebrated sea-ports of 
Phoenicia, mentioned in the Scriptures, are now several miles 
inland. 

Changes corresponding to these are taking place on the coast of 
Italy, and to a greater or less extent on all other coasts. When any 
portion ot land has been gained from the water, man advances on it, 
bringing his plants and animals with him, and the water grasses being 
subdued, these are propagated thereon. Or if for the course of ages 
there be no civilized men to occupy it, the seeds of vegetables from 
the old land become more or less scattered thereon, and the roots of 
vegetables, large and small, from the old land, become gradually ex- 
panded thereon, so that if the soil be adapted to their growth these 
grow up, and in the course of ages all this new land may become 
covered with vegetables large and small, as the old land. The reader 
should remember the slowness with which these natural events take 
place, and in a low state of civilization man scarcely perceives them. 
The Irish and Danes, when they contemplate their peat-bogs* of such 
great extent, and some of them we suppose from 100 to 150 feet 
deep, may well bethink themselves on the millions of years during 
which these vegetable deposits were being made, and should glorify 
their great Creator, who has arranged and superintended this whole 
process. 

Another subject which it is proper to mention in this connection 
is that of earthquakes. At different periods of time portions of the 
earth's surface have been elevated above the general level by the 
action of internal forces, igneous or aqueous, or both of these com- 
bined in the production of steam, and corresponding portions have 
been depressed, in some cases doubtless lost, by being submerged in 
water. Thus the differences of level on the land surface of the earth 
have arisen either from the hills and mountain ranges having been 
pushed up by internal forces, or from the land on both sides of these 
having subsided. Elevation and depression have doubtless always 
been taking place on the earth's surface. The universal action of 
water is to level, and it is considered that should no other cause in- 
terfere with the degrading and filling up which is carried on by 
every rain drop, river and ocean, the surface of the earth, after a 
requisite number of ages, would become level. This however, can 
never be the case, for their exists a force in the earth which constantly 
opposes the action of water. Here, as in every domain of nature, is 



* The peat-bogs are incipient coal-beds ; and, couversely, tlae coal-beds are ancient bogs. 



CAUSE OF EARTHQUAKES, ETC. 161 

a finely adjusted balance, the aqueous agency on the one hand and 
the i'J-ueous agency on the other, the one wearing down, the other 
elevating ; the one filling up and making the surface even, the other 
disrupting and throwing existing arrangement into disorder. The 
io-ueous action is exerted in three ways ; in volcanoes, in earthquakes 
and in the gradual upheaving and subsiding of portions of the earth's 

crust. 

Many facts go to prove that in the earth's interior, and not far 
from its surface, there are vast accumulations of igneous matter. 
This sometimes finds vent in great quantities by means of volcanoes, 
of Avhich there are known to be 225 active ones (or rather volcanoes 
which have been know to erupt within the last 150 years), besides 
a laro'e number of inactive ones, on the earth's surface. These accu- 
mulations of fire, as we have intimated, are in detached places of the 
interior, and the water percolating through the fissures in the rocks 
finds its way into these fiery places, and thus a large amount of steam 
is o-eaerated, which, in its efforts to escape, sometimes finds vent by 
the mouths of volcanoes, and sometimes produces the disturbances 
of the earth's surface which are called earthquakes, sometimes caus- 
in"- the destruction of large cities and flourishing districts, and the 
elevation of certain parts of the earth's into hills and mountain ranges 
and the consequent depression of other corresponding parts. If the 
whole interior of the earth were one mass of molten matter, as some 
geologists are wont to suppose, then according to the laws of hydro- 
statics, the pressure exerted at one point by the expanding steam 
must be felt by the whole liquid mass ; for liquids transmit pressures 
equally in all directions ; hence, the same force which throws into 
action one volcano must also cause all the neighboring volcanoes to 
erupt ;• and the same force which throws into disturbance one por- 
tion of the earth's surface, transmits an equal disturbing agency to 
every other part. This argument finds a remarkable illustration in 
one of the Sandwich islands. Mauna Loa is a volcano, frequently 
active ; there is a crater near its summit, 10,000 feet above the ocean 
level ; 6,000 feet upon one flank of this mountain is another crater, 
Kilauea. It often happens that while Loa is in action, the lava in 
Kilauea is molten, 5^et undisturbed. It appears an inevitable conse- 
quence, that if these craters both derive their lava from the same 
reservoir, the force which propels the molten matter to the higher 
crater must cause a jet of lava to be thrown from Kilauea to a simi- 
lar height. That simultaneous disturbances would take place in 
each volcano, if their ducts led to the same reservoir, may be fairly 
inferred from the fact that we have numerous accounts of volcanic 
action occurring at the same moment at many distant points. For 

11 



162 CEEATOK AKD COSMOS. 

example, a violent earthquake visited Chili in 1835 ; at the same mo- 
ment the shock was felt over a Avide area ; the two volcanoes, Van- 
tales, and Osorno, burst into action ; and at Juan Fernandez, 720 
miles distant, a submarine eruption took place. Thus, the commo- 
tion, in some deep-seated reservoir, affected a tract of country 900 
miles long and 600 broad ; and these examples show that some of the 
subterranean reservoirs are of greater extent than others ; and also 
determines that the' whole interior of the earth, reckoning at any 
distance from its surface, is not a mass of liquid fire. 

The ordinary elevation and depression of the earth's surface takes 
place frequently when by the fluctuations of the temperature of the 
earth's crusts the rocks expand or conti-act, in the former case of 
which an elevation takes place in the surface immediately above the 
locality' which experiences the expansion ; — in the latter case, es- 
pecially Avhen the contraction or cooling down takes place rapidly 
fissures are made in the rocks, which admit the water to the ig- 
neous regions. When the shock takes place in the interior it is 
propagated on all sides from the centre of disturbance in a wave, 
which reaches the surface, and as it rolls wider and wider from its 
centre causes all the phenomena exhibited in an earthquake, grad- 
ually decreasing in its power until it becomes imperceptible. There 
may be earthquakes of which the igneous agency is the main cause; 
but it is a remarkable fact that all volcanoes, and ranges of volcanoes 
are in the neighborhood of seas and oceans.* 

It would be much beyond the limits of our space to chronicle the 
destructions which the erujDtions of volcanoes have brought on 
human beings ; but it may be permitted us to mention the effects of 
some remarkable earthquakes. The effects of some of these were 
felt over vast regions of the globe. One occurred at Lisbon in Por- 
tugal, on the 1st of November, 1755, the effects of Avliieh were felt 
over an area four times as large as Europe. The shock was preceded 
by no premonitory symptoms ; but, with a tremendous roar, the city 
reeled and fell. It seems from observations made on scientific prin- 
ciples that the centre of disturbance was some eighty miles from 
Lisbon, out at sea. The actual scene of the gaseous explosion must 
have been deep-seated, since its effects were felt over such a large 
area. The water rose suddenly twenty feet in the West Indies. The 
o-reat lakes of North America felt the movement. In Scotland, Loch 
Lomond rose on one beach more than two feet, the water not par- 



See Humljoldt's Cosmos, ^ol. T. for an elaborate account of volcanoes. 

* Of the 225 active volcanoes 155 or two-thirds are situated on the islands of our globe, and 
70 or one-third on the continents. In the interior of the basin of the South Pacific ocean and 
around it are found 198 or nearly seven-eights of the whole number. 



OSCILLATIONS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 163 

ticipating in the hirch of the land. The waves of disturbance ex- 
tended to the very north of Europe. In six minutes, 60,000 people 
in Lisbon perished. Many had assembled on the wide expanse of the 
new marble quay out of the way of the falling houses, when suddenly 
the quay with its living throng sunk with many ships in the harbor, 
and not a body, nor the splinter of a wreck, was ever known to rise 
from the watery depths. We can only suppose that a fissure opened 
beneath the harbor, and, after engulfing the whole, suddenly closed 
in. In this earthquake a remarkable proof was offered of the fact 
that the earthquake wave is more readily propagated in some for- 
mations than in others. The lower part of the city which rested on 
blue clay was most severely shattered, while that part of the city 
which was built on limestone and basalt escaped. The wave move- 
ment passed along the earth's surface at the rate of twenty miles an 
hour ; the sea wave which in such cases usually follows the land 
wave at a much slower pace, rolled about four miles in the same 
time. The sea wave is generally the cause of as much loss of life as 
the actual violence of the shock. This may be well understood from 
the fact that at Cadiz, the wave was sixty feet high. But the reason 
why the waters of Loch Lomond did not participate in any percept- 
ible degree in the lurch which the land gave is that that lake is of so 
small an extent, and that the water wave travels so much slower 
than the land wave. 

South America has for centuries been the scene of repeated earth- 
quakes. A few years after Lima was built, in 1582, the city was 
ruined, and since then the catastrophe has been repeated some twenty 
times. In all the cities of that neighborhood the ecclesiastical year 
is full of anniversaries commemorating terrible overthrows or mar- 
vellous escapes. But none of these calamities seem comparable to 
that which has paralyzed that country some four years ago. On the 
13th and 16th of August, 1868, two earthquake shocks passed over 
Peru and Ecuador, ruining every town and city, and leaving between 
two and three hundred thousand people dead to putrify in the trop- 
ical sun. Arica, a sea-port town, was completely covered with the 
wave. One who was present at the catastrophe, and who survived 
it, states, that upon the first shock, at a quarter past five in the after- 
noon, he with some others jumped upon a barge, when the great 
wave carried them on its crest, completely over the town, above the 
spire of the churchy and landed them unharmed nearly a mile 
inland. 

The chief geological effect of earthquakes is shown in the per- 
manent alteration of the level of the land. In 1822, the coast of 
Chili was raised some two feet, while further inland the elevation 



164 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

was more than double this extent. In 1855, the coast of New 
Zealand, for ninety miles, gave evidence of a rise of nine feet. (For 
many other facts illustrative of the alteration of level in all parts of 
the world as a consequence of internal disturbances, the reader may 
consult Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. II.) 

But there is found to be a gradual alteration of level taking place 
on the earth's surface, not attended with convulsive movements, 
which is more important than those local variations. Observers find 
it difficult to establish these facts, because there is no standard which 
is not itself subject to alteration. Careful investigations, however, 
of the coast of Sweden has shown that most of the Scandinavian 
peninsula is rising at the rate of four feet a centur}'. The coast is 
favorable for the observation ; there are no tides in the Baltic, and 
the cliffs which line the coasts descend perj^endicularly into the sea. 
Few other places present the same advantages for observation. The 
water level has been repeatedly marked, and the rise judged by its 
change. It has also been observed that the bed of the South Pacific 
Ocean is sinking in these ages. Some judge thus from the fact that 
the beds of the coral formation are found far below the depth of 
twenty fathoms, below which, it has been said, the coral insect could 
not exist from the pressure of the water being too great ; just as if 
any man of sane mind could believe that an insect which exists under 
the pressure of twenty fathoms of water would be prevented from exist- 
ing at five times that depth " by its pressure." There are doubtless 
portions of the bed of the Southern Ocean sinking to correspond 
with the elevations which are taking place in the Northern hemis- 
phere, for, for every elevation there is a corresponding depression on 
the earth's surface. 

One well known proof of the repeated oscillations of the earth's 
crust is that which is offered by the temple of Serapis, near Puzzuoli 
in the Bay of Naples. The ruins of this temple consist of three 
pillars of marble, Iiewn out of solid blocks of more than fort}^ feet 
high. The history of this remarkable temple appears to be as fol- 
lows : From certain inscriptions discovered in the vicinity, we learn 
that in the year 105 B. C. a temple dedicated to Serapis existed on 
the shore. In 1828, the handsome mosaic pavement was discovered 
five feet beneath that from which the pillars rise. The existence of 
this pavement indicates that the land must have sunk, and the present 
floor have been raised above the level of the water. In the early 
part of the 3rd century, the temple was repaired and beautified by 
the Emperor Alexander Severns. At what time it was deserted, it is 
not known, but, in 1749, the following facts were brought to light 
by excavatiug : That when the sea broke in the salt water caused a 



OSCILLATIONS OF THE EARTH's SUKEACE. 



165 



hot spring which exists to throw down a dark calcareous deposit two 
feet thick. Above this a Layer of volcanic tufa was found reposing, 
which must have been ejected by the neighboring volcano. This 
deposit is not regular, varying from five to nine feet in thickness. 
The eruption seems to have formed a barrier which kept out the 




THE ANCIENT TEMPLE OF SERAPIS, NEAR PUZ/UOLI. NAPLES. 

waters of the sea, so that the hot spring continued to deposit its car- 
bonate of lime, but without any marine admixture ; thus about two 
feet more were added to the matter Avhich embedded the bottom of 
the column. More volcanic tufa was now placed upon the lime 



166 CEEATOK AXD COSMOS. 

deposits either b}' a storm or another eruption, making a total deposit 
of eleven feet. All this time the land had been sinking. The sea 
now surrounded the pillars, which finally sank nine feet more ; thus 
half the height was above the water, and of that which was beneath 
the surface, eleven feet was embedded, and nine exposed to the 
water ; in this space the pillars were perceptibly perforated by a 
bivalve " Lithodomus." Thus if we include the lower pavement, 
the land must have sunk 25 feet since the commencement of the 
Christian era. When the upheaval Ijegan, it has not been observed, 
but it was known to be in progress in 1530, and in 1838 the pavement 
was a^ain above the sea level. The downward movement has a^ain 
commenced, at the rate of about one inch annually. Here then we 
have evidence of a structure which has undergone a subsidence and 
an upheaval of at least 20 feet, and still stands to attest the quietness 
and regularity of the movement. Although this subject of the al- 
teratioii of level of the earth's surface is a difficult one to prove, froin 
the peculiar circumstances of the case, yet, we may safely infer that 
this oscillation is more general than is commonly supposed; and may 
fairly be brought to account for the depression and upheaval neces- 
sary for bringing the aqueous rocks to form the surface of continents. 
For the reader may remember that the rocks which underlie a great 
part of the dry land, as well as most of those found in the formation 
of loftj" mountams, furnish unmistakable evidence of their having 
grown beneath the water. This too will partly account for the fact 
of b}- far the greatest part of the fossilized plants and animals which 
have been found being of aquatic origin. In no other part of the 
world, we believe, has the subject of geology been more pursued than 
in the island of Eritain. and as this island is so extremely small in 
propoition to the great extent of the globe, and as only small portions 
of it too have been geologically examined, it is the more surprising 
that such a great number of fossil animals and plants, and other 
interesting fossils, have been discovered there. "We would add a 
list of the fossil plants and animals which have until recently been 
discovered in all parts of the globe to show the proportion which 
they bear in respect to kind to those now existing, but for the fact 
that these proportions are continually varying b}' means of the dis- 
covery of more fossils, and some new living species. 

To throw a little light upon this subject, however, we may give 
some idea, as comparative, of the fossil animals with those now exist- 
ing. The animal kingdom is subdivided so far as is know into about 
120 orders. Xow, how many of these orders are extinct? that is, 
how manv of these orders of animals have lived in former ages, but 
have at present no living representatives ? Among the mammalia 



TRACES OP PREHISTORIC MAN. 167 

and birds there are none extinct. But when we come to reptiles out 
of the eight orders that are made out as belonging to the past and 
present, one half are extinct. The pterodactyle, icthiosaurus, and 
plesiosaurus give some idea of those gigantic animals. Of the Am- 
phibia there is one extinct order, the Labyrinthodonts, a large 
salamander-like beast. No order of fishes is known to be extinct; 
all the fishes found in the strata examined are identified and placed 
in one of the existing orders. There is not known to be a single order 
of insects extinct. There are only two orders extinct among the 
Crustacea. There is not known to be an extinct order of the para- 
sitie and other worms, but there are two or three extinct orders of the 
class Echinodermata. Out of all the orders of the Celenterata and 
Badiata, only one is extinct, the Rugose Corals, so that summing up 
all the orders of animals, not more than about ten per cent, are with- 
out representatives now existing ; and the proportion of extinct 
orders of plants is much smaller. This fact is astonishing consider- 
ing the enormous lapse of time which these animals and plants rep- 
resent. From the Cambrian formation to the present, there is 
reckoned by some geologists to have intervened a period of not less 
than sixty millions of years ; other geologists, however, consider that 
estimate as too small. 

Geologists remark that the remains of man are mostly found in 
the alluvial deposits of rivers and lakes. These deposits contain also 
skeletons of land animals together with fresh water shells, intermixed 
with silt and vegetable drift carried down by the rivers. The reason 
they are found in such places rather than in others is, first, that man 
must have always occupied the regions of the land as a residence ; 
and the remains of human beings found in such places are doubtless 
for the most part of those who have been drowned in the waters of 
the lakes, or in the rivers, aad washed down with the debris which 
rivers usually carry to their mouths. We have ourself seen in an 
alluvial deposit in the State of New York, a fossilized man of such 
dimensions that, when living, he must have measured about eleven 
feet in height, and was made in proportion. We had the opportunity 
of closely examining this fossil and it appeared to have once been a 
noble specimen,of human kind, and not to have belonged to any of 
the tribes now inhabiting this continent. Its antiquity, as indicated 
by its appearance, and the place in which it was found, must have 
been very great. Secondly, according to the evidence of geology 
and history, mankind has always been accustomed to dispose of his 
dead by burial and otherwise. But, besides the remains of human 
beings which have been discovered, many indications of tlieir exist- 
ence are brought to light in the form of warlike instruments, etc. 



168 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

These are in the shape of knives, arrow and spear heads, hatchets 
and hatnmers, which indicate that the state of civilization of those 
using them was not high. The material and workmanship of these 
tools are considered by geologists to have marked the successive 
periods and the successive stages of civilization through Avhich man 
has passed. But it is evident that in any period of the past, as at 
present, some tribes and nations may have been more civilized and 
ingenious than others, and that while one tribe used instruments 
of one material, and of good workmanship, another may have used 
instruments of another material and of better workmanship. There 
are found instruments of stone, of bronze (an alloy of tin and copper) 
and of iron ; and the ages in which they are said to have been used 
are termed respectively the stone age, the bronze age, and the iron 
age. In the stone instruments there is a variety displayed indicat- 
ing a less 01- a greater degree of ingenuity or tact in their making. 
Some of them are made of flint seemingly chipped into the required 
shape by hand. The regularity and proportion displayed in these 
arrow and spear heads are often remarkable. Although it may 
appear strange, it is said that the flint chips more easily when chipped 
with another flint, than if an iron tool be used ; so that we need not 
be surprised at the clever specimens of stone handicraft, preserved 
for us in these deposits, and formed by men who, like the North 
American Indians of the past, were not acquainted Avith the use of 
iron. Some of these flint instruments appear as if they had been 
subjected to a process of grinding, and consequently exhibit more 
skilful workmanship. An ancient people who fabricated these in- 
struments lived in the Northern part of France, and in the South of 
Britain. In the river gravels of Abbeville and Amiens in France, 
M. Boucher de Perthes found in 1847 many specimens of their handi- 
work. These beds of gravel vary in their depth to the present bot- 
tom of the valley from 20 to 200 feet. This depth indicates the 
amount of scooping work the river has done since these ancient 
people occupied its banks. These tools are usualty bleached by long 
exposure to the air, or they are stained with the same yellow tinge 
which pervades the gravel bank, and sometimes crystalline incrus- 
tations of carbonate of lime appear upon their surfacd Their edges 
are blunted either by Avear or by the rolling action of the water, and 
they are usually found at depths of from fifteen to twenty feet from 
the surface. The fact that the Somme river has worn away more 
than 200 feet of valley since the people of this stone age inhabited 
its banks may impress us with some notion of the time which has 
elapsed since that very remote period ; yet the position in which 
similar instruments are found in the South of England, carries our 



TRACES OF PREHISTORIC MAN. 169 

minds still further back into the past. On the tops of the hills in 
South Hampshire, and in the North of the Isle of Wight, masses of 
gravel are found. These detached beds are believed to be the remnants 
of a great deposit of drift resting upon the Eocene Tertiary Strata. 
In this gravel are blocks of sandstone, some twenty feet in circum- 
ference, and to account for their presence at some distance from their 
native beds geologists have recourse to the agency of the glaciers. 
It is in this gravel that numerous specimens of stone tools, precisely 
similar to those of the Somme valley, have been found. If the theory 
of the glacier agency with respect to these rocks be true (and it does 
not seem altogether improbable when we consider that glaciers of 
great extent exist in the Alpine districts in the centre of Europe at 
present), then, when these ancient people inhabited Britain it was 
amid the ice and snow of the Arctic regions, or, at least, in the prox- 
imity of glaciers and ice fields. And since the time of their existence 
the Southampton river, the Avon, and the Stour have begun their 
course and gradually worn for themselves their present valleys. And 
probably the Isle of Wight was then part of the mainland ; whether 
or not the Strait of Dover then existed may be guessed or known. 
But not only have they passed away, but many of the animals then 
existing are now extinct. The bones of the mammoth, the woollj^- 
haired rhinoceros, the reindeer and the Norwegian lemming, all are 
associated with the flint instruments. These animals have all au 
Arctic relation, and. the two first have been known alive in historical 
times. The first of these is simply a large kind of elephant, and the 
lemming is of the rat species. In the valley of the Somme the 
hippopotamus and the musk-ox are also found, indicating a somewhat 
more genial climate. The reason why the remains of men are not in 
general found associated with these instruments, is, as will appear 
more clearly from information hereafter to be given, that mankind 
has always been accustomed to bury their dead in detached places, 
or to burn them. 

For a long time geologists refused to entertain the idea that man- 
kind was co-ejristing with the mammoth ; but now all doubt upon 
this subject too has been removed, for even in the scanty researches 
thus far more than 3000 flint instruments belonging to the ancient 
stone age have been discovered in Europe. Throughout the whole 
of Scandinavia (Sweden and Norway), although quantities of flint 
instruments are found, none of them are of the rude stone type found 
in the South of England, and in France ; but all are ground and 
better shaped. This may indicate that they were of a later age than 
the stone weapons, or of the same or even an earlier age, and made and 
used by a more ingenious and civilized race of men. The thought 



170 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

will probably strike one, was not Scandinavia in these early times 
covered with ice, and how could it then be inhabited ? An equal 
and an equally forcible consideration is this — that Denmark was 
certainly inhabited by the men of the stone period ; and if this being 
in such close proximity to the Scandinavian Peninsula, was inhabited 
why should not the latter have been? Doubtless the Scandinavian 
geologists have given considerable attention to this subject and under- 
stand it. 

Along the coasts of the Danish islands are mounds from three to 
ten feet high, and some of them as many as 1000 feet long. These 
mounds are termed kitchen middens, being found to contain some 
shells of mollusks, etc., upon which the people lived. Being in close 
proximity to their dwellings it is natural they should contain many 
remnants of their mode of life ; burnt bones of the animals they 
cooked, their stone knives, spears, etc. Sometimes bone and horn 
instruments are found in great numbers. The animals with which 
they were associated are still living in Europe, excepting the beaver. 
The dog alone, however, seems to have been domesticated by them. 
These facts, and fj-agments of rude pottery that are found, go to 
prove them to have been j)artially civilized. 

These ancient people have reminiscences of their existence pre- 
served to us in peat-bogs, and in Denmark successive stages of civil- 
ization are observed. In the lower beds of peat, stone weapons occur 
side by side with the roots of the Scottish pine, a tree Avhich has never 
been known in Denmark in historical times. Higher up in the same 
bronze instruments are found ; but here the pine has become extinct 
and the oak takes its place. Still nearer the surface iron instruments 
are found ; but during the bronze period the oak growth waxed and 
waned, the next the beech tree Avhich now flourishes in Denmark oc- 
cupied the countr3^ Let the long periods which it must take for 
successive generations of forest trees to wear themselves out tell the 
years which measure these ages of stone, and bronze, and iron. 

An interesting and singular repository of these ancient relics has 
lately been discovered in Switzerland. It seems that it was the cus- 
tom of the ancient inhabitants of the Swiss valleys to construct their 
villages on piles, driven into the bottom of the lakes, where the water 
was not more than fifteen feet deep. No fewer than one hundred 
and fifty of these lake villages, have been already discovered. Being 
surrounded with water the inhabitants were secure from the attacks 
of wild beasts, and in some measure from their human enemies. By 
dredging in the ooze great numbers of articles have been found. 
Some villages are characterized as of the stone age, others of the 
bronze, and others again give evidence of having been inhabited by 



TRACES OP PREHISTOEIC MAN. 171 

people who used both the stone and bronze instruments. Among 
other things taken up from the villages characterized as of the stone 
ao"e are charred corn, and bread. This proves that the people of that 
very ancient period cultivated corn. No corn has been discovered 
in the villao-es where the bronze instruments have been found, but 
the vessels occasionally bear the marks of the potter's wheel. Nume- 
rous animals were domesticated, and gold, amber, and glass were 
used for ornaments. From the size of the sword-handles and the 
bracelets it is concluded that the people denominated as of the stone 
age were smaller than the present inhabitants of Northern Europe. 

With respect to the disposition made of the dead the evidence is 
as follows : During the age of the stone weapons the mode of burial 
seems to have been in rude coffins of undressed stone. The skull 
is remarkably round and small, and this type is now most nearly 
approached in the Laplander. It is suggested that he may be the 
descendant of the men of the stone age, his ancestors having followed 
the ice northward. During the age of the bronze weapons the fashion 
of burial changed; or, perhaps, we may say with equal propriety that 
the men characterized as of the bronze weapons disposed of their 
dead differently. No human remains understood to have belonged 
to that period have been found ; they burned their dead. When the 
age of iron came they again resorted to sepulchral burial, and now 
the skull appears larger and longer. The floors of caves have proved 
the richest storehouses of human remains ; but owing to the fact that 
the cave may have been used as a burial place in comparatively re- 
cent times, it does not necessarily follow that human remains lying 
side by side with the bones of extinct animals belonged to human 
beings that lived contemporaneously with these animals. Out of the 
numerous fragments of skeletons which from time to time have been 
brought forth from such places Professor Duncan concludes that the 
lower jaw found in the cave of La Nautelle, the skull from the 
Engis cave, and the jaw of the Grotto des Fees are " the only exam- 
ples of human bones which can bear criticism, and which can be re- 
ferred to the mammoth aoe." 

As we may have before intimated, the stone, bronze and iron in- 
struments may have been used by the same nations and tribes for 
long successive ages, and may indicate the advances they made in 
civilization and art, or may have been used contemporaneously by 
different tribes and nations of different or the same degrees of 
civilization and art. The finding of the stone, bronze, and iron in 
successive strata, as in Denmark or in an}^ other place where a suffi- 
ciently extensive search had been made, might ap])ear to substantiate 
the first supposition ; but the finding of these different kinds of in- 



172 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

struments in neighboring villages or in the same village, would indi- 
cate that the second supposition might be equally true. The Au- 
gustan age in Europe, characterized by a certain kind of arms and 
arts, may have been characterized by very different kinds of arms 
and arts in China, which it undoubtedly was. Also, the ao'es of the 
bow and arrow in Europe and Asia were different from the modern 
age of artillery ; and the tribes of Indians or other tribes Avho use the 
bow and arrow contemporaneously with the use of artillery by their 
white neighbors, may differ somewhat in point of civilization and art 
from the whites ; or there may be tribes on the earth who might be 
considered as equally advanced in many respects in regard to civiliza- 
tion with the whites who still use bows and arrows. And even 
neighboring as well as distant tribes in prehistoric times may have 
differed in like manner, doubtless did. Each nation had then its own 
language, and differed from its neighbor in arts and characteristics 
even more than the nations differ now. We are to remember that 
the facts here adduced as to the discovery of human remains or of 
instruments indicating the existence of human beings in those very 
ancient times refer to Europe alone, and only to a small portion of 
that. But we have ocular evidence in the numerous tumuli of the 
Western States of the existence of men on the American continent in 
past ages, men who as we have been informed by a man of sound judg- 
ment Avho had inspected some of the remains, and handled some of the 
limbs, averaged 10 to 12feethigh (some of them much higher) and were 
made in proportion. The fact evidences as strong as anything can 
that different races of men have existed on this continent in past ages 
and have passed away in succession ; men, some of whom were 
in point of size to the men of the present day, white, black, or red, 
as the huge mammoth or mastodon would be to the elephant. The 
Avhole continent of America has been peopled in some of the past 
ages by these gigantic races. We have mentioned in another place 
the liuge fossil man we inspected in Western New York, which was 
casually happened upon by a man digging a trench on his own farm. 
And we have been since told by a clergyman, Avho resides on the 
eastern side of Lake Ei-ie, that he had reason to believe that such 
huge fossils are not uncommon in the district in which he liA^es ; for 
that, when in Elgin county, in Canada, he handled a skull of one of 
these ancient giants, whose remains had been casually found in the 
neighborhood, and that whea through curiosity to find how his head 
compared with it in size he inserted his head into the cavity of the 
mammoth skull, there was still more than enough of room left on 
each side for him to insert his two hands between the skull and his 
ears. 



ANTIQUITIES OF AMERICA. 173 

The whole continent of America presents innumerable evidences 
of an extinct civilization. These are of various kinds, including 
mounds, tumuli, fortifications of large proportions, gardens, wells, 
artificial meadows, ruins of towns and cities once wealthy and 
2)opulous, which all, with many other monuments are to be found 
scattered throughout the continent, especially from the 48th or oOth 
parallel on the north to about the same latitude on the South of the 
Equator. The valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio abound in an- 
cient mounds, tunuili, extensive fortifications, and traces of wells, 
salt mines, and artificial meadows which speak unmistakeably of a 
long period of time during which a numerous and powerful people 
of settled agricultural habits had made such considerable progress in 
civilization as to require large temples for their religious worship 
and extensive fortifications to protect them from their enemies. On 
the banks of the Blue river, the Black river and the St. Charles, 
near the river Gila, and upon an alluvial soil which reposes upon 
basaltic rocks, the remains of ancient colonies are very numerous. 
Rows and piles of stones show the plan of houses, though nearly 
covered up by the accumulated soil of ages. Here is seen a ruined 
circular stone wall about 250 yards in circumference with an entrance 
on the eastern side, and containing in its centre the ruins of a 
dwelling in which no traces of wood exist ; three quarters of a mile 
distant the soil is strewn with enormous remnants of spacious edifices 
which contained rooms fifteen feet square. In most of these, frag- 
ments of painted pottery have been found and traces of decaying 
cedar wood. These houses are surrounded by a rampart 300 yards 
in length. One writer observes in speaking of this locality : " Sub- 
terranean fires appear to have ruined all this country and converted 
it into a barren waste; the country may also have been deserted in ^ 
consequence of volcanic convulsions spreading death and misery 
among the inhabitants." Judging from the walls, houses, and 
remains of pottery met at every step, all this region of country seems 
to have been very populous in past ages. In the Apache territory 
near the Rio Grande is a copper mine Avhich shows distinct traces of 
ancient working. A little to the East of this an ancient fort of 
a square shape is erected with a tower at each corner. The walls 
are four feet thick a.nd in a state of some preservation. The banks 
of the Rio Verde abound in ruins of stone dwellings and fortifications 
which appear to have belonged to a more civilized people than the • 
Aztecs. They are found in the most fertile valleys, where traces of 
former cultivation and of small canals for artificial irrigation are yet 
visible. The firmly built walls of these dwellings are twenty and 
thirty yards long to thirty or fortj-five feet high, and from four feet 



174 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

thick at the base gradually taper to the top. The houses were four 
storied, with small openings for doors, windows, and loopholes for 
defence against outside attacks. Excavations around these majestic 
ruins have yielded abundant fragments of beautiful pottery, black, 
yellow, red, striped and scalloped and ornamented with brilliantly 
colored paintings. Of the ruins in New Mexico the most modern are 
the pueblos or stone dwellings ; they comprised usually a main portion 
and two receding wings at right angles to the main part, from the 
extremities of which extended a circular wall enclosing a large yard 
or court. They had the appearance of an immense bari'acks, being 
of four stories high, each receding from the preceding one like a 
series of terraces rising one above another. The outside wall had no 
openings in the first or lower stories, and each story was reached 
from the court or yard by ladders which could be drawn up after the 
inmates, thus giving no opportunity for the enemy to enter. The 
minor details of these structures indicate much ingenuity and art. 
Some of them appear in the distance like splendid mosaic work, being 
constructed of stones of various colors. They are built of small fiat 
slabs, in some cases of fine granite sandstone, a material never used 
in any of the modern monuments of Mexico ; and the walls show no 
trace of cement, the intervals being neatly filled up with small 
colored pebbles incrusted in mortar made without lime. Remains of 
ancient towns are extremely numerous in the country of the Zunis, 
the Navagos, and Jemez. All these towns are so ancient that no 
Indian tradition makes any mention of them. Humboldt, speaking 
of these remains of the unknown past, in which may be included the 
ruins of populous cities possessed of much grandeur, the amazing 
sio-ns of mechanical and architectural science which are manifest in 
the consti-uction of the palaces of Tezcotzinco, the temple of Xochi- 
calco, and the colossal stone calendar of Mexico, says : " Certain it 
is that they are the work of a great people, of an intelligent nation, 
whose civilization was far superior to that of the actual tribes." 
These ancients seem to have possessed a knowledge of astronomy, as 
all their structures had either four entrances or four corners or towers 
answering to the four cardinal points. Among the basses Grandes 
are met numerous ruins, among which is a tumulus surrounded b}^ 
an earthen wall 100 yards in circumference. A little from this is a 
large round terrace 100 yards by 70, supporting a pyramid 30 feet in 
height by 25 yards at its summit, commanding a view of a plain 
extending north, east and west, on the left bank of the Gila. The 
Pimas Indians have a legend concerning these ruins which runs 
thus : They pretend that these edifices were constructed by the son 
of the most beautiful woman that ever existed and who formerly 



WOKKS OF THE ANCIENT AMEEICANS, 175 

lived in the neighboring mountains. Her extreme beauty caused 
her to be beloved by a multitude of suitors ; but she refused to 
marry ; w^hen they visited her they paid her tribute, and by means 
of this resource she provided for the people during times of famine 
without provisions ever failing. At length one day she fell asleep, 
and from a dew-drop descending and falling upon her bosom she 
conceived and gave birth to a son who built these houses and many 
others to the north and south-west. Among all these ruins are found 
beads and painted pottery, and perforated shells which antiquarians 
believe were used as coins or ornaments. 

The valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi are rich in monuments of 
various kinds, dating from a period long anterior to the historical 
era. In Ohio alone, the number of ancient mounds, wells, etc., has 
been estimated at ten thousand. The American mounds have been 
divided by antiquarians, as follows : altars, tombs, temples, and 
tumuli of no determinate character. Out of one hundred examined, 
sixty had served as temples, twenty as toml)s, and the rest were 
places of observation, or mounds, the uses of which coidd not be 
determined. Their plans and construction differ according to the 
situation. In the vicinity of the great lakes, and in the States of 
Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and the western territories, they are 
made of earth, of conical form or in the shape of animals, birds and 
reptiles, or even in that of man ; appearing like immense JSassi 
Relievi carved out on the soil by the hands of giants. In the interior 
of these monuments relics of art have been discovered belonging to 
a very ancient period, and consisting of personal ornaments, domestic 
utensils, and articles connected with religious worship, made of 
different metals and of Pietra dura, also polished stone and copper 
implements. 

In the Ohio valley these earthworks are larger, more numerous, 
and of a more regular construction, in many instances surrounded by 
earthworks or strong walls ; and give the best indication, from their 
number and style, of the greatness, or at least the multitude and 
superiority of the populations by which they were constructed. 
Advancing southward these antiquities are remarkable for the great 
regularity of their structure and their extraordinary size, and in 
these southern parts only have traces of brickwork been detected in 
their construction. In Florida and Texas these mounds are com- 
posed of several stories, somewhat resembling a Mexican Teocallis in 
their pyramidal form, dimensions, lofty passages, spacious terraces, 
and long avenues ; they are often surrounded by smaller ones placed 
at regular intervals, some with paths winding round them from the 



176 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

base to the summit ; others have gigantic steps, like slips in European 
fortifications. 

Enclosures are rare in Florida, but those of a military character 
have been discovered in the Carolinas. Of the courts or amphitheatres 
that existed in the far South, the jjurpose seems to have been that of 
places for public amusement, as in the amphitheatres at Rome. The 
tetragonal terraces are apparently foundations for elevated fortifica- 
tions, while the pyramidal hillocks are supposed to have served as 
observatoiies commanding a view of a wide extent of country. In 
Florida, frequent vestiges of extensive roads are m-et with, some 
running in a straight line for sixty to seventy-five miles. These high- 
ways were elevated above the surrounding plains, and appear to have 
led to the great centres of population, traces of which still exist. 
After traversing ruins of towns and villages they terminated at the 
foot of one of those artificial teocalli, or high dwellings of the chiefs- 
Few American curiosities are more striking to tlie imagination than 
these great roads, and the magnificent scale on wliich they were 
constructed brings to the mind the great roads made b}' the Roman 
government through the j^rovinces of the empire. The elevated 
structures, or mounds of Florida, were usually square-shaped, sloping 
on one side to the road, or reached by a series of wide steps leading 
to the summit of the monument. The Indian population, whom 
Columbus found here, had no knowledge of the origin or uses of 
these structures, which were covered equally with the surrounding 
country by forests of gigantic growth. We might mention also the 
immense gardens, of unknown origin, found scattered over various 
parts of the American continent, whose size and state of preservation 
has produced, in the minds of observers, much astonishment. This 
perfect preservation is thought to be owing to the thick coats of 
prairie grass, which is so dense and abundant as to form a compact 
vegetable coating on the surface of the soil. This enables all their 
sinuosities to be easily traced, and has prevented their surface being 
overgrown with forest, as obtains in other ruins. They are square, 
or semi-circular, and are divided in parallel lines so as to form a 
series of ridges or beds, two or three yards in width, and are separated 
from each other by a number of very narrow paths. One of them is 
described by Domeneck, as above eight miles in extent. No light 
has been thrown upon the nature of the produce of these extensive 
fields laid out with so much regularity. The finest and best preserved 
have been found in Indiana, Michigan, the Western territories and 
Texas. Besides these gardens, artificial meadows, many of which 
were found situated on the borders of wood land or in the midst of 
forests, were also cultivated by the agricultural population which 



WORKS or THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 177 

iiiliabited the western world previous to the tribes now existing. 
From the nature of the country, the configuration of the surface, as 
well as the agricultural implements of stone and brass found in those 
meadows, it is believed that in remote times these regions were 
covered with trees which must have been burned or torn up to make 
room for pasturage, etc., in the vicinity of human habitations. There 
are many traces which make it appear probable that the ancient 
inhabitants of the country worked the salt water springs in order to 
prociire salt. These traces appear in Illinois, where, in a salt mine, 
there existed an excavation one hundred and thirty-five yards in cir- 
cumfei*ence, in the middle of which a great pit had been dug at some 
unknown period. A conduit also existed by which it is supposed 
the water was drained off. In Ohio the salt mines give evidence of 
having been worked, the ancient remains of vases used in the evapor- 
ation of water having been found near the mines. In the saltpetre 
cave of Missouri hammers and axes similar to those found in the 
tumuli have been discovered. In the Lake Superioi- region are 
copper mines which bear unmistakeable traces of ancient mining. 
It appears that the ancients made use of tools of tempered copper, 
specimens of which have been found in the mines, as also evidences 
of the use of fire. The marks of such tools are traceable on the 
native copper. 

Fortifications of a singularly strategical character and of immense 
proportions, have been found existing in the vicinity of the Ohio and 
Mississippi rivers. With leference to these it has been said that, 
"of all the great works left by the ancient American nations, none 
are more extraordinary or more worthy of study than those colossal 
fortifications and vast entrenched camps protecting and surrounding 
spaces so very considerable that of necessitj^ they must have been 
the work of a large population." The epoch at which these were 
constructed is, of course, quite unknown, but it is evident that they 
must have been coeval with the most ancient mounds or tumuli, since 
they are often placed within, or in the immediate neighborhood of, 
the fortifications, and in many cases form part of the general plan of 
defence. 

These fortifications are found to consist sometimes of earthworks 
thrown up in the form of an extensive entrenched camp, or in the 
stone walls which have been thrown across peninsulas formed hj the 
conflux of two rivers, and around the declivities of elevated terraces; 
while in all cases it is observable that a careful choice had been made 
of the most suitable position, of which every advantage has been 
taken to construct defensive fortifications on a surprisingly gigantic 
scale. On the delta formed between the Raccoon and Newark rivers 

12 



178 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

in the county of Licking, Ohio, there exists an elevated table-land 
about 35 feet in height upon which are remains of military construc- 
tions of great extent. On the west side of the platform stood an oc- 
tagonal fort enclosing an area of about forty acres, having stone walls 
of solid masonry about nine feet in height, and the same in width at 
the base, each protected by a tumulus placed in the interior in front 
of the entrance. Two parallel walls lead to another circular fort at 
the southwest of the first, covering a space of 22 acres ; further south 
is an elevated hillock or observatory which commands a view of the 
whole position, beneath which a secret passage leads to the opposite 
side of the river. A third fort of a circular form stands more to the 
right, enclosing about 62 acres ; there was an interior ditch in this, 
out of which earth had been taken to assist in the formation of a 
wall, which ranged from 25 to 30 feet high. Two other parallel walls 
run towards the north, gradually converging to another fort of quad- 
rangular form, enclosing an extent of about twenty acres. These 
four different forts are connected by rather low walls, and in the 
centre of the enclosed area is a shallow pond covering 150 to 200 
acres, supposed to be artificial, and to have been required to afford 
water to the people and animals inhabiting the place ; towers of ob- 
servation placed at each of the salient points complete the works at 
this point. At Marietta, near the mouth of the Muskingum, some 
extraordinary ruins exist, among which are two square forts, the 
largest covering forty acres ; these have earth walls from three to six 
feet hi^h, and widest at the base ; sixteen openings exist at regular 
intervals ; at one side is a covered way formed by walls which are 
said to be 21 feet high, and 120 feet in length leading down to the 
river by a gentle slope. On the valley of the Paint Creek, near 
Chilicothe, is to be seen one of the most interesting of these fortifica- 
tions; it is situated on a hill 300 feet high, and 130 acres in extent. 
The ascent is very steep and is accessible only on one side; a stone 
wall extends round this plateau of elevated ground. It is said that 
no engineer could have selected a more strategical position. On the 
little Miami and its tributaries, and in Ohio, several of these strong- 
holds are said to have existed, in which the Avails were disposed in a 
parallel manner. But enough has been said to show that the 
strongholds erected by these ancients were not of the meaner sort, — 
the earthworks seemed to be possessed of the greatest durability : 
for they have been protected by a growth of forest or thick grass, 
while the stone structures have tumbled in most cases to a mass of 
ruins only intelligible to the penetrating glance of the antiquarian. 
The Indians know nothing about the origin of these structures, nor 
about the people by whom the}^ were erected : but they hold them 



ANTIQUITY OF THEIE WORKS. 179 

in traditional veneration. The tumuli are massive and pyramidal in 
form and some contain a vault within which are laid the remains of 
the dead ; these vaults are usually built of stones placed one above 
another, without any cement, sometimes of wood, or of both combined. 
The mounds are of various dimensions, from three to ninety feet in 
hei"-ht, and from 100 to 700 feet in circumference at the base. In 
the top there exist altars of baked clay or stone in the shape of large 
basins, varying from 19 inches to 17 yards in length ; but the average 
is from 2 to 3 yards. A number of these were examined by Messrs. 
Squire and Davis and were usually found to contain ashes and 
remains of calcined human bones, with sometimes a few ornaments ; 
this leads to the belief that the ancient Americans sometimes burned 
their dead. In the larger burial mounds the vaulted chamber usually 
contains a raised pedestal or altar, upon which is laid the human 
remains. These skeletons are ordinarily covered with sheets of mica, 
and carefully placed around them are found ornaments and utensils 
of various descriptions. One was discovered in Utah in which a 
polished silver breast-plate lay upon the skeleton ; at each side of his 
head lay what appeared to have been two tapers extending upwards, 
while between the feet was found an earthen vessel of remote anti- 
quity. Some of the vaults have a stone pavement floor while others 
are vaulted and floored with what appears to have been a species of 
brick or fire clay. In the Southern States, funeral urns have often 
been found within tumuli of this kind ; also beds of charcoal, from 
which it is inferred that fire was used in their funeral rites. In 
these monuments also have been discovered ornaments of silver, 
brass, stone or bone, and ornamental beads made of shells ; also 
pieces of silex, quartz, garnet, and obsidian, points of arrows, copper 
tools, marine shells, sculptures of human heads or of different animals, 
fragments of beautiful pottery, ornamented w^ith brilliantly colored 
paintings of butterflies, quadrupeds and other things, indicating a 
knowledge of art. 

Very valuable discoveries of this kind have been made in New 
Granada, where arms, idols, and medals were found enclosed in tombs 
of people whose successors have disappeared for many centuries, and 
whose enormous wealth is reported by tradition. The archaeologists 
of Panama declare these works of art to belong to very remote anti- 
quity, and consider them to possess characteristics of both Chinese 
and Egyptian art. 

Domenech describes enclosures made of earth of about 300 yards 
in circumference and having but one entrance, situated on low flats 
of circular, elliptical, or quadrangular form, but in all cases of regular 
shape. Aside from these there are a multitude of small circles about 



180 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

fifty yards in circumference, near which are grouped mounds that 
appear to have served as altars. The large circles extend over a 
surface of fifty acres, and are connected with rectangular enclosures 
by means of broad avenues. These walls are all made of earth. The 
religious feelings which actuated the authors of these immense struc- 
tures, it is thought, can alone account for their erection. The Abbe 
Domenech, wiites of them in these words : " If religion were out of 
the question it would be difiicult to account for the object of works 
like those of Newark, which extend with their avenues over a space 
of more than four square miles, and to which only the great temples 
of Abury and Stonehenge in England, and Cornac in Britanny can 
be compared." 

As to the probable age of these ruins we may observe that in the 
valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio, where the tumuli and ancient 
fortifications are found in the greatest numbers, trees of enormous 
dimensions have grown upon them, the age of which form the surest 
data on which to form a judgment as to the period when these 
different structures were abandoned. In 1787, Dr. Cutler found 
trees of immense size in the ruins of Marietta. Many of those cut 
down were hollow, but one in which decay had only just commenced 
showed 463 concentric rings : and as naturalists have conceded a 
year's growth to each ring this tree must have existed more than that 
number of years. On the ground lay huge decayed trunks measuring 
six yards in circumference ; he then concludes that as these were not 
the first trees to grow on these ruins, they must have been abandoned, 
nine hundred or a thousand years ago. Sir Charles Lyell relates that 
on the the same spot he, in company with Dr. Hildreth, in 1842, saw 
a tree, which, when sawn asunder, numbered eight hundred rings of 
annual growth. Gen. Harrison, President of the United States, in 
1841, who was well skilled in wood-craft, remarked in a memoir upon 
this subject : " Several generations of trees must have lived and died 
before the mounds could have been overspread with that variety of 
species which they supported when the white man first beheld them, 
for the number and kind of trees were precisely the same as those 
which distinguished the surrounding forest." " We may be sure," 
he observes, " that no trees were allowed to grow so long as the earth- 
en works were in use, and when they were forsaken, the ground, like 
all newly cleared land in Ohio, would for a time be monopolized by 
one or two species of trees, as the white poplar, the hickory, the yellow 
locust, and the black and white walnut. When these had died out, 
one after another, they would, in many cases, be succeeded (b}^ virtue 
of the law which makes rotation in crops profitable in agriculture) 
by other kinds, till at last, after a great number of centuries, several 



HIEROGLYPHICS, FOUNTAIN WORSHIP. 181 

thousand years perhaps, that remarkable diversity of species charac- 
teristic of North America, and far exceeding what is seen in European 
forests, would be established." Taking this in connection with the 
opinion of a celebrated naturalist, who assumes that the oak is five 
hundred years in growing, remains five hundred years in statu quo, and 
is another five hundred years in decaying, we get some idea of the great 
antiquity of the American tumuli on which enormous oaks are found 
growing amid the remains of other oaks reduced to dust by extreme 
old age. 

Hieroglyphic inscriptions have also been discovered from time to 
time in the States of Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Connec- 
ticut and Rhode Island, while some, remarkably well-preserved, have 
been found in the islands of Lake Erie. The red pipe-stone quarries 
of the meadow hillocks in the Western States conceal numbers, 
while others are met with in New Mexico. The most important 
and significant of these is that of Dighton rock. This rock is situat- 
ed at the East of the mouth of the Taunton river in Manchuctka ; 
the width of the rock is about forty-four feet, and the height in 
use about five feet ; the surface is polished, either by water or 
by the hand of man. It was for a long time covered with moss, 
detritus dindi dirt, so that the inscription was not noticed until the 
middle of the last century, when it became a subject of much interest 
and scientific discussion. The characters entering into the composi- 
tion of this inscription are decided to be hieroglyphic, kyriologic, 
and symbolical, and the strokes, roughly sculptured, appear to have 
been cut in the stone with a cylindrical instrument, the depth of the 
incision being about two lines. It has been attributed by M. Mathieu, 
a French writer, to the Atlantides, about the year of the world 1902 ; 
and Messrs. Yates and Moulton, in their History of New York, say 
it is of Phoenician origin. An inscription of much interest was also 
discovered in Grace Creek tumuli in Western Virginia. It was 
found buried with a skeleton in a mound containing two vaults ; it 
is composed of twenty-two characters in three lines with a cross and 
a mask engraved on a dark, hard stone of an elliptic shape, about two 
and a half inches long, two inches wide, and about five lines 
thick. 

Learned men who have examined this inscription most carefully, 
neither agree as to its origin nor as to the nature of its characters, of 
which four, it was thought, had a resemblance to the Etruscan signs, 
four to the Thugga (African), five to the ancient Runic in Scandinavia, 
six to the Touarick, seven to the old characters found in Ireland, 
ten to the Phoenician, and fifteen to the Celtiberian, several resem- 
bling more than one kind of character. The divided state of opinion 



182 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

as to the relic only proves the uncertainty of its meaning, and causes 
one writer to ask the questions concerning it : Is it a sign, a motto, an 
ornament, or an historical remembrance? 

There is another circumstance which is worthy of mention and is 
thought to be of great historical significance among the evidences of 
past civilization which are found to exist on this continent, namelv, 
the marks of " fountain worship."' The ancient peoples of Mexico 
and Peru have left traces, not only of the Phallic worship and 
its accompaniments, but also of that ancient material worship 
that believed the spiritual essences of things to be manifested in 
the expressions of life around them. Deity was perceived everj-- 
where, and in everything, and thus they worshipped the sun, the 
moon (which they supposed controlled the weather), the stars, the 
earth (which they call their mother, the sun being their father), the 
rivers and fountains. The Zunis, above all, not using artificial 
means to irrigate their fields, and whose crops, therefore, depended 
entirely upon the rain that fell, believe to this day if they neglect 
to make their annual offerings to the spirit of the fountains their 
harvests will be destroyed by drought. Thus in Mexico, Ireland, 
Scotland, as in ancient Carthage, Persia, Chaldsea, India, China, and 
Arabia, holy wells are held in great reverence and veneration by the 
inhabitants, who repair to them every year to make their offerings to 
the spirit of the springs. In the country of the Zuni one of these is 
still found ; it is seven or eight yards in circumference, and 
surrounded by a low, circular wall. Once a year the water is 
withdrawn, when offerings of varnished pottery are placed upon the 
wall, there to remain until they fall by accident or time ; hence 
there are to be seen here specimens of pottery of great antiquity. A 
tradition obtains among them that any one attempting to steal one 
of these offerings would be punished by instantaneous destruction. 
The worship of wells was practised in the East from times of 
the greatest antiquity, not only by the worshippers of Baal, by 
the Scythians, and their descendants, but also by the Chinese, 
Hindoos, Moors, Persians, Arabians, Egyptians, Jews, and Celts 
of Ireland and Scotland, where these objects of the profound 
veneration of the Celtic people were usually situated in the most 
picturesque spots, on the slopes of hills and venerable oaks, 
amidst rocks covered with heaths, in retreats difficult of access, and, 
aboA'e all, in the vicinity of an ancient oak or upright unhewn stone, 
and in dark and mysterious solitudes, where the breezes and 
the brooks murmur incessantly, and where the voice of man finds a 
faithful echo always ready to make nature resound with the songs 
and praises inspired by the piety of the people. In England, it 



IDOLS, MUMMIES, ETC. 183 

is said, the Druids practised this worship, and under the reign 
of Canute and Edgar edicts were promulgated against tliose who 
venerated these sacred wells ; while in the Scandinavian manuscript, 
it is related that in the tenth century, a schism arose among the 
Americans, some of whom were accused of despising the sacred well 
of Vagarscriebat. That a worship so ancient and so general in the 
Eastern Hemisphere as that of the fountains and wells should 
have been found to exist in the Western Hemisphere, may appear to 
be a mark of no small significance. In those times, there were people 
who believed that spirits presided over these fountains and rivers ; 
that these spirits were invisible, and hovered around them, and 
received with pleasure the offerings made to them by mankind either 
as thanksgiving or propitiation. 

Certain idols, shells, pottery and ancient mummies, have been 
found in the mounds and caves of Tennessee, which are thought by 
some writers to point to an Asiatic origin. In reference to these 
remains, the Abb(i Domenech writes: "A knowledge of conchology 
is by no means unimportaut in the study of the origin of the 
first inhabitants of North America, since it appears that they 
employed large marine shells, for their personal use, and for their 
sacrifices." The tumuli found in the valleys of the great rivers 
and the ruins of ancient fortifications contain a great number of 
these shells, which have formed the subject of long discussions 
among ethnographers, who are not agreed as to the locality of their 
origin. The most curious, perhaps, of the idols which have been found 
in these ruins have been found in the State of Tennessee. One of 
these was found enclosed in a small shell of the species Cassis 
Flammea which is of tropical origin, the others are without 
shells and either seated on their heels or kneeling, the hands being 
placed upon tiie thighs or abdomen. They are naked, and represent 
different sexes ; the largest are about four inches in length ; they are 
cut in stone common to the country. One of the professors of 
the University of Tennessee expressed the opinion that all these idols 
were representations of the ancient Phallic worship and were similar 
to those exposed in the temples of Eleusis. 

The existence of American mummies, swathed in the veritable man- 
ner of the ancient Egyptian mummies, excited considerable surprise 
and comment at the time of their discovery. I'he}' happened to be 
discovered only in the neighborhood of large rivers, where vessels 
could easily approach; they evidently belong to a race anterior to 
the red Indian ; and from their discovery, some writers agree 
that the ancient inhabitants of the continent were of Egyptian origin, 
or at least came from the shores of the Mediterranean, while 



184 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

Dr. Mitchell endeavored to prove that the ancient inhabitants 
of America were of Malay origin, and resembled the natives of the 
islands of the Polynesia and Australasia. He founded this opinion 
on the resemblance of the cloth in which these mummies Avere 
enveloped to that brought from the Sandwich and Fiji Islands, which 
is similarly made of fine cord doubled and twisted by hand; and again 
on the fact that feather mantles are applied to a similar use by the 
the islanders of the Southern Ocean. It may, however, appear 
strange to men of sober reflection that our modern ethnographers are 
not content to allow the ancient inhabitants of this continent 
to have had an American origin without wearying themselves Avith 
investigating an origin for them on other parts of the earth's surface. 

The mummies were found in great numbers in the Mammoth Cave 
near Louisville in Kentucky. This cave contains a large quantity 
of nitre, and the preservation of these mummies is attributed to its 
presence. Domenech describes one of these, that was found nine 
feet below the surface of the soil ; it was placed between two large 
stones and covered by a flat slab ; the Jinees were drawn up to the 
chest, the arms crossed, and the hands folded the one over the other 
at the height of the chin. The hands, nails, ears, hair, teeth, and all 
the features were in a state of perfect preservation. The skin 
resembled leather of a yellowish color, and no traces of an opening 
in the body could be detected. Though this mummy was of a person 
six feet in height, it was so dried up that it did not weigh more than 
fourteen pounds. This body Avas not surrounded either by bandages 
or by any bituminous or aromatic substance, but was Avrapped in 
four coA'erings. The first or interior one was made of fine cord 
doubled and tAvisted in a peculiar manner, and of large feathers in- 
terwoven with great art ; the second Avrapping Avas of the same 
stuff, but without feathers ; the third consisted of a deer skin with- 
out hair; and the fourth and external covering of another deer skin, 
but with hair. The bodies of a man and woman found in a saltpetre 
caA'e in Warren Count}", Tennessee, are also described by the same 
writer ; these were wrapped in deer skins, and in a cloth made of the 
fibres of the bark of trees and ornamented with feathers; while in 
the hand of the female was a fan composed of turkey's feathers, and 
made to open and shut at pleasure. These relics of past ages haA'e 
greatly occupied the attention of American antiquarians, but the 
race to which they belong, eA'idently anterior to the Indian, is not 
decided. f 

Naturalists haA'e expressed the opinion that the horse is not a 
natiA^e of the American continent ; according to Linnaeus, it is a 
natiA'e of Europe and the East, Avhile Goldsmith makes it to be a 



INDIGENOUS HORSES, ETC. 185 

native of Africa; and yet, when the European first set foot upon this 
continent, vast herds of these animals in a wild state were found roam- 
ing at large over the immense prairies of the West. It has been sug- 
gested that these may be the descendants of the domesticated animals, 
once used by the ancient agricultural population who were the former 
cultivators of the soil. There are also herds of sheep in the north of 
Mexico apparently quite wild. Of these are two varieties, one called 
the " Rocky Mountain Sheep," found inhabiting the elevated regions 
between the 48°th and 60°th parallels of north latitude, and near the 
head waters of the Columbia, the country at the sources of the Marais, 
the Saskatchewan and Arthabaska rivers, but less numerous on the 
eastern than oia the western slope of the Rocky Mountains ; and a 
second bearing the name of the American Argali or Ovis Pygargus, 
believed by some to be identical with the Ovis Ammon of Central 
Asia, Siberia, and Kamschatka. The wild bison^ of which the domestic 
ox is a variety, are also found in large herds, and these, together 
with immense flocks of wild turkeys^ luxuriate at perfect liberty upon 
the rich pastures of the great prairies of the West. 

The turkey was supposed by some to be a native of Peru, South 
America, by others to be a native of the East Indies, or Japan, or 
probably some of the islands of the Indian Ocean, whence it was 
brought to America by the ancient Malayan maritime adventurers. 
We see, however, no good reason why naturalists should seek an 
origin outside of America for any tribe of animals found on this con- 
tinent, when the modern white men first set foot on it; still not at- 
tempting to deny that some of these tribes might have had an origin, 
if we may speak of an oi-igin in some other part of the globe, for it 
cannot be said that there was no intercourse of men between these 
continents in the ages preceding the discovery of America by the 
modern Europeans, Avhich undoubtedly there was. 

Tropical plants and vai'ieties of grasses common to other countries 
are found growing in the Western sections of the continent ; among 
these are the maize and garden bean. 

From the various relics which have been mentioned, and others 
to which we need not here refer, we gather that a great and power- 
ful people, advanced in arts and agriculture, and acquainted with 
the use of metals, held sway over this continent prior to the red 
Indians. Ruins of ancient pueblos, remarkable for their construction 
and immense size, some of Avhich were erected on the opposite sides of 
rivers, and connected t)y bridges, are scattered over the country, 
south of the great prairies of the West. The configuration of the 
surface, the existence of river beds where the water has long since 
ceased to floAV, whose banks, once gay with a tropical verdure, plants, 



186 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

flowers and trees, have bow given place to deserts of sand, present- 
ing everywhere a picture of desolation; so that Domenech and 
others who have explored these regions and written upon them, believe 
that, at some indefinite period of the past, this whole territory was 
densely populated by a settled agricultural people, but who by some 
great geological change, perhaps volcanic, taking place in the country, 
changing the soil from a rich and fertile country, well watered, into 
a dry, barren, sandy desert, were compelled to seek a settlement 
elsewhere. 

Domenech thinks that the great centres of this ancient civilization 
were near the great lakes in Ohio, and in Mexico, and Peru, whither 
the natives repaired to have commercial interchange with each other. 
This he deduces from the discovery of mica sheets from the Alle- 
ghanies, shells from the Gulf of Mexico and Florida, and obsidian 
from the mountains of Mexico, and copper instruments, wdth speci- 
mens of ore, from Lake Superior, which are found buried, together 
with ornaments of silver, brass, stone and bronze, in the ancient 
mounds of Ohio, and whose origin and history seems as impenetrable 
as the night of ages. In the history of the ancient American races 
are recognized in order, by antiquarians, the age of rough stone imple- 
ments, the age of polished stone implements, and the age of copper 
tools. The ages of brass and iron instruments and tools are later, 
and that in which we live. 

Since thei'e exists such multitudinous relics of past civilization 
on this continent, it becomes a matter of interest to enquire whether, 
among the ancient traditions of America, or the records and mj'thol- 
ogies of the Old World, any traces can be discovered of an ac 
quaintance with this continent b}' the people of the other hemisphere. 
Inquirers of the greatest care and intelligence believe that commu- 
nication between the two continents did exist at a very remote 
period. Evidences of this they discover in the ruins to which we 
have referred, and in the traditions of ancient America, as well as in 
the traditions and myths of classical antiquity. The antiquities of 
Mexico and Central America reveal religious devices, symbols, and 
ideas almost identical with those found in all countries of the Old 
"World where communities called Cushite formerly existed. They 
exhibit evidences of the worship of the heavenly bodies, Avith its 
usual Orphic and phallic accompaniments. Humboldt, when visiting 
America, observed these remains of past civilization, and was con- 
vinced that communication between the t-#o continents formerly 
existed. The Abbe Domenech, who traversed the desert wilds of 
America and Mexico, also produced two volumes as the results of 
his discoveries, which abounded with evidences of an extinct civiliza- 



ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE, ETC. 187 

tion. Humboldt found evidences of it in the religious symbols, the 
hieroglyphics, the architecture, and the social customs, made mani- 
fest among the ruins, which he felt sure came from across the seaCs, 
and in his view the date of this communication was older than the 
present division of Asia into Chinese, Mongols, Tartars and Hin- 
doos.* 

The high state of agriculture, mechanical art, commerce, the pro- 
fusion of gold and copper, and the religious views and domestic 
manners which were found to exist among the long since extinct 
Aztec and Zezcucon people found in possession of the Eastern 
Shores of Mexico by the rapacious Spaniards, are indicative of a long 
period of peaceful possession and prosperity in that country, during 
which time they had succeeded in surrounding themselves with every 
imaginable kind of luxury ; and there are traces of a superior civil- 
ization even beyond the Aztecs. They possessed a system of 
numerals, and divided their year into 18 months of 20 days 
each, five complementary days being added, as by the Egyptians, to 
make up the full number of 365 days. They Avere also devoted to 
astrology, and their knowledge of astronomy is truly astonishing. 
They used the sun-dial to mark the day, which was divided into 16 
parts, commencing at sunrise. An immense circular block of carved 
stone, disinhumed in the great square of Mexico, in 1790, has sup- 
plied the means of establishing some interesting facts in regard to 
ancient Mexican science. This colossal fragment, on which the 
calendar is engraved, shows that they had the means of determining 
the hours of the day with precision, the periods of the solstices and 
the equinoxes, and of the transit of the sun across the meridian of 
Mexico. It is hardly possible that a nation so far advanced as the 
Aztecs in mechanical science should not have made considerable 
progress in the mechanical arts. A degree of refinement is, indeed, 
shown by intellectual progress of any kind, requiring, as it does 
a certain cultivation of both useful and elegant art. Agriculture 
was in the same advanced state in Mexico as were the other arts of 
social life. Their chief productions consisted of beans, Indian corn 
or maize, the cacao, from which chocolate is derived, the vanilla, 
used for flavoring their food and drink. The gigantic stalks of the great 
staple, Indian corn, afforded them a saccharine matter which supplied 
the natives with sugar little inferior to that of the cane itself; but 
the most wonderful production of the soil was the great Mexican 
aloe, or Maquey tree, whose clustering pyramids of flowers, tower- 
ing above their dark coronals of leaves, were seen sprinkled over 

* See " Researches couceniiug the institutions and monuments of the ancient people of 
America." 



188 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

many broad acres of the taVjle-land. Its bruised leaves afforded a 
paste, from AvLich they manufactured paper ; its juice was fermented 
into an intoxicating beverage called pulque^ of which they were ex- 
cessively fond; with its leaves the more humble dwellings were 
thatched; thread, of which coarse stuffs were manufactui-ed, and 
strong cords were made from its tough and twisted fibres; pins and 
needles were made from the thorns on the extremity of its leaves; 
and the root, when subjected to a process of cooking, was converted 
into a palatable and nutritious food; it furnished, in short, meat, 
d)ink, clothing and writing material to the Aztec. A large variety 
of plants, many of them of great medicinal virtue, have been intro- 
duced into Europe from these regions. The Mexican flowers, also, 
are of the most variegated and gaudy colors, and now form the 
greatest attraction of European greenhouses. They Avere well ac- 
quainted with the mineral as well as the vegetable treasures of their 
country. They drew silver, lead, and tin from the mines of Tasco ; 
also copper from the mountains of Zacotollan, taken not only from 
the crude masses on the surface, but also from veins wrought in the 
solid rock, into which they opened extensive galleries. The gold 
which they found on the surface and gleaned from the beds of rivers 
they cast into bars, in which state, or in the form of dust, it made 
part of the regular tribute. Iron existed in the soil, but they knew 
nothing of its uses. They found a substitute in an alloy of tin and 
copper, and with tools made of this bronze they could cut not only 
metals, but it is said, with the aid of siliceous dust, the hardest sub- 
stances, as basalt, porphyry, amethysts and emeralds. They fash- 
ioned these last, which were found very large, into many curious 
and fantastic forms. They also cast vessels of gold and silver, carv- 
ino- them with their metallic chisels in a very delicate manner. 
Some of the silver vases were so large that a man could not encircle 
them with his arms. They imitated with great nicety the figures of 
animals; and. what was extraordinary, could mix the metals in such 
a manner that the feathers of a bird or the scales of a fish should be 
alternately of gold and silver. They used another metal, made of 
obsidian, a transparent mineral, exceedingly hard, found in abundance 
in their mountains, which they manufactured into knives, razors, 
and serrated swords. It was said to take a keen edge, although it 
soon became blunted : and with it they wrought the various stones 
and alabasters used in the construction of their public works and 
principal buildings. These ancient Mexicans made utensils of earth- 
enware for their ordinary purposes of domestic life. They made 
cups and vases of lacquered or painted wood, impervious to wet and 
saudilv colored. Their dves were obtained both from mineral 



THEIR ART-PRODUCTS, ENLIGHTENMENT, ETC. 189 

and vegetable substances. Among these was the rich cochineal, the 
modern rival of the far famed Tyrian purple ; with this they gave a 
brilliant color to the webs which were manufactured of every degree 
of fineness from the cotton plant, which grew in abundance in the 
southern parts of the country. They also employed the art of inter- 
weaving with these the delicate hair of rabbits and other animals, 
which made a cloth of great warmth, as well as beauty, and of a 
kind altogether peculiar to themselves ; on this they often laid a 
rich embroider}^ of birds, flowers, or other fanciful devices. 

But the art in which they most delighted was the plumage or 
feather work ; and with this they could produce all the effect of a 
beautiful mosaic. The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, es- 
pecially of the parrot tribe, afforded them every variety of color ; 
and the fine down of the humming-bird, which revelled in swarms 
among the honeysuckle bowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft 
aerial tints, which gave an exquisite finish to the picture. The 
feathers, pasted on a fine cotton web, were wrought into dresses for 
the wealthy, hangings for apartments, and ornaments for the tem- 
ples. The profusion in which gold existed in Mexico and Peru, and 
the estimation in which it was held by these ancients, was best seen 
in the manner in which it was used in the liberal decoration of their 
temples, " which " one writer says, " shone lesplendent by reason of 
the abundance in which it was used," and for the adornment and 
magnificence of their princes. Their palaces, gardens, fountains, 
and temples exceeded those of ever}^ other portion of the country, a 
detailed account of which is given by Prescott in his reference to 
the golden age of Tezcuco. Translations into the English and 
Spanish languages have been made of ancient manuscripts found in' 
Mexico by the Spaniards at the" time of their conquest of that coun- 
try, one especially contains the advice of an Aztec mother to her 
daughter on the occasion of her marriage, inculcating the precepts 
of monogamy, conjugal fidelity, the idea of a Supreme Being, to 
whom all are responsible, and who sees all our actions. This docu- 
ment also contains an admonition to the bride to persevere in the 
practice of those graces and virtues which had distinguished her 
ancestors ; advice in fact altogether equal to what might be expected 
of a Christian mother at the present day. The Abbe Brasseur de 
Bourbourg shows that the symbols of phallic worship were described 
by Spanish writers at the time of their conquest; that they were 
frequent in the countries of Central America, abounding in Colhua- 
can, a city on the gulf of California, and at Panuco (the former was 
at one time a flourishing city, the capital of an important kingdom); 
here phallic institutions had existed from time immemorial. In the 



190 CREATOR A2fD COSMOS. 

temples at Panuco phallic symbols abounded, and also on the public 
monuments. These, with the serpent devices, the sun-worship, the 
remarkable knowledge of astronomy accompanying them, shows a 
system of religion of which the Abbe says: "Asia appears to have 
been its cradle, as that of the social institutions which it conse- 
crated." 

It is said that the traditions of the inhabitants of Mexico and 
Central America uniforml}- assert that the ancient American civili- 
zation came originally fi-om the east ''across the ocean." The Abbe 
de Bourbourg, speaking of the earliest civilization of the inhabitants 
of these countries, says : the native traditions generally attribute 
it to "bearded white men, who came across the ocean from the east." 
The history of Sahagun also states that, according to the traditions 
of the people of Yucatan, " the original civilizers came in ships from 
the east." Montezuma, it is said, related a similar tradition to the 
Spaniards. There were in Central Ameiica three classes of ancient in- 
habitants, first, the Chichimecs, who seem to have been the uncivilized 
aborigines of the country ; the Colhaas, who were the fiist civilizers, 
and who were the " beai-ded white men " a\ ho came in the early 
times across the Atlantic, and who built Palenque and other cities, 
originated the oldest and finest monuments of the ancient civiliza- 
tion, and established the great kingdom of Kibalba celebrated in 
tradition and history ; it comprised Guatemala, Chiapas, Yucatan, 
and probably other countries. The third class of inhabitants men- 
tioned are the Toltecs, a powerful race, whom Humboldt, stiangely 
enough, supposed to have derived their origin from the Huns, and 
who came much later as peaceable immigrants, but, uniting with the 
uncivilized Chichimecs, caused a civil war and acquired the ascend- 
ency over the land. 

Desiri Charmay, in speaking of the ruins of the ancient city of 
Mitla, points out the most ancient architecture, paintings, mosaics 
and artistic designs as being in the highest style, showing marvellous 
workmanship ; while the later additions are in a much lower style, 
and seem to be the work of a people much less advanced in culture 
and skill than the original founders of the city. The most remark- 
able and finest monuments found in those countries are believed to 
belong to the remains of the ancient kingdom of Kibalba. Other 
traditions point to an existing acquaintance with the country among 
the Chinese and Malays. The Abbe de Bourbourg relates that there 
was a constant tradition among the people who dwelt upon the Pacific 
Coast that people from distant countries across the Pacific formeily 
came to trade at the ports of Coatulco and Pechugui, which belonged 
to the Kingdom of Tehauntepec. Again the traditions of Peru tell 



ANCIENT INTERCOMMUNICATION OF THE EAST WITH AMERICA. 191 

of people who came to that country by sea and landed on the Pacific 
Coast, thought probably to be the Malays of the great Malayan mari- 
time empire that flourished in ancient days. 

If we now turn to the ancient traditions, mythology, and records 
of the Eastern world, we shall find much that points directly to an 
acquaintance with the " Atlantic," or " continent beyond the sea," 
which either appears to refer to America or to be utterly meaning- 
less, Avhich latter opinion does not seem to be entertained by any 
antiquarians of the present day. In ancient mythology there is 
reference to a great continent beyond the Cronian Sea, meaning the 
Atlantic ; and it was in the Atlantadis of Homer and Horace, 
beyond the western waters, that the ancient poets placed their Ely- 
sian fields. 

Theopompus, a learned historian and celebrated orator who lived 
in the days of Alexander the Great, relates, in his work entitled 
" Thaumasia," a very ancient dialogue which took place between 
Midas, King of Phrygia, and Silenus, in which the latter is made to 
say : " There is a continent beyond the sea, the dimensions of which 
are immense, almost without limit, greater than Asia, Europe and 
Lybia (Africa) together, and so fertile that animals of a prodigious 
size are to be seen there, as likewise a race of men calling themselves 
Meropes, whose stature is much greater than that of ordinary men, 
and who attain to an extreme old age ; that a great many large towns 
and cities were to be found on that continent, one of which con- 
tained above a million of inhaliitants, and having different laws and 
customs from those of the people of Asia, Africa, and Europe ; and, 
finally, that gold and silver were found very common over all the 
surface of that vast continent. Another writer relates that these 
Meropes were so persuaded that there existed no continent but 
their own that out of curiosity alone some of them crossed tlie ocean 
and visited the hyperboreans. Another ancient writer, Diodorus of 
Sicily, in his fifth book, chapter 11, has an important passage con- 
cerning this continent, which is historical, in which he affirms that 
some Phoenicians Avere cast upon the shores of an exceedingly fertile 
island situated opposite to Africa. The passage referred to reads as 
follows : Over against Africa lies a very great island in the vast 
ocean, many days' sail from Lybia westward. The soil is very fruit- 
ful, it is diversified with mountains and pleasant vales, and the 
towns are adorned with stately buildings. Its shores are indented 
with countless navigable rivers ; its fields are well cultivated and 
dotted with delicious gardens and with plants and trees of every 
sort ; finally he describes it as being the most beautiful country 
known, with inhabitants who live in spacious dwellings, possessing 



192 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

abundance of every kind. In regard to this the Abbd Domenech 
s&js : The recital made by Diodorus exactly corresponds with that 
of the first Spaniards who landed in Mexico. 

It is related of one Hanno, who lived before the foundation of 
Rome, that he made a voyage beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the 
straits of Gibraltar) and visited a strange coast, which he reached b}- 
keeping due west, after traversing the ocean for thirty days. The 
best authors suppose this coast to have been that of one of the West 
India islands, or of the mainland of America. Homer, Solon, and 
Horace speak of the Atlantides as being islands situated at a distance 
of ten thousand stadia (a stadium is 606| English feet) west of 
Europe and Africa. Aristotle speaks of an island placed beyond the 
Straits of Hercules, in these words : " It is said that the Carthaginians 
have discovered beyond the Pillars of Hercules a very fertile island, 
but Avhich is without inhabitants, j-et full of forests, navigable rivers, 
and abounding in fruit ; it is estimated many days voyage from the 
mainland." Plutarch also has a passage quoted by Humboldt, in 
which mention is made in unmistakable terms of a great transatlantic 
continent, and of a mysterious stranger who came from that distant 
country to Carthage, about 300 B. C, where he lived many years. 
According to Cabrera the first Carthaginian emigration to this West- 
ern Continent took place during the first Punic war. According to 
Sandoval a succession of emigrations came from Ceylon, Java, and 
from Southern India to America, many centuries before Christopher 
Columbus. In support of this statement figures representing the 
god Boudha of Java, seated on a Siva's head, were found at Uxmal, 
in Yucatan. It is well established that a knowledge of the American 
continent existed in China and Japan long before the time of Colum- 
bus. M. de Guigies, relying upon the chronicles preserved in the 
Chinese work, Pran Y tien, attributes the Peruvian civilization to 
emigrations proceeding from China, from Japan, and the East Indies ; 
recent investigations, it is thought, confirm this opinion. M. 
Paravey, in the year 1844, proved that the province of Fu-Sang, de- 
scribed in the Chinese annals, was nothing less than Mexico, known 
to them in the fifth century ; and the Abbe de Bourbourg says, in 
his introduction to the Fopol-Vuh : " It has been known to scholars 
nearly a century that the Chinese were acquainted with the Ameri- 
can continent in the fifth century of our era; their ships visited it; 
they called it Fu-Sang, and said it was situated at the distance of 
20,000 li fabout 7000 miles) from Ta-Han. 

J. Hanl3% the Chinese interpreter at San Francisco, has lately 
written an essay upon this subject, in which he makes the following 
statements, drawn from Chinese historians and geographers : Four- 



BOTH OF THE ASIATICS AND EUROPEANS. 193 

teen hundred years ago even America had been discovered by the 
Chinese, and described by them. Tliey stated that land to be about 
20,000 Chinese miles distant from China. About 600 years after 
the birth of Christ, Buddhist priests repaired thither and brought 
back the nev^s that they had met with Buddhist idols and religious 
writings in the country already. Their descriptions in many re- 
spects resemble those of the Spaniards a tliousaiid years after. They 
called the country " Fu-Sang," after a tree which grew there, the 
Maquey tree, whose leaves resemble those of the Ijamboo, whose bark 
the natives made clothes and paper out of, and whose fruit they ate. 
These particulars correspond remarkably with those given by the 
historian Prescott about the Maquey tree in Mexico. The accounts 
given by the Chinese and Spaniards, although a thousand years apart, 
agree in stating that the natives did not possess any iron, but only 
copper ; that they made all their tools for working in stone and 
metals out of copper and tin ; and that they, in comparison with the 
nations of Europe and Asia, thought but little of the worth of silver 
and gold. The religious customs and forms of worshi^D presented the 
same characteristics to the Chinese fourteen hundred years ago. 
There is, moreover, said to be a remarkable resemblance between 
the religion of the Aztecs and the Buddhism of the Chinese, as well 
as between the manners and customs of the Aztecs and those of the 
people of China. It is, hoAvever, remarkable, and may be thought 
confirmatory of the idea of emigration from China to America, at 
some remote period, that at the time that America was discovered 
by the Spaniards the Indian tribes on the coast of the Pacific op- 
posite to China for the most part enjoj'ed a state of culture of ancient 
growth, while the inhabitants of the Atlantic coast were found in a 
state of original barbarism. The stone arrow-heads, lance-heads, 
hatchets and tomahawks found in Europe, India, Japan, and 
America, are so similar to each other that it is often impossible 
to distinguish them by their form. It is remarkable that everywhere 
except in America these weapons are believed by the common people 
to be thunder-bolts. They are called elf-bolts in Scotland ; and 
Pliny speaks of them as Ceraunix ; while in China and Japan the 
same origin is ascribed to them. 

M. Leon de Rosny has ascertained that Fu-Sang is the topic of 
a curious notice in the great Japanese Encyclopedia, which enjoys 
the curious name of the " Wa-kan-san-tai-dron-ye." In that work it 
is said to be situated east of Japan, beyond the ocean, at the distance 
of about 20,000 Chinese miles from Ta-nan-kouek. Great stress is 
laid upon these records of the Chinese and Japanese, as they are 

13 



194 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

peoples that do not deal in myths, but in actual facts and historical 
events. 

Let us now turn our attention to the Atlantic coasts, and enquire 
into the early communication with this continent by Europeans, 
priof to Columbus. Following the chronological order of events as 
they seem to have transpired here we first refer to the emigration of 
the Ires, or people from Ireland, who came to this continent by way 
of Iceland at rather uncertain eiiochs. The opinion of learned men, 
familiar with the antiquities of the Western world, is that, as in the 
most ancient records of Iceland the first inhabitants of that island 
are called " men come from the west by the sea," so we may con- 
clude that Iceland was not colonized by people coming direct from 
Europe, but by Ires who had returned from America, who at an 
early period had been transplanted, and who returned from Virginia 
and the coast of Carolina (called Great Ireland) to settle in the 
island of Papar and the south-eastern coast of Iceland. In the ancient 
documents preserved in Iceland accounts are given of Christian Papas, 
or fathers who returned from Great Ireland on the. West (America) 
to Iceland, to instruct the Icelanders in the principles of the Chris- 
tian religion, about the year 800 A. D. Accounts are also given of 
persons who, having been cast awa)^ in ships, landed upon a western 
coast called " huitra manna land " or the land of the white men. 
These stories are considered as authentic, and as an important proof 
in favor of the prevailing opinion that at a very earl}' period of the 
Christian era Irish colonies existed on the coast of the Carolinas and 
farther sout£. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, in a note to his 
translation of the Popol-Vuh, says on this matter there is an abund- 
ance of legends and traditions concerning the passage of the Irish 
into America, and their habitual communication with that continent 
many centuries before Columbus was heard of. 

An Irish saint, named Vigile, who lived in the eighth century, 
was accused by Pope Zachary of having taught heresies on the sub- 
ject of the antipodes.. He at first wrote to the Pope in reply to the 
charge, but afterwards went to Rome to justify himself; and there 
he proved to the Pope that the Irish had long been accustomed to 
communicate A\ith a transatlantic world. These facts are said to be 
preserved in the records of the Vatican. It is now an historical fact 
also that the 'Northmen, sailing from Iceland, not only discovered 
America in the tenth century, but also established colonies on the 
coast of New England, and preserved a communication with these 
colonies for two centuries. In 877, Gunbiorn, the Icelandish navi- 
gator, first saw the mountain sea-board of Greenland. It appears 
from the Scandinavian manuscript, in which are to be found the 



OF THE IRISH AND NORTHMEN. 195 

accounts of the Normans' first voyages to America, that in 983 the 
celebrated Ari Marsson, while sailing southward, was cast by a storm 
upon the coast of this continent, which he called Irland it Mikla, or 
Great Ireland. In 986, Eric, surnamed the Red, established on these 
shores the first colony, composed of emigrants from Iceland. After- 
wards, in 1124, a bishopric was instituted here called Garda, which 
existed for upAvards of 300 years. In the year 1000, Lief, the eldest 
son of Eric the Red, sailed with thirty- five companions in search of 
new discoveries, when he discovered Newfoundland, and called it 
Litla Helluland ; re-embarking he arrived in the country situated 
between Newfoundland and Canada, which he called Markland 
(now Labrador) ; pursuing his voyage farther south he landed on an 
agreeable coast, where he found an abundance of vines, which he 
called Vinland (now New England) ; here he made a settlement, 
which flourished for a length of time, and was visited in 1121 by the 
first bishop of Greenland, Eric Upu, of Irish origin, for the purpose 
of confirming the colonists of Vinland in the doctrines of Christianity. 
In the year 1002 another expedition under Thorwald, visited this 
coast and landed at Cape Cod, near Boston, where the leader was 
killed in an encounter Avith the Esquimaux. In the year 1006, 
Thorstein embarked on a similar expedition, but was unsuccessful. 
Thorfin, the most celebrated of the first explorers of America, landed 
in the year 1007 on the island called Martha^ s Vineyard, on the New 
England coast, and spent two winters in the bay of Mount Hope, 
close to Seconnet. From this time to the middle of the fourteenth 
century, very little can be ascertained concerning the Scandinavian 
colonies in America. In the twelfth century, Norwegian colonies 
existed in Greenland. In 1170 the Welsh prince, Madog, was quite 
certain of the existence of America, for, it is said, he sailed aAvay 
Avestward, going south of Ireland, to find a land of refuge from the 
civil AA'ar Avhich Avas raging among his countrymen. The Welsh an- 
nals inform us that he found the land he sought, and having made 
preparations for a settlement, he returned to Wales, secured a larger 
company, that filled ten ships, and then sailed aAvay again and never 
returned. With reference to this Welsh colony Ave may state that 
in 1660, the Rev. Morgan Jones, a Welsh clergyman, seeking to go 
by land from South Carolina to Roanoke, Avas captured by the Tusca- 
rora Indians. He declares that his life Avas spared because he spoke 
Welsh, Avhich some of the Indians understood ; that he Avas able to 
converse Avith them in Welsh; and that he remained Avith them four 
months preaching to them in Welsh. Dr. Williams, in his A\'ork on 
the " Stor}^ of Prince Madog's emigration," published in 1791, ex- 
plained Mr. Jones' statement by assuming that the Welsh colony. 



196 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

becoming weakened, had become incorporated with those Indians ; 
and it is Avell known that in early colonial times the Tuscaroras were 
sometimes called "White Indians." It is known that the Northmen 
had colonies in New England long before Prince Madog's colony 
sailed for the Western continent ; and one able writer savs on this 
subject : " It it not so well known, but is nevertheless quite true, 
that they were preceded in Iceland b}^ the Irish, and in vovaoes to 
America by the Irish and Basques; the latter, he says, "were advent- 
urous fishermen, who were accustomed to visit the north-east coast 
of America from time immemorial." Thus it appears that sufficient 
evidence is afforded by ancient European records to warrant us in 
believing that America was not unknown to the ancients, and was 
comparatively well known to Europeans, in the early part of the 
Christian era, centuries before Columbus was heard of or the clas- 
sical nations thought of changing their patristic geographj^. 

The period of time which must have elapsed since the abandon- 
ment of the ancient monuments of America, of which we have spoken 
above, sufficient to alloAV of successive forests of so ancient a character 
to have lived and died upon them, taken together with other evidences 
of antiquity, lead us to suppose that the people by ^^•hom they were con- 
structed lived and flourished in times perhaps long anterior to our his- 
toric ages ; and this being the case we are told that those nations 
claim an antiquity Avhich to Europeans appear almost fabulous. 
The Biblical chronologies extant in the present day appear to have 
been made out to show that the earth itself is scarce 6000 years old; 
but it should be remembered that the Scriptural writings furnish no 
data whereon to found any other than an uncertain and speculative 
chronology. When we look into the book of nature, which pro- 
claims in such eloquent terms the wisdom and design and the 
progressive operations of the Creator, and Avhich cannot lie, we 
find it tells us of events of such magnitude as to require prodig- 
iously long periods of time for their accomplishment, making its mo- 
ments appear eternities. What if in it we read that there are fosillif- 
erous rocks wliich have been slowly raised ten thousand feet above 
the level of the sea, and that so late in the world's history as since 
the beginning of the tertiary period ? What if it informs us that 
the peninsula of Florida, which is coraliferous, upon which are 
found monuments of ancient races, abandoned scores of centuries 
ago has not required less than 135,000 yeai's in the process of its 
formation ? Or if we discover from it that the great chasm, seven 
miles in length, through which the Niagara river flows from Goat 
Island to Queenstown Heights, required a period of over 30,000 years 
for its excavation ; or that in certain alluvial beds numerous speci- 



IGNORAKCE OF THE EASTERN RELIGIOUS SYSTEM-MAKERS. 197 

mens of the mastodon giganteus have been found on the shores of 
Lake Ontario, one at a great depth in Burlington Heights, Hamilton, 
and one in the old river bed on Goat Island ; and that these indi- 
viduals must have lived and flourished (says Sir Charles Lyell in his 
" Age of Deposits in North America "), previous to the gradual exca- 
vation of that deep, long chasm; for this ravine is not only postglacial 
but also posterior in date to the mastodon-bearing beds. Or, again, 
if the depression of the fern forests which now form the coal beds of 
Nova Scotia took place at the rate of four feet in a centur}^ there 
was required a period of 375,000 years for their completion to their 
present depth. Or, as a forest can scarce produce more than two or 
three feet of vegetable soil in a thousand years, the dirt beds are the 
work of hundreds of centuries. Or, if it tells us that the delta of the 
Mississippi could only have been formed in many tens of thousands of 
years (estimated by Sir Charles Lyell at 100,000) ; * and that four 
successive cyprus forests lay buried in its depths and yet that it is 
only as a work of yesterday compared to the inland terraces of the 
Mississippi river ; that skeletons have been disinhumed in this same 
delta to which Dr. Dowler assigns an antiquity of 40,000 years at least. 
Or, if, as Sir Charles Lyell says, it be admitted that the human re- 
mains discovered at Natchez, in connection with those of the Mast- 
odon and Megalonyx, were found in their primitive bed, then a race 
of human beings must have occupied that country more than a thou- 
sand centuries ago; and if a thousand centuries ago, we may say 
why not tens of thousands of centuries ; yea, a beginningless suc- 
cession of centuries ; for who will put a beginning to the human 
race other than it has now ? To many who with difficulty shake 
off their patristic chronology such statements appear wonderful, 
and yet they are the deductions the most learned and profound 
geologists have drawn from their perusals of the book of nature. 
Who, then, will say that the poet was not partly right who penned 
that remarkable line: "Thou canst not find one spot whereon no 
city stood." 

Before this continent was discovered by Columbus, Europeans 
generally did not know that it existed, with its races of men, its 
many languages, and its great natural wonders ; but since that time, 
the progress of discovery has been rapid, and each continent and 

A good part of this researcli in Illustration of the " Civilization of tlie Ancient Ameri- 
cans," we have taken from a lecture on that subject by Dr. W. E. Bessey, of Montreal, a 
gentleman of great archaeological and antiquarian research, and an accurate critical 
scliolar. 



* This refers to the whole area of the delta, and not only to what i.s now commonly under- 
stood as the delta, whose estimated period of formation is about 35,000 years. 



198 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

island that has been discovered has exliibited its peculiar human in- 
habitants with their language, its flora and fauna. And while the 
Europeans and Asiatics, in their vain imagination, were setting up 
theory after theory as to the existence and nature of the Deity, — 
yea, and adding one deity to another in their assumed hierarchy of 
heaven ; while they were expounding their doctrines of a literal crea- 
tion of the earth in six literal days, of redemption, transubstantia- 
tion, total depravity, or predestination ; while they were magnifying 
themselves in their own estimation by the invention of such sys- 
tems, and the inculcation of such dogmas they were all but totally 
ignoi'ant of the earth on which they lived ; much more of the deity 
in the immensity of his nature, whom they pretended to know. 
Alexander and the Romans both made great mistakes when they sat 
down under the impression that they had conquered the world. 
There remained vast continents on the earth which they had never 
seen, never dreamed of; and there remained even in their own hemi- 
sphere a far greater extent of land than that which they had con- 
quered, and which they had never exjolored. There remained the 
vast continent of Africa, with its numerous tribes and languages ; 
and equally vast Eastern and Northern Asia and Northern Europe. 
The Hindoos and the Chinese have literature which goes back for 
tens of thousands of years ; but our European system-makers would 
place the beginning of the existence of the earth and of men at less 
than six thousand years ago. The ancient Pelasgians, inhabitants 
of Eastern Europe, including Greece and Italy, called themselves 
Autochthons, that is, " offsprings of the earth." This seems to have 
been- their traditional belief of their origin. It was not, however, 
literally true, for no human being ever sprung from the earth as 
such. Nor did any real human being ever live that was not produced 
by his own kind, male and female. 

Mr. Darwin in his work on "The Descent of Man, and Selection 
in relation to Sex," makes the following statement as to the orign 
and descent of man : " The most ancient progenitors in the kingdom 
of the vertebrata, at which Ave are able to obtain an obscure glance, 
apparently consisted of a group of marine animals, resembling the 
larvae of existing Ascidians. These animals probably gave rise to a 
gi'oup of fishes, as lowly organized as the lancelet ; and from these 
the Ganoids and other fishes like the Lepidosiren must have been 
developed. From such a fish a very small advance would carry us 
on to the amphibians. We have seen that birds and reptiles were 
once intimately connected together ; and the Mouotremata now, in 
a slight degree, connects animals with reptiles, but no one can at 
present say by what line of descent the three higher and related 



DARWIN'S THEORY OF MAN's ORIGIN ONLY A THEORY. 199 

classes, namely, mammals, birds and reptiles, were derived from 
either of the two lower vertebrate classes, namely, amphibians and 
fishes. In the class of mammals the steps are not difficult which 
led from tlie ancient Monotremata to the ancient Marsuinals, and 
from these to the early progenitors of the placental mammals. We 
may thus ascend to the Lemurida^ ; and the interval is not Avide from 
these to the Simiadte. The Simiadte then branched off into two 
great stems, the New World and Old World Monkeys ; and from 
the latter at a remote period, Man, the wonder and glory of the 
universe, proceeded. Thus, we have given to man a pedigree of 
prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality." 

This is the theory which Mr. Darwin has propounded, or the con- 
clusions to which he has come concerning man's origin. In it we 
have five noticeable stages (we may make as many more as we please 
ad infinitum^ in the descent of man from an insignificant salt-water 
animal to his present state. The first stage consists of a group of 
marine animals resembling the larvae of existing ascidians (Greek 
acxo'c signifying a leather bottle, or wine skin, having two necks); 
called ascidians from the resemblance which these little animals bear 

« 

to a two-necked jar or bottle. But according to the statement the 
progenitors of man only resembled the larvae or spawn of these bottle- 
shaped animals. The second stage was probably a group of fishes. 
The third the Amphibians, which may represent the reptiles in 
general. The fourth we may take as the Simiadse which will repre- 
sent all the ape and monkey tribes as well as the Lemurs. And the 
fifth, the present stage, as Man. 

The difficulty with us is, how any man, be his mental capacity 
and ability never so great, could command such a stretch of imagin- 
ation as to conceive the human race, in all its colors and varieties, 
to have been derived through an infinite series of changes from the 
lowest species of salt-water animals. Fishes have come down to us 
through all the series of geological changes from the most ancient 
period of which geology has any knowledge of existing organic be- 
ings, and still they are fishes. And shall -it not be allowed that man 
has also thus come down to ns, — man in the most ancient periods as 
well as now, — since there is reall)^ no evidence to the contrary? 

For our own part we do not consider that permanency in one 
form or descent through change of form makes the matter either bet- 
ter or worse for man, — makes him of itself, either a more or less 
respectable being, and Avhile admitting that Mr. Darwin has displayed 
great ability and exercised great labor and pains in the fabrication 
and illustration of his theory, — yet in our opinion it remains a theory 
still. Men should consider that Word of Truth (see Gospel of John, 



200 CREATOK AND COS.'\IOS. 

chapter i.) which represents the Logos, the son, or man in whom is 
exhibited the reason (and speech) as existing eternally with Deity. 
This appears to imply that the head or reason domination, which 
now characterizes man always existed whether or not always in con- 
nection with a body exactly of the human shape. 

But this theory Mr. Darwin bases mainly upon geological dis- 
covery. He should bear in mind that the insignificant scratchings 
which geologists have done on exceedingly small spots of the earth's 
surface, amongst, for the most part, rocks of aquatic origin, are not 
by any means sufficient to base a theory upon which goes to assert 
impossibilities with respect to any thing connected with the earth or 
to man. What do men know about the tens of thousands of genera 
and species of aquatic plants and animals which may now live on the 
beds of the mighty oceans of the earth? What do they know, but 
that most of the fossilized aquatic animals which geologists have dis- 
covered are now represented by living species in the oceans and seas, 
salt water and fresh? Some species which existed in time past may 
have entirely passed away, and their place may be supplied by the 
multiplication of individuals in remaining species. But the dis- 
coveries of geology thus far do not afford any sufficient reason to 
believe that most of the species of plants and animals which existed 
in times past are not now represented in living species. These species 
may be modified in size, but they are of the same structure. Man of 
the past, of whatever size, and we know that his size has varied in 
different ages, is represented by man of the present. And so, we 
think, men will find with respect to most of the other species of ani- 
mals, as well as of plants, if they only take time to make sufficient 
research, or if they ever can do it. By the time that even the vast 
continents of South and North America, Australia, and all the Islands 
of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as Asia, Africa, and Europe, 
have been thoroughly explored by naturalists and geologists, then 
men will be better able to determine with respect to the land species 
of both plants and animals of the present and the past. It cannot 
be said with respect to geological discovery, as it is said with respect 
to the classes of things that what is true of one member of the class 
is true of the class in general. The geological discovery of Britain 
or France or of any other part of Europe may not be at all a fair 
representation of the geological discovery which may be made in 
Tartary, China, Central Africa, Brazil or Utah. Geologists know 
very well how that alteration is continually taking place in the 
earth's surface by elevation and depression ; how that their researches 
hitherto have been among rocks chiefly of aquatic origin ; how that 
many parts that were once diy land, inhabited by man and land ani- 



PAST AND PEESENT SPECIES. 201 

inals, are now submerged far beneath the sm^face of the seas and 
oceans ; and how that they could not answer a question, even aproxi- 
mately, with respect to the relations of past and present species 
until they would have explored not only all the dry land, but even 
the beds of the seas and oceans, a thing they cannot accomplish. 
Even in places on the land surface where fossil remains existed dur- 
ing long ages of the past there may remain no traces of any now, 
from the fact that they have disappeared by decomposition or some 
chemical process. But to say that one species of animals or of plants 
has ever been changed into another entirely different species or has 
been produced by two entirely different species is asserting a 
thing of which we have no experience or evidence. Experience 
is that hybrids do not propagate ; they die out. And the appearance 
of different species of plants and animals in the successive geological 
strata, which geologists used to attribute to special acts of creation, 
are well accounted for by the migration of species and other causes. 
All the species of plants and animals have always and permanently 
sprung from their own seeds. The rose bush never sprung from the 
seed of the tamarack, the apple tree from the seed of the plum, the 
bean from the seed of wheat ; nor did any one species of plants or 
animals ever spring from other than seeds of their own kind. Cross 
breeds of animals, such as males, always exhibit characteristics un- 
mistakably different from either of the species that entered into their 
production ; and it is by the appearance and characteristics that the 
different species are determined. " I strongly imagine," says Prof. 
Huxley, in in his Lectures to working men, " that if it were not for 
the peculiar appearance that fossilized animals have that you might 
readily walk through a museum which contains fossil remains mixed 
up with those of the present forms of life, and I doubt very much 
whether your uninstructed eyes would lead you to see any vast or 
wonderful difference between the two. If you looked closely jom 
would notice in the first place a great many things very like 
animals with which you are acquainted now, you would see differ- 
ences of shape and proportion, but on the whole a close similarity." 
With respect to Mr. Darwin's theory, we have but to add to what we 
have already said, that strange, indeed, is the course taken by some 
speculative minds ! The great mass of mankind remain yet unen- 
lightened ; and when an individual arises who has become possessed 
of information which he wishes to impart to the rest, his object shoiild 
be to instruct and enlighten them in the truth, and not to propound 
erroneous theories which will tend only to confuse the people's minds 
and render the truth more difficult to be attained. 



202 CKEATOR AND COSMOS, 



Origin of Organic beings illustrated. 

Nor will any knowledge whatever that we have with regard to the 
origin of gpecies militate against anything we have said as to their 
probable permanent existence in tlie main as they now exist. It is 
a fact universally known that every living creature commences its 
existence in a form diiferent from and simpler than that which it 
eventually attains. The apple-tree is a more complex thing than the 
rudimentary plant contained in the seed ; the caterpillar is more 
complex than the egg ; the butterfly than the caterpillar; and the 
series of changes which each of these beings runs through from its 
rudimentary state to its perfect condition is called its development. 
In the higher animals these changes are exceedingly complicated, 
but within the last half century they have become completely sim- 
plified by the labors of some eminent German scholars, as Von Baer 
and others ; so that the successive stages of development which are 
exhibited by an animal, for example, a dog, are well known to the 
embryologist. 

If we consider attentively the nature and the order of the stages 
of canine development it will serve as an illustration of the process 
in the higher animals generally. 

The dog, like all animals except the very lowest (and it is thought 
that further enquiries may not improbably remove the apparent ex- 
ception), commences its existence as an egg ; as a body which is in 
every sense as much an egg as that of a hen, but does not possess 
that accumulation of nutritive matter which gives to the bird's egg 
its large size and domestic utility ; and is without the shell which 
would not only be useless to an animal incubated within the body 
of its parent, but would separate it from the' source of that nutriment 
which the young creature requires and which the minute egg of the 
mammal does not contain Avithin it. 

The egg of the dog is, in fact, a little spheroidal bag formed of a 
delicate transparent membrane called the vitelline membrane, and is 
about the l-30th to the 125th of an inch in diameter. It contains a 
mass of nutritive matter, the yelk, within which is enclosed a second 
much more delicate spheroidal bag called the germinal vesicle (a). In 
this is situated a more solid round body termed the germinal spot (b). 
The egg or ovule is originally formed within a gland from which m 
due time it becomes detached and passes into the living chamber 
fitted for its maintenance and protection during the protracted pro- 
cess of gestation. Here placed in the required conditions this 
minute and apparently insignificant particle of living matter be- 



ORIGIN OF ANIMALS. 



203 



comes animated by a new and mysterious activity. The germinal 
vesicle and spot cease to be discernible (their precise fate being one 
of the problems of embryology yet unsolved) but the yelk becomes 




Plate I. A, egg of the dog ■with vitelline memhrane burst so as to give exit to the yellt, the ger- 
minal vesicle (a) and its included spot (b) B. C. D. E. F. successive changes of the yelk indicated 
in the text. 

circumferentially indented as if an invisible knife had been drawn 
around it and thus appears divided into two hemispheres (C). By 
this repetition of the process in various planes these hemispheres be- 
come subdivided so that four segments are produced (D) ; and these 
in like manner divide and subdivide again until the whole yelk is 
converted into a mass of granules each of which consists of a minute 
spheroid of yelk substance inclosing a central particle called the 
nucleus (F). 

Next the mass of organized cells, as they are technically termed, 
thus formed, acquire an ordei'ly arrangement becoming converted 
into a hollow spheroid with double walls. Then upon one side of 
this spheroid appears a thickening and by and by in the centre of 
the area of thickening a straight shallow groove (Plate II. A) marks 
the central line of the edifice which is to be raised, or in other words 
indicates the position of the middle line of the body canis incipiens. 
The substance bounding the groove on each side next rises up into a 
fold, the rudiment of the side-wall of that long cavity which will 
eventually contain the spinal marrow and the brain, and in the floor 
of this chamber appears a solid celular cord called the 7iotochord. 
One end of the enclosed cavity dilates to form the head (Plate II. 
B), the other remains narrow and eventually becomes the tail ; the 
side-walls of the body are fashioned out of the downward continua- 
tion of the walls of the groove, and from them by and by grow out 



204 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



little buds which gradually assume the shape of limbs. Every part, 
every organ, is at first as it were sketched out in the rough, then 
A B 




Plate II, A. Earliest rudiment of the Dog. B. rudiment farther advanced, showing 
the foundation of the head, tail, and vertebrate column. C. the very young puppy 
with attached ends of the yelk-sac, and allantois and invested in the amnion. 

shaped more accurately and at the last receives the touches which 
stamp its final character. Thus at length the young dog assumes 
such a form as is shown in Plate II. C. In this condition it has a 
disproportionately large head as dissimilar to that of a dog as the 
bud-like limbs are unlike his legs. 

A sac attached to the rudimentary intestine and termed the yelk- 
sac or umbellical vesicle contains the remains of the yelk which have 
not yet been applied to the nutriment and growth of the young 
animal. Two membranous bags intended to subserve respectively 
the protection and nutrition of the young creature have been 
developed from the skin and from the under and hinder surface of the 
body ; the former called the amnion is a sac filled with fluid which 
invests the whole body of the embryo and serves as a sort of water- 
bed for it ; the other termed the allantois grows out loaded with 
blood-vessels from the ventral region, and eventually applying itself 
to the walls of the cavity in which the developing organism is con- 
tained enables these vessels to become the channels by which the 
stream of nutriment required to supply the wants of the offspring is 
furnished to it by the parent. 

The structure which is developed by the interlacement of the 
vessels of the offspring with those of the parent, and by means of 
which the former is enabled to receive nourishment and to get rid of 
effete matters, is termed the Placenta. Thus, in the process of em- 
bryonic development by a long and gradual series of changes the 
rudiment here depicted and described becomes a puppy, is born, and 



ORIGIN OF ANIMALS ; EMBKYOLOGY. 205 

then by steps even slower and less perceptible passes into the adult 
dog. 

There is not much apparent resemblance between a fowl and a 
dog; yet the embryologist discovers that the young bird commences 
its existence as an egg in all essential respects iDrimarily the same 
with that of a dog ; but that the yelk of this egg undergoes division, 
that the primitive groove arises and that the contiguous parts of the 
ge]in are fashioned by precisely similar methods into a young bird 
which at one stage of its existence is so like the nascent dog that 
ordinary inspection would hardly distinguish between them. 

The manner of the development of any other vertebrate animal 
Is much after the same fashion. There is always to begin with an 
egg having the same essential structure with that of the dog ; the 
yelk of that egg always undergoes division or as it is called segmenta- 
tion, the ultimate results of that segmentation constitute the struct- 
ural materials of the body of the young animal ; and this is built up 
round a primitive groove in the floor of which a notochord is de- 
veloped. There is, moreover, a period in which the young of all 
vertebrate animals resemble one another not merely in outward form 
but in all essential of structure so closely that the differences be- 
tween them are inconsiderable while in their subsequent course they 
diverge more and more widely from one another. And it is a general 
law that the more closely any animals resemble one another in adult 
structure the longer and more closely do their embryos resemble 
one another ; so that, for example, the embryos of a snake and a 
lizard resemble one another longer than do those of a snake and a 
bird; and the embryo of a dog and a cat resemble one another for a 
far longer period than do those of a dog and a bird, or of a dog and 
an oppossum, or even than those of a dog and a monkey. 

The mode of orgin and the early stages of the development of 
man are primarily the same with those of the animals immediately 
below him in the scale, and it is determined beyond doubt that in 
those respects he is much nearer to the apes than the apes are to the 
dog. He originates in a similar germ, passes through the same slow 
and gradually progressive modifications ; depends on the same con- 
trivances for protection and nutrition, and finally enters the world 
by the help of the same mechanism. 

The human ovule is about the 125th of an inch in diameter and 
might be described in the same terms as that of the dog so that we 
need only refer to the figure illustrative of its structure. It leaves 
the organ in which it is formed and enters the organic chamber 
prepared for its reception in the same way, the conditions of its 
development being in all respects the same. It has not yet been 



206 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



possible and only by some rare chance can it ever be possible to 
study the human ovum in so early a stage of development as 
that of yelk-division, but there is every reason to conclude that 
the changes it undergoes are identical with those exhibited by the 
ova of other vertebrate animals. The remarkable correspondence 
between the early stages of the canine and human embryos becomes, 
from what we have seen, more apparent as the development ad- 
vances. 




At a tolerably early period the body of the young human being 
becomes distinguishable from that of the young dog by the different 
form of their adjuncts the yelk-sack and the allantois. The former 
in the dog becomes long and spindle shaped while in man it remains 
spherical; the latter in the dog attains an extremely large size and 
the vascular processes which are developed from it and eventually 
give rise to the formation of the Placenta (taking root as it were in 



ORIGIN OF ANIMALS; EMBRYOLOGY. 207 

the parental organism so as to draw nourishment therefrom as the 
root of a tree extracts it from the soil), are ari'anged in an encircling 
zone while in man the allantois remains comparatively small ;ind its 
vascular rootlets are eventually restricted to one disc-like spot. Hence 
while the placenta of the dog is like a girdle that of man has the 
cake-like form indicted by the name of the organ. But precisely in 
those respects in which the developing man differs from the dog he 
resembles the ape which like man has a spheroidal yelk-sac, and a 
discoidal, sometimes partially lobed, placenta. So that it is only in 
quite the latter stages of development that the young human being 
presents marked differences from the young ape while the latter de- 
parts in its development as much from the dog as the man does. 
This it is seen appears to show the structural unity of man with the 
rest of the animal world and more closely with the apes. 

In all living beings there are several distinct parts set apart to 
perform particular functions, to operate in particular ways. These 
are termed " organs " and the living being is tei'med "organic." And 
as it is universally characteristic of living beings this term " organic " 
has been conveniently employed to denote the whole of living nature, 
the whole of the vegetable and animal world and therefore in the 
common acceptation of the term " organic nature " is synonymous 
with living nature. 

The matter constituting the living world is identical with that which 
forms the inorganic world, and the powers or forces which are ex- 
erted by living beings are either identical Avith those which exist in 
the inorganic world or they are convertible into them ; just in the 
same sense as the research of physical philosophy has shown that 
heat is convertible into electricity, electricity into magnetism, mag- 
netism into chemical or mechanical force, and any one of those with 
the other, each being measurable in terms of the other, even so that 
great law is applicable to the living world. The difference therefore 
between the forces of the organic and inorganic world arises from 
the diverse combination and disposition of identical forces, and not 
from any primary difference. 

The animal kingdom consists of seven primary divisions or sub- 
kingdoms (not including the microscopic animals); as the Vertebrata, 
or those distinguished by an internal bony skeleton ; the Articulata, 
or those distinguished by an external bony skeleton composed of 
joints, as the lobster, centipede, &c., the Annulosa, or the worm 
tribes ; the Insecta, insects ; the Mollusca, or soft bodied animals, as 
sheU-fish ; the Calenterata or polyps, and the Radiata, including the 
sexless protozoa, and infusoria and sponges, the lowest forms of 
animal life. There is a certain unity of structural plan peculiar to 



208 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

each of these sub-kingdoms which distinguishes and characterizes all 
its tribes, and by which it differs from all the other sub-kingdoms 
and their tribes. 

Now it is found that distinct as these plans of structure are, 
every animal begins its existence Avith one and the same primitive 
form, namely, that of the egg, consisting, as we have seen, of an in- 
trogenous substance having a small particle or nucleus in its centre. 
Furthermore, the early changes of each are substantially the same, 
and it is in this consists the true unity of organization of the whole 
animal kingdom which has been imagined for centuries, but has 
been left to the present time to be demonstrated by the careful study 
of development. Moreover, it is now proved that the Avhole of the 
organic world is reducible to one primitive condition of form ; that 
every plant begins its existence under the same form, that is to say, 
in that of a cell, the particle of introgenous matter having substan- 
tially the same conditions as the animal ovule. So that if you trace 
back to its germ any plant or animal you choose to name you shall 
find each and all of them to commence their existence in forms es- 
sentially similar to each other, and further, that the first processes 
of growth and manj^ of the subsequent modifications are essentially 
the same in principle in almost all. 

Finally, we may say that there is nothing yet known either his- 
torically or experimentally concerning the origin of living beings, 
or, in other words, concerning an origin of organic nature or organic 
life other than as we see now and which has been in these pages to 
some extent depicted and described. 

The mode of perpetuation and modifications of form of living 
beings is therefore what engages the attention of naturalists and 
modern evolutionists rather than any question of origin. And we, 
for our part, while allowing that certain slight changes of form may 
have, in the course of time and from external conditions, taken place 
in species (for it may not appear improbable that some slight changes 
of form may take place in species, each returning after a cycle to 
its typical form again) yet we see no ground for justifying any theory 
which would derive all organic beings, animal and vegetable, from 
one primitive life-cell, or which would produce from species, entirely 
distinct species in any length of time. 

Man stands at the head of the animal creation, and for all we 
know to the contrary, has ever occupied that place. He has ever in 
general propagated with his own species. This is illustrated by the 
fact that in all countries which have been discovered no order of 
animals exists as indicating a cross species between man and the 
lower orders of animals. The difierent species of apes, monkeys, 



ORGANIC EXISTENCE, CONVERTIBILITY OF FORCE. 209 

baboons etc., are distinct from man, and appear always to have been 
so. They differ from him not only in their appearance and habits, 
but in their bodily conformation also. Twenty-four alterations of 
structure, at least, would be required for the transmutation of 
the body of a gorilla into that of a man, all these in the physical or- 
ganization alone. And the difference in the mental capacity is still 
greater ; for while the average capacity of the Anglo-Saxon skull, 
which perhaps may be taken as nearly the average capacity of all 
human skulls, is 96 cubic inches ; that of the gorilla is only 34 J ; 
that of the Chimpanzee 21k ; and that of the Orang 26 cubic inches. 
These are the highest of the ape tribes ; they come nearest to man 
in the scale of being; and yet, what a gulf separates those. orders 
from mankind ! But what eminently distinguishes man from all other 
orders of animals, is the capacity of mind which he possesses, the 
power of reasoning, which indeed gives rise to the power of speech ; 
and without which speech, properly so called, could not exist. Some 
have ventured to enquire why the apes do not speak (for it may be 
remembered that no animal but man exercises the faculty of speech) ; 
as, say they, the organ of speech of the ape resembles that of man. 
Such enquirers do not consider that organs of speech must act 
according to the mind which employs them. Hence while man 
uses a glottis or vocal chords, which act in accordance with his 
reason, or logos, to foi-m a hmguage, the apes can employ but the 
same organs to produce a bark or a yell. Human beings in all 
parts of the world, however unenlightened they may be, know, as it 
were instinctively, the relation in which they stand to the lower 
orders of animals ; and even in the regions of Africa, far away from 
the civilization and unacquainted with the ideas and habits of the 
white races, they preserve their place, and regard the apes with super- 
stitious horror ! Even in the earliest periods of our race of which 
geology thus far furnishes us any information we find its members 
displaying a certain iugenuity and tact in the making of tomahawks, 
arrows, etc., and for all we know to the contrary, they may have dis- 
played great ingenuity in the construction of innumerable other 
things, every trace of which has ages since passed away. There was 
doubtless in all ages a difference of degree existing in respect to 
civilization, as there is now, among the different tribes of mankind. 
And even in the earlier geological times, we find them exercising the 
care of burying their dead or of burning them, which will, in the main, 
account for the fossil remains of man not being found strewed as broad- 
cast as those of the lower land animals. Man has always exercised a 
care over the dead of his own species which none of the lower animals 
were capable of exercising. This of itself is enough to show that he 

14 



210 CREATOR AND COSMOS 

always possessed and exercised the power of reason and speech.* 
Would that he had always used this faculty aright ! "Well and happy 
would it thus have been for him ! Even the Quadrumana, or ape- 
tribe, which come nearest to man in the scale of being, do not evince 
to us that they have any conception of care for their dead. All the 
care which they exhibit and which they have in common with all 
otlier animals, even the lowest, is for their young, and to supply their 
own physical wants. All the Indian tribes of North and South 
America, even in their most wild and savage state, have always, 
since the white men have become acquainted with them, given evi- 
dence of deep affection and care for their dead ; and some of these 
tribes are accustomed to come periodically, bringing offerings and 
tears to their tombs ! And every liuman being possessing the ordi- 
nary mental faculties of a human being, of whatever nation or language, 
you may meet with, will, if you find him in circumstances favorable 
for the intercommunication of ideas, give unmistakeable evidence of 
his possessing reason, and of his having some thoughts as to right 
and wrong much as you have 3"ourself. How long ere human be- 
ings exercise such kindness towards each other as their kindred 
relation calls for ? How long before all men will cultivate and 
exercise only the principle of benevolence, to be good and to do 
good ? When that time has come, they will know what we say to 
be true, and each one will realize for one's self the application of the 
name which has long ago been given to the Eternal Father. 



The consideration of the great development of language among the civilized nations, 
ancient as well as modern, would go far to show man's true position in the scale of creation. 
This is especially so in the case of tlie Greek language, which is constructed with such mathe- 
matical precision, and which has been cultivated after that manner in such an early age. Also, 
in the Latin, which approaches the Greek in the beauty and the complexity of its construction, 
though not in the smoothness of its sound, man's mental superiority over the lower animals is 
no less apparent. Even in the construction of these two languages we see a very remarkable 
degree of skill displayed, and in their use during the historic ages, a wonderful development of 
leasonino- power. But because the language of a nation does not display a great number of 
words, this is not a sufficient indication that it is not ingeniously constructed. Succinctness of 
expression gives power to language. The language of almost all the Indian tribes of America, 
South and North, including the Esquimaux, though differing much from each other as to root 
and sound, are all constructed upon the polysinthetic principle; that is, root is so added on to 
root, that quite a number of ideas may be expressed by one complex word. And these peoples 
do not eive much attention to the niceties and the mathematical complexities of mood and tense, 
and ca'^e For instance, one of the tribes, the Algonquins, are said by a missionary who has 
■been amongst them, to have expressed the following number of ideas by one word, nadhoh- 
Tieen: "Come and fetch us across the river in a canoe." But in some cases they express by 
Tery long words objects which in English are expressed by monosyllables. In the Pawnee lan- 
guase the word for day is shakoorooeeshairet. and for devil it is tsaheekshkakooraiwah. -heir 
words, however, for these common objects may, for what we know, represent to their mmd, 
complex ideas, i'. e., mav represent each a combination of many simple ideas. The Greek lan- 
guage both as to its alphabet and construction, must have been in use in very eariy times. 
This is evident from the perfection it displayed, as compared with other ancient languages, 
*ven so early as the age of Homer, the 12th century B. C. It then had its several dialects of 



MAN EXALTED BY REASON AND SPEECH. 211 



A CONTEMPLATION OF OTHER SCENES AND OBJECTS OP NATURE 
INTENDED TO FURTHER ENLIGHTEN US AND TO EXALT OUR 
CONCEPTIONS OF THE CHARACTER OF THE DEITY, UNDER 
WHICH HEAD IS ILLUSTRATED THE INFINITY OF IDEAS WHICH 
EXISTED ETERNALLY IN THE CREATOR'S MIND FROM A CONSIDER- 
ATION OF THE DIVERSIFIED DISPLAY OF CREATED OBJECTS IN 
THE ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL KINGDOMS OF THE 
EARTH. 

All the works of nature speak of their Author in silent but em- 
phatic language, and declare His wonderful perfections. But, 
although there is no speech or language in which the voice of Deity- 
is not heard, yet how gross and inadequate are the conceptions gener- 
ally entertained of that Being in whom we live and move and by 
whose power all events in nature are directed and controlled. The 
benevolence of the Deity is seen not only in the sunshine and the 
shower, but in the ample provision which is made on the earth for 
the wants of man and all other animals. Some fifty years ago it had 
been ascertained that more than 60,000 species of animals inhabited 
the air, the earth, and the waters ; and it was supposed that many 
more thousand species existed, which had not, up to that time, 
come within the observation of the naturalist. Since then, nat- 
uralists may, by their discoveries, have added largely to the 
number of known species, and they may still go on discovering, 
and be able only to make near approaches to the real number 
existing in the earth and in connection with it, a number which it 
does not seem they will ever be able definitely to learn. On the 
earth's surface there is not a patch of ground or a portion of water, 
a single shrub, tree, herb or plant, nor a single leaf of a tree or 
flower, but what teems with animated or sensitive beings. What 
countless millions even of visible animals have their dwelling's in 
caves, in the clefts of rocks, in the bark of trees, in ditches and 
fences, in marshes, in the forests, the mountains and the valleys. 
What innumerable shoals of fishes, of various sizes and appearances. 



the Doric, Ionic, ^Eolic, and Attic, which all after yielded in perfection to the perfected Attic. 
Tlie Latin also, which, as the Attic, was the perfected product of many Italian dialects, must 
have had a very early origin as to its characters and construction since that we meet with the 
construction of mood, and tense, and case, even in the earliest authors of this language, as in 
the Greek. The characters and constructions of these two languages are old, and the thought 
of their authors is old, and indicative of true human feeling. 



212 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

inhabit the ocean and sport in the seas and rivers. What millions 
on millions of birds and flying insects, in endless variety, wing their 
flight through the atmosphere above and around us ! Besides these 
there are innumerable multitudes of animated beings, invisible to the 
unassisted eye, and dispersed through every region of the earth, air, 
and seas. In a small stagnant pool which, in summer, appears 
sheeted over with a green scum, there are more microscopic animal- 
cules than would outnumber all the human inhabitants of the earth. 
How immensely great then must be the collective number of these 
creatures throughout all the regions of the earth and atmosphere ! It 
utterly surpasses the limits of our conceptions. Now, it is a fact 
that, from the elephant to the mite, from the whale to the clam, and 
from the ostrich to the gnat or the microscopic animalcule, no animal 
can subsist without nourishment. The species, too, require various 
kinds of food ; some live on grass, some on shrubs, some on flowers, 
and some on trees ; some feed only on the roots of vegetables, some 
on the stalks or stems, some on the leaves, some on the fruit, some on 
the seed, some on the whole plant, and some, as we have shown 
before from Linnaeus, with respect to quadrupeds, prefer one species 
of grass or vegetables, some another. Yet such is the boundless 
munificence of the Creator, that all these countless myriads of sentient 
beings are amply provided for in nature. The eyes of all these 
sentient beings look unto the Creator, and he openeth His hand, and 
satisfieth the desire of every living being. The world is so arranged 
that every place affords the proper food for all the living creatures 
with which it is inhabited. They are furnished with every organ 
and apparatus for the gathering, preparing, and digesting of their 
food, and are endowed with admirable sagacity in finding out and 
providing their nourishment, and enabling them to distinguish be- 
tween what is salutary and what is pernicious. In the exercise of 
these faculties, and in all their motions, they appear to enjoy a hap- 
piness suitable to their nature. The young of all animals in the ex- 
ercise of their incipient faculties, the fishes sporting in the water, 
the birds skimming through the air or warbling in the thickets, the 
gamesome cattle browsing in the pastures, the wild beasts bounding 
through the forests, the insects gliding through the air and crawling 
along the ground, and even the earth-worms wriggling in the dust, 
all proclaim by the vivacity of their movements and their various 
tones and gesticulations, that they are not without enjoyment in the 
exercise of their powers. In this boundless scene of animate existence 
we see a striking illustration of the truth of the statements: 
" Jehovah is good to all," " the earth is full of His riches," and 
" His tender mercies are over all His works." Although such dis- 



BEAUTY OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD. 213 

plays of adaptation in animate creatures to their circumstances, and 
in the arrangements for their wants and enjoj'^ments, are obvious 
evidences of benevolence in the Deity to a reflecting mind, yet they 
are almost entirely overlooked by the bulk of mankind, owing to 
their ignorance of the facts of natural history, and the inconsiderate- 
ness with which they are accustomed to view the objects of the vis- 
ible creation. Hence they are incapable of appreciating the bene- 
ficence of the character of the Deity, and the wealth of his munificence, 
and unable to feel those emotions of admiration which an enlightened 
contemplation of the scenes of nature are calculated to inspire. 

As the conceptions existing in the mind of an artificer are known 
by the work he produces, or the operations he performs, so the ideas 
which have eternally * existed in the Creator's mind may be known 
from the objects He creates, the events He brings about, and the 
operations He is incessantly conducting. The production of a single 
object is an exhibition of the idea existing in the creative mind of 
which it is a copy. The production of a second or third object 
exactly resembling the first would only exhibit the same idea a 
second or a third time without disclosing anything new concerning 
the producer ; and, consequently, our conceptions of His intelligence 
would not be enlarged though millions of such objects were presented 
to our view, just as a hundred pairs of spectacles or a hundx-ed micro- 
scopes of exactly the same pattern, constructed by the same artist, 
give us no higher idea of his skill and ingenuity than the construc- 
tion of one. But every variety in the objects and arrangements of 
nature exhibits a new discovery of the contrivances, the intelligence, 
and the multiciplicity of ideas of the Creator ; and these varieties, as 
the Creator, are infinite. 



* That this infinity of ideas always existed in the Creator's mind is necessarily certain from 
the fact of the infinite and eternal omnipresence of the Creator, which necessitates that these 
ideas could not arise to him from any other source than from himself. The Creator alone is 
eternal ; all created things liave a beginning and an end in time and space. We may also under- 
stand the Creator to be personal and absolute as well as infinite, although we cannot conceive 
of liim as either of these or as anything. It cannot be said that the idea or ideas implied in the 
created thing arose to the Creator :rom the thing created any more than a picture can exist 
without an original existing of which it is a copy. All created things are merely copies of ideas 
pre-existing in the Creator's mind. This general idea of creating things refers to all the objects 
created on or in the eartli, or in any of the heavenly bodies, or in any part of space. That the 
earth considered as a globe made up of solid, liquid and seriform substances, has a limit in 
every direction in space cannot well be dotibted; and thus it is doubtless with each of the 
heavenly bodies, for the earth and each of them appear to perform motions and revolutions in 
space around each other. It is in accordance with our experience and Icnowledge that all things 
created in the animal and vegetable world have a beginning and an end in time and space; and 
also in the mineral world, even in the bowels of the earth, we find change taking place, one 
form or species of matter frequently taking the place of another in mineral existences, and to 
the extent that this change takes place in the mineral department of existence, to this extent 
there is mineral creation. Indeed tlie whole earth may be said to be continually in a state of 
cliange, and so it may be said to be an object of creation. So evidently it is with each of the 
other celestial bodies. 



214 CEEATOK AJSTD COSMOS. 

It is proper here to state that the objects which man produces are 
all imitations of objects already existing in nature, and that man 
cannot have any true conceptions but what are of existing things. 
The word idea means literally an image or picture of anything ; and 
as everj'body knows there cannot be a true image or picture unless 
there exists a thing of which the image or picture is a representation, 
so neither can there be a true idea conceived in the mind unless a 
thing exists in the universe of which it is a representation. This 
will at once satisfy any thinking mind that a real world exists external 
to one's self in opposition to any theory which will represent the 
"<vorld as consisting merely of our conceptions. 

We remember once being in company with some rural friends, 
when Bishop Berkeley's theory was mentioned, a theory which is 
understood to demonstrate that no external world exists, and that 
when one sees with his eyes any object, for example a tree, he does 
not see the tree but only a picture of it on his retina. This illustra- 
tion of the theory being made, one of the company expressed himself 
as follows : " Well, I guess, if he bumped his head against it, he 
would find out whether it was a tree or only an idea." Even so the 
readers may always feel assured that a world exists external to them- 
selves in which they as creatures live and. move. And each human 
being has his own ideas of and concerning the world. This external 
world you realize in every man and every object you behold. The 
martyr at the stake, or on the cross, realizes it in those who are 
cruelly depriving him of life. The convicted person in the court or 
on the scaffold realizes it by all he sees around him. And both 
opposing parties in the terrible bayonet charge realize mutually this 
great fact. Let no one by sophistry or plausable talk impose upon 
you to such a degree as to cause you to believe that a shadow can 
exist without a substance, or that true ideas can exist in the mind 
without the real things existing of which they are the pictures, even 
so the Deity is everywhere present a great reality. You can appre- 
ciate his presence and character in all the objects and operations 
of nature ; nor can sophistry or plausable words, spun out to any 
extent, make the Deity other than that great and omnipresent reality 
the Deity is. You should ever remember that your duty is to be 
good and to do good before him, worshipping him who is invisible 
alone in spirit and in truth. 

The young (yea, and the old) should always remember, that while 
studying, either from books or from nature, it is very important to 
acquire full and distinct ideas in their mind of the subject of their 



* Ideas which do not represent real things are fictitious, creations of the Imagination. 

4 



BEAUTY OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD. 215 

study ; for as true ideas cannot exist without the real things existing, 
of which they are but the pictures or shadows, even so a proper and 
well connected discourse on any subject cannot be produced unless 
the distinct ideas exist in the mind before, of which the discourse is 
but a representation. Ideas are representations of things, and words 
are representations of ideas ; and words spoken inconsiderately, and 
at random, which are not the representations of true and well defined 
ideas, are as chaff blown away by the wind ; they produce no proper 
effect, and are better left unspoken. The young and old should en- 
deavor to have full, and true, and well defined ideas of things, and 
having these they will acquire, with comparative ease, words to ex- 
press them. First have full and accurate ideas on any subject, and 
a sufficiency of words to express those ideas will naturally and easily 
follow. 

Now in the universe, we find all things constructed and arranged 
on the plan of boundless variety. In the animal kingdom, as we 
have already remarked, there had been ascertained some fifty years 
ago, sixty thousand different species of animate beings. These were 
enumerated as follows : Six hundred species of mamalia, or animals 
that suckle their young, most of which are quadrupeds; four thou- 
sand species of birds ; three thousand species of fishes ; seven hun- 
dred species of reptiles, and forty-four thousand species of insects • 
about three thousand species of shell-fish ; and besides these there 
were perhaps one hundred thousand species of animalcuks invisible 
to the naked eye, which the microscope had brought to view, and 
new species daily discovering in consequence of the zeal and industry 
of the lovers of Natural History. We cannot set any definite limits 
to the number of animate beings existing in the earth, which has 
never yet been thoroughly explored, and never can be. 

We may next consider that the organized structure of each species 
consists of an immense number of parts, and that all the species are 
endlessly diversified, differing from each other in their forms, organs, 
members, faculties, and motions. They are of all shapes and sizes, 
from the microscopic auimalculum, ten thousand times less than a 
mite, to the elephant and the whale. They are different in regard to 
the construction of their sensitive organs. In regard to the eye, some 
have that organ placed in front so as to look directly forward, as in 
man. The human eye is so constructed by means of muscular bands 
attached to it as to be able to move up or down, to the right side or 
to the left, without the head being moved. This, you s6e, is a very 
convenient arrangement indicating benevolent design in the Creator. 
Other animals, as birds, deer, hares, and conies, have this organ so 
placed toward the side of the head as to take in nearly a whole hem 



216 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

isphere. This is a convenient arrangement for them, as it enables 
them to see their pursuers behind them, without turning the head. 
Some have this organ fixed, and others moveable : some have two 
globes or balls, as man and quadrupeds ; some have four, as snails, 
which are fixed in their horns ; some have eight, set like a locket of 
diamonds, as spiders ; some have several hundreds, as flies and beetles, 
and others have over twenty thousand, as the dragon-fly, and several 
species of butterflies.* 

In regard to the ear, some have it large erect and open, as in man 
and the hare, so as to hear the least noise and avoid danger ; in some 
it is covered to keep out noxious bodies ; and in others, as the mole, 
it is lodged deep and backward in the head, fenced and guarded from 
external injuries. With regard to their clothing, some have their 
bodies covered with hair, as quadrupeds ; some with feathers, as 
birds ; some with scales as fishes ; some with shells, as the tortoise ; 
some only with skin, as some serpents and eels : some with stout 

* The ejes of beetles, silk-worms, flies, and several other kinds of insects are among the 
most admirable productions of the Creator. On the head of a fly are two large protuberances 
corresponding to the two eyes in other animals, one on each side; these constitute its organs of 
vision. The whole surface of these protuberances is covered with a multitude of small hemis- 
pheres, placed with the greatest regularity in rows, crossing each other iu a kind of lattice 
work. These little hemispheres have each a minute, transparent, convex lens in the middle, 
each of which has a distinct branch of the optic ne^^•e ministering to it; so that the different 
lenses may be considered as so many distinct eyes; 5Ir. Leeuwenhoek counted 6236 in tlie two 
eyes of a silk-worm, when iu its fly-state ; 3180 in each eye of a beetle ; and 8000 in the two eye- 
of the common fly. Mr. Hooke reckoned 14,000 iu the eyes of a drone-fly ; and in one of the 
eyes of a dragon-fly there liave been reckoned 13,500 of these lenses, and consequently in both 
eyes, 27,000, every one of which is capable of forming a distinct image of any object, in the 
same manner as a common convex glass ; so that there are 27,000 images formed on tlie retina 
of this little animal. Mr. Leeuwenhoek, having prepared the eye of a fly for that purpose 
placed it a little farther from his microscojje than when he would examine an object, so as to 
have a proper focal distance between it and the lens of his microscope ; and then looked through 
both, in the manner of a telescope, at the .steeple of a church, which was 2<)9 feet high, and 750 
feet distant, and could plainly see through every little lens the whole steeple, inverted, though 
not larger than the point of a fine needle; and then directing it to a neighbouring house saw 
through many of the little hemispheres, not only the frout of the house, but also the doors and 
windows, and could discover distinctly whether the doors were open or shut. Such an exquisite 
piece of mechanism transcends all human comprehension. 

The eyes of a fly are very large, when compared with tlie size of the head. If one of these 
compound eyes be examined under a glass with a linear, magnifying power of 100, the organ 
will be found to consist of many thousand tubes, each fixed in a six-sided case. Every one of 
these eyelets appears to be a perfect, simple eye, resembling in all essentials that of a man. Dr. 
Hooke gave the number of eyelets in each eye at 7,000, and Dr. Carpenter estimates them at 
4,000. Thus at the lowest computation, a common house-fly possesses 8000 separate organs of 
vision. 

The eyes of all insects are compound. The eye of a butter-fly contains iu reality about 
17,000 eyelets, giving to this gaudy insect 34,000 in all. Each eyelet is a perfect organ iu itself, 
hexagi->nal, or six-sided, in shape, so that the whole collection resembles the cells in a large 
honeycomb. Some of these insects have also two simple eyes on tlie top of the head, so that 
we must confess ourselves to be altogether inferior in the matter of eyes to the gaudy butter- 
fly. It must not be supposed that when a butterfly looks upon a female of his own species he 
sees 34,000 fluttering bejiuties before him. As the two human eyes do not double objects, so 
the numerous lenses of the butterfly may combine to form but one image. 



PECULIARITIES AND VAKIETIES OF ANIMATE BEINGS. 217 

and firm armor, as the rhinoceros and crocodile ; and others with 
prickles, as the hedgehog and porcupine ; all nicely adapted to the 
nature of the animal, and the element in which it lives. These cover- 
ings too are adorned with diversified beauties, as appears in the 
plumage of birds, the feathers of the peacock, the scales of fishes, 
the hair of quadrupeds, and the variegated polish and coloring of 
the tropical shell-fish, beauties, which, in respect of symmetry, polish, 
texture, variety and exquisite coloring, defeat every attempt of hu- 
man art to imitate or copy. In regard to respiration, some breathe 
through the mouth by means of lungs, as men and quadrupeds : 
some by means of gills, as fishes ; and some, during the early part of 
their life, as the frog, breathe by means of gills, and in a more 
advanced stage of it they acquire lungs and breathe by means of 
them : and some breathe by organs placed in other parts of their 
bodies, as insects. In regard to the circulation of the blood, some 
have but one ventricle in the heart, some two, and others three. In 
some animals, as man, the heart propels the blood to the remotest 
part of the system : in some it throws it only into the respiratory 
organs ; in others the blood is carried from the respiratory organs, 
by means of the veins, to another heart, and this second heart distri- 
butes the blood by the channels of its arteries to the several parts. 
In many insects a number of hearts ai'e placed at intervals along 
the circulating course, and each renews the impulse of the former, 
so that a continual circulation is kept up. In regard to the bod- 
ily mov^ements, some are endowed with quick motions, others slow ; 
some walk on two legs, as fowls; some on four, as dogs, some on 
eight, as caterpillars; some on a hundred, as scolopendra, some on 
fifteen hundred and twenty feet, as one species of starfish ; and some 
on two thousand feet, as certain specimens of echinus ; (It is men- 
tioned by Lyonet that these echini have 1300 horns, which they pro- 
trude and draw in at pleasure.) Some glide along with a sinuous 
motion on scales, as snakes and serpents ; some skim through the air, 
one species on two wings, another on four ; and some convey them- 
selves in speed and safety by means of their webs, as spiders ; while 
others glide with agility through the waters by the instrumentalit}/ 
of their tails and fins . Some animals are distinguished for having 
an internal bony skeleton, as man, beasts, birds, and fishes, thence 
called vertebrate ; some for having an external bony skeleton jointed 
at intervals as the lobster and insects, and thence called articulate ; 
some for living in horny houses, as shell-fish, turtles, and land- 
snails, and thence called crustaceous, and molluscous. Some live 
fixed like plants at the bottom of the sea, as the hydra. This ani- 
mal, for example, produces young not only from eggs in the ordi- 



218 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

nary way, but also by putting forth buds from its sides, which while 
attached to the parent develop mouths and arms, and then become 
separated ; and having become fixed in their turn they live for 
themselves. The animals called crinoids grow like plants in the 
seas of the Tropics. The sponge also is a plant animal which lives 
fixed at the bottom of the sea. These sponge-plant animals, are of vari- 
ous forms, some of them corresponding to our moorland moss-tufts; 
some to the most elegant types of flower form, and some resembling 
in minature the great candelabra-formed berus of the Gila regions. Most 
people have seen and used the sponge sold in our stores, which is merely 
part of the skeleton of these plant-animals. The great coral islands 
of the Pacific Ocean are merely aggregations of animal develop- 
ments. The coral is the solid parts of the animal, composed of car- 
bonate of lime, and corresponds, as does the sponge, to the bony 
skeleton in higher animals. Corals are of different forms, sometimes 
having the form of trees and shrubs, and sometimes a round form, as 
the brain stone. You have therefore in these plant-animals, which 
are developed in great var'ety and to vast extent in the seas and 
oceans the connecting link between the animal and vegetable and 
mineral kingdoms. 

But it would require volumes to enumerate and explain all the 
varieties and peculiarities which distinguish the different species of 
animated beings . Besides the varieties which distinguish the spe- 
cies from each other, there are not, perhaps, of all the hundreds of 
millions of individuals which compose any one species, two individ- 
uals exactly alike in every point of view in which they may be con- 
templated. As an example of the numerous parts and functions 
which enter into the construction of an animal frame, we may state 
that in the human body there are about 254 bones, each of them hav- 
ing about forty different intentions, or adaptations ; and 443 muscles, 
each having ten several intentions, so that the system of bones and 
muscles alone comprises about 14,620 varieties or different scopes 
and intentions. But, besides the bones and muscles, there are hun- 
dreds of tendons and ligaments for the purpose of connecting them 
together ; hundreds of nerves ramified over the whole body to con- 
vey sensation to all its parts. The nerves have their centres in the 
brain and spinal marrow, whence ramifications proceed to all parts 
of the body. Nerve is derived from the Latin, and means cord ; and ' 
the nerves, though infinitely fine cords, may, for the sake of illustra- 
tration, be compared to telegraph-wires, Avhich communicate their 
messages instantly to tlieir centres, and thence to all parts of the sys- 
tem. The human being has five senses : sight, hearing, touch or feel- 
ing, taste and smell, each of these has its peculiar set of nerves; 



PARTS AND rUNCTIONS IN ANIMALS. 219 

and not only that, but the nerves are so closely reticulated over the 
whole body that you cannot prick it in any place with the point of 
the finest needle without affecting numbers of them. The senses, 
then, are the channels through which the sensitive or animate being 
communicates with the external world ; by which the rational being 
knows that it exists and that he exists. There are thousands of ar- 
teries to convey the blood to the remotest extremities of the system, 
and thousands of veins to bring it again to the heart; thousands of 
lacteal and lymphatic vessels to absorb nutriment from the food; 
thousands of glands to secrete humors from the blood, and of emunc- 
tories to throw them off from the system ; and besides many othei 
parts of this variegated system with which we are acquainted, there 
are more than sixteen hundred millions of membraneous cells or 
vesicles, connected with the lungs ; more than two hundred thousand 
millions of pores in the skin, through which the perspiration is inces- 
santly flowing ; and above a thousand millions of scales which accord- 
ing to Leeuwenhoek, Baker, and others, compose the cuticle of 
outer covering of the body. We have also to take into account the 
compound organs of life, the numerous parts of which they consist, 
and the diversified functions they perform ; such as the brain with its 
infinite number of fibres and numerous functions ; the heart with its 
ventricles and auricles; the stomach, with its muscular coats and jui- 
ces ; the liver, with its lobes and glands ; the spleen, with its infinity 
of cells and membranes ; the pancreas, with its juice and numerous 
glands ; the kidneys, with their fine capillary tubes ; the intestines 
with all their windings and convolutions ; the organs of sense, with 
their multifarious connections; the messentary, the gall-bladder, the 
uretus, the pylorus, the duodenum, the blood, the bile, the lymph, the 
saliva, the chyle, the hair, the nails, and the numerous other parts 
and substances, every one of which has diversified functions to per- 
form. 

We may also take into consideration the number of ideas included 
in the connection and arrangement of all these parts, and of the man- 
ner in which they are compacted into one system of small dimensions 
so as to allow free scope for all the intended functions. If then, for 
the sake of illustration, we were to suppose, in addition to the 14,620 
adaptations of the bones and muscles, as stated above, that there 
are 10,000 veins, great and small, 10,000 arteries, 10,000 nerves, 1,000 
ligaments, 4,000 lacteals and lymphatics, 100,000 glands, 1,600,000,- 
000 vesicles in the lungs, 1,000,000,000 scales, and 200,000,000,000 
pores, the amount would be 202,600,149,460 different parts and adap- 
aptations in the human body ; and if all the other species were sup- 
posed to consist of a similar number of parts, though differently 



220 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

organized, this number multiplied by 300,000, the supposed number 
of species, the product would amount to 60,780,044,838,000,000, or 
above sixty thousand billions, the number of distinct ideas, concep- 
tions, or contrivances in relation to the animal world, a number of 
which we can have no adequate conception, and to our minds, seems 
to approximate to infinity; but the calculation is merely a rude ap- 
proximation, and may serve to convey some idea of the endless mul- 
tiplicity of conceptions which pervade the Eternal mind. 

That many other tribes of animate beings have an organization 
no less complicated and diversified than that of man, will appear 
from the following statement of M. Lyonet. This celebrated natur- 
alist wrote a treatise upon a single insect, the cossus caterpillar, 
which lives on the leaves of the willow, in which he has shown from 
the anatomy of that animal, that its structure is almost as complicated 
as that of the human body, and many of the parts which enter into 
its organization even more numerous. He has found it necessary to 
employ twenty figures to explain the structure of the head, which 
contains 228 different muscles. There are 1647 muscles in the body, 
and 2066 in the intestinal tube, making in all 3713 muscles, or nearly 
nine times the number of muscles in the human body. There are 
94 principal nerves, which divide into innumerable ramifications. 
There are two large tracheal arteries, one at the right and the other 
at the left side of the insect, each of them communicating with the 
air by means of nine spiracula. Round each spiraculum the trachea 
pushes forth a great number of branches, which are again divided 
into smaller ones, and these subdivided and spread through the 
whole body of the caterpillar ; they are naturally of a silver color, 
and make a beautiful appearance. The principal tracheal vessels 
divide into 1326 different branches. All this complication of deli- 
cate mechanism, with numerous other parts and organs, are com- 
pressed into a bod}- only two inches in length. 

If we direct our attention to the vegetable kingdom, we may con- 
template a scene no less variegated and astonishing, than what ap- 
pears in the animal world. There have already been discovered about 
ninety thousand species of plants, specimens of the greater part of 
which have been preserved in the museum of Natural History at 
Paris. But it is said by naturalists that the actual number in the 
earth and waters cannot be reckoned at less than four or five hun- 
dred thousand species ; indeed the truth is that as in the animal 
kingdom, they can put no definitive limits to the number, for a great 
part of the earth they can never explore. 

The observer who takes a survey of the various members of the 
vegetable kingdom becomes cognizant of at least one prominent dis- 



MULTIPLICITY OF PARTS AND FUNCTIONS. 221 

tinction between them. He soon perceives that while certain vege- 
tables have flowers, others have none ; or, perhaps, more correctly 
speaking, if the second division really possess flowers they are im- 
perceptible. This distinction was first taken as a basis of classification 
by Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist; and to this extent the clas- 
sification adopted by that great philosopher was strictly natural ; 
beyond this his classification was artificial. Now taking advantage 
of this distinction, Linnaeus termed the evident-flowering plants 
phcenogamous^ from a Greek word signifying to appear ; and he des- 
ignated the non-flowering or more correctly speaking the non- 
evident-flowering plants Cryptogamic^ from a Greek word sig- 
nifying concealed. In making this division of plants into flowering 
and non-flowering, one must greatly expand his common notions of 
a flower, and not restrict the appellation to those pretty floral orna- 
ments, which become objects of attraction, and of which bouquets 
are made. On the contrary he must admit to the right of being 
regarded as a flower any floral part, however small, even though a 
miscrocope should prove necessary for its discovery. Thus, in com- 
mon language we do not usually speak of the oak, the ash, the beech, 
the elm, etc., as being flower-bearing trees ; but they are, neverthe- 
less, and consequently belong to the first grand division of flower- 
ing, or phsenogamous, plants. The reader may remember as a rule, 
to which there are no exceptions, that every member of the vegetable 
world which bears a fruit, and consequently seeds, belongs to the 
phsenogamous division. By following the indications of this rule, we 
restrict the cryptogamic, or non-flowering plants, to the seemingi;y 
narrow limits of ferns, mushrooms, mosses, and a few others, all of 
which are devoid of seeds, properly so called, but are furnished with 
a substitute for seeds termed sporules or spores. Sporules, then, are, 
so to speak, the seeds of flowerless and, therefore, seedless plants. 
We have before spoken of the vegetable kingdom as being divided 
into the two great branches of exogenous and endogenous plants. 
We may here state, however, that these two branches are included 
within the one great division of flowering plants, and have nothing 
to do with the non-flowering division, which is itself confined to 
narrow limits of the lowest species of plants. 

All plants, most probably, certainly all flowering plants, possess 
sexes. The flower and its appendages are the reproductive organs 
of the plants. Without flowers there could be no fruit ; without 
fruit there could be no seed ; and without seed, properly so called, 
by far the greater number of vegetables could not be multiplied. 
Both sexes, the male organ called stamen, upon which the pollen or 
fecundating dust is produced, and the female organ called pistil, in 



222 CEEATOE AND COSMOS. 

which the fertilizing takes places, are usually contained in the same 
plant, in the same flower of the plant. Occasionally, however, the 
two sexes are on different flowers of the same plant, and sometimes 
on different plants. We may, therefore, properly say that the greater 
number of flowers contain both sexes ; but occasionally, on some 
plants, the sexes have flowers, each sex to itself; and occasionally 
again the males monopolize all the flowers on one plant, and the 
females all the flowers on another. When the two sexes reside in 
two sets of flowers on the same plant, then such a plant is said to 
be monoecious, signifying " one house ; " the plant, we suppose, being 
regarded as a house, and the flowers as chambers in the same, in 
which the ladies and gentlemen dwell. When, however, the males' 
all reside in the flowers of one plant, and the females in the flowers 
of another, then such plants are said to be dioecious, or " two-housed," 
the reason of which is obvious. The seeds or eggs of the plants are 
fertilized by the pollen, a yellowish powder, from the stamen, falling 
on the top of the pistil, causing it to expand, and finding its way 
into the ovary or seed-case, situated at the bottom of the pistil ; and 
so the seeds are fertilized and prepared to produce when placed in 
proper circumstances. 

The function of seeds in the flowerless plants is, as we have said, 
performed by spores or sporules, from aizoptx;, the Greek word for 
scattered seeds. This alass of plants is very small when compared 
with the flowering ; and the spores are prepared for the most part in 
little receptacles called sporanges or theca ; from whence, when ripe, 
they are scattered about by the Avinds ; the old plants dying, new 
ones spring up from the spores to replace them. The best known 
species of this cryptogamic division, are the mosses, lichens, ferns, 
and fungi. The fungi are said by naturalists to be a mass of repro- 
ductive matter in themselves. In these non-flowering species may 
be recognized the lowest in the scale of plants ; just as we have seen 
sponges, corals, etc., to be the lowest in the scale of animals. Do 
not the fungi, sponges, etc., of the two kingdoms bear some resem- 
blance to each other? 

If the reader wishes to know what the sporules are like let him 
take the well-ripe leaf of a fern (which is not properly a leaf, but a 
frond) ; let him turn the under surface of the frond uppermost, and 
he will see thereon many rows of dark stripes. These are termed 
Sporidia, and they contain thespores or sporules of the plants; which 
latter may be obtained by opening the sporidia. These sporules, when 
viewed with the naked eye, look almost like dust ; when examined 
under a microscope, however, their outline is easily recognized. The 
difference between a sporidium or sporule and a real seed may be 



REPRODUCTIVE PARTS OF VEGETABLES 223 

thus explained : a seed has only one part, the embryo or germ, from 
which the young plant can spring ; whereas a sporule does not refuse 
to sprout from any side which may present itself to the necessary 
conditions of earth and moisture. Thus, we see the resemblance of 
these minute seeds to the sponge, which is said to be a vast mass of 
reproductive matter. Although the sporules are thus easily discer- 
nible in the fern tribe, yet they are not found so easily in other 
members of the cryptogamic division ; in various members of which 
not only does their position vary, but their presence is undiscoverable 
by any means we possess. 

Now the members of the vegetable kingdom are of all sizes, from 
the invisible forests, which are seen by the aid of the microscope in 
a piece of moldiness, to the cocoa of Malabar, fifty feet in circum- 
ference, the great dragon tree of Teneriffe, which is of such dimen- 
sions that ten full grown men joining hand to hand are scarcely suffi- 
cient to encircle its base, or the monstrous sequoise trees of California 
near forty feet in diameter and four hundred feet in height. Each 
of them great and small, is furnished with a complicated system of 
vessels for the circulation of its juices, the secretion of its odors, and 
other important functions, analogous to those in animals. Almost 
every vegetable consists of a root or an assemblage of roots, each of 
which is terminated by a niimber of rootlets or little tufts called 
spongioles, which absorb the nourishment from the soil ; a tuber or 
bulb, a trunk or stem, branches, leaves, skin, bark, sap-vessels, or 
system of arteries and veins, glandules for perspiration ; flowers 
made up of sepals, petals, stamens, pistils, farina, ovary or seed-case, 
seed, fruit, spores or sporules and various other parts ; and these are 
different in their construction ^nd appearance in the different 
species. 

Some increase, or grow, as all exogenous plants, by external de- 
positions of their woody matter, and are distinguished, if cut in hor- 
izontal sections of the trunk, by concentric rings increasing in dimen- 
sions from the centre to the outside. See, for illustration, a horizontal 
section of the trunk of the oak or elm. Others, as all endogenous 
plants, grow by internal depositions of their woody matter, and are 
distinguished, if cut in horizontal section of their trunk, by the 
absence of pith and concentric rings; and by the tissue, of which 
the stem is made up, appearing as long strings of woody fibre, and 
extending upwards. See, for illustration of this kind, the horizontal 
section of the palm tree of tropical climates, the sugarcane, the bam- 
boo, and all the grasses. 

Some vegetables, as the oak, are distinguished for their strength 
and hardness ; others as the elm and fir, are tall and slender j some 



224 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 




1. Horizontal Section of an Exogen. 2. Horizontal Section of an Endogen. 3. Dotted Vessels 
of the Clematis. 4. Dotted Vessels of the Melon. 5. Spiral Vessels of the Melons. 6. 
Lactiferous Vessels of the Celandine. 7. Ovoid Celi. 8. Stelliform Cells. 9. Angular Cells. 

are tall, and tapering upwards to a point, as the cedar ; while others 
never attain to any considerable height, as the thorn-shrub ; some 
have a rough and uneven bark, while others, as the birch, the maple 
and the poplar, are smooth and fine ; some are so slight and delicate, 
that the least wind may bend them ; while others can resist the 
violence of the strongest blasts ; some acquire their full growth in a 
few years ; while others, as the dragon-tree, grow to a prodigious 
size, and stand the blasts of many centuries ; some have their branches 
close to the trunk ; while others, as the banyan tree, shoot them out 
so as to cover five acres of land, and shelter a thousand men ; some 
have leaves scarcely an inch in length and breadth, while others, as 
the tallipot of Ceylon, have leaves so large that one of them, it is 
said, will shelter fifteen or twenty men from the rain ; or as some of 
the water lilies of Central America, whose leaves, being fifteen or 
eighteen feet in diameter, a man may float on in safety, and whose 
flowers and ovary are proportionally large. Some drop their leaves in 
Autumn, and remain for months like blighted trunks ; while others, 
as the hemlock, the pine, and the holly, retain their verdure during 
the winter. 



PECULIARITIES OF THE VEGETABLE SPECIES. 225 

The variety in the vegetable kingdom as to flowers is apparent 
even to the most careless observer. Each species of flower differs 
from another in the form and hues which it exhibits. The carnation 
differs from the rose, the rose from the tulip, the tulip from the prim- 
rose, the aaricula from the lily, the lily from the daffodil, the 
narcissus from the ranunculus, and the butter-cup from the daisy; 
while at the same time each narcissus, ranunculus, rose or daisy, has 
its own particular character and beauty; something peculiar to 
itself, and which distinguishes it from the others. In abed of ranun- 
culuses or tulips for example, we shall scarcely find two individuals 
that have precisely the same aspect, or present the same assemblage 
of colors. Some flowers are of statel)'^ appearance and seem to reign 
over their fellows in the same parterre; others are lowly, and creep 
along the ground ; some exhibit the most dazzling colors ; others of 
less imposing appearance blush almost unseen ; some perfume the 
air with the most delightful fragrance, while others emit an un- 
pleasant odor, and only please the sight with their beautiful tints. 
And not only do flowers differ in their forms and colors, but there is 
a great diversity in their perfumes also. The smell of southern wood 
differs from that of thyme, that of balm from that of peppermint, and 
that of the primrose from that of the daisy ; which indicates a variety 
in their internal structures and in the juices which circulate within 
them. 

As to the flower it is made up of different parts, as the calyx or 
under whorl, which is itself made up of several parts, called sepals ; 
and the corolla or upper whorl, which is also made up of several 
parts, called petals. The calyx and corolla taken together comprise 
what is called the perianth, or that which surrounds and protects 
the reproductive part of the flower. It may be called a beautiful 
painted house, in which the gentlemen and ladies of the flower live. 
Thus, in the concave space enclosed by the perianth are found the 
reproductive parts of the plants ; the stamens and pistils, or carpels, 
either or both. At the bottom of the pistil, or carpel, which means 
the same thing, is situated the ovary, or seed-case ; the point in 
which it terminates above is called the stigma, and the middle part 
of it, the style. Upon the stigma of the pistil falls the pollen from 
the stamen, which causes the ovary to expand, the fruit to ripen, 
and the seed to grow. Thus, while the roots, with their spongioles, 
are called the nutritive, the flower and its appendages are called the 
reproductive parts of the vegetable. See annexed figures ; also 
figures on pages 227 and 228. 

The leaves of all vegetables, like the lungs and skin of the 

liuman body, are diversified with a multitude of extremely fine ves- 

15 



226 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



sels, and an astonishing number of pores. The leaf itself consists of 
two flattened expansions of the epidermis, or the outer covering, 
called the cuticle, of the tree, the one above and the other below, 
enclosing between them nerves and veins, vascular and cellular tissue. 
The word vascular means consisting of, or containing, vessels; and 
cellular means consisting of cells. By vascular tissue is meant those 
little pipes and tubes which run through vegetables, just like arteries 
and veins through animal bodies, and which serve the purpose of 
conveying juices from one part of the plant to another. In plants, 
those pipes or tubes are so exceedingly small, that their tubular 
character is only recognized by the aid of a microscope or powerful 




10. Calyx of Ranunculus. 11. Corolla of Ranunculus. 12. Stamen of Ranunculus. 13. Car- 
pels of Ranunculus. 14. Quinquepartite Calyx of the Pimpernel. 15. Quinquefid Calyx 
of the Gentian. 16. Irregular Calyx of tlie Dead Nettle. 17. Calyx of the Madder. 18. 
Adherent Calyx of the Sunflower. 19. Calyx of the Dandelion. 20. Calj-x of the 
Centranthus. 21. Calycule of the Strawberry. 22. Aooru and Gup. 23. Involucrum of the 
Chestnut. 



NUTRITIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PARTS OF VEGETABLES. 227 

lens, but their presence may be recognized in general by the naked 
eye. Cellular tissue is, as its name indicates, an assemblage of little 
cells, the natural form of which is spheroidal or oval ; but more fre- 
quently this form is modified from various causes, usually the mutual 
pressure of the cells against each other. Thus, the pith of 
trees, a portion of which is made up of cellular tissue, if examined 
iinder the microscope, will be found to be composed of cells, hav- 
ing the form of honeycomb cells, that is, hexagonal. Occasion- 
ally the cells assume a stellate or star-like form, Avhich may be seen 
in a section of the common bean, if examined under the microscope. 




24. Cruciform Corolla of the Celandine. 25. Rosaceous Corolla of the Strawberry. 26. 
Caryophy late Corolla of the Lychnis. 27. Papillionaceous Corolla of the Pea. 28. Tubular 
Corolla of the Corn Centaury. 29. Infundibulifonn Corolla of the Bindweed. 30. Cam- 
panulate Corolla of the Pampanula. 31. Labiate Corolla of the Dead Xettle. 32. Hyi)0- 
crateriforin Corolla of the Periwinkle. 33. Rotate Corolla of the Pimpernel. 36. Anomalous 
Corolla of the Foxglove. 35. Personate Corolla of the Snapdragon. 36. Ligulate Corolla of 
tlie Chrysanthemum. 



228 



CKEATOB AKD COSMOS. 



Usually those vegetable cells are so very small that a microscope or 
a powerful lens is necessary for observing them. In certain vegeta- 
bles, however, they are of such dimensions as to admit of being 
readily seen by the naked eye. For example, if the fruit of an 
orange be cut or pulled asunder, the cells will be readily apparent. 
And not only do the cells of this cellular tissue admit of being altered 
in form, but occasionally they give rise to parts in the vegetable 




37. Pome. SH. Drupe. 39. Achaenium of the Ranunculus. 40. Caryopsis of the Buckwheat. 41, 
Follicle of the Columbiue. 42. Capsule of the Gentian. 43. Capsule of the Com Poppy 
44- Legume of the Lotus. 45. Capsule of the Colchicum. 4G. Capsule of the Iris. 47 
Siliqua of the Celandine. 48. Silicule of the Mustard Plant 49. Samara of the Maple. 50. 
Nut of the Chestnut. 51. Berry of the Deadly Nightshade. 52. Capsule of the Pimpernel. 
54. Germination of the Bean. 55. Germination of Indian Com. 



NUTRITIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PARTS OF VEGETABLES. 229 

organization, which would not be suspected to consist of cells. The 
cuticle, or outer skin, of vegetables is nothing more than a layer of 
cells, firmly adherent ; and the pith of oxogenous plants, for example, 
the substance which makes up the densest part of the centre of the 
oak is nothing more nor less than closely compressed cellular tissue. 
In a former illustration we have stated that the air contained in an 
apple can be expanded into forty-eight times the bulk of the apple ; 
and this is because the inside of the apple is made up of little cells, 
each of which is filled with closely-compressed air. We have also 
intimated that leaves perform for vegetables the same functions in a 
manner that lungs do for man and land animals, and the gills for 
fishes. But how is this performed ? We have shown that the leaves, 
as well as the skin, are full of cells, and tubes, and pores, just like the 
lungs and skin of an animal are ; but they make use of that very kind 
of air which man and the animals refuse ; they inhale carbonic acid 
so much of which is generated on the surface of the earth by com- 
bustion, as well as otherwise, and in animal bodies, — they retain the 
carbon, which the animals refuse, and reject the oxygen, which the 
animals retain, and which supports their life. Carbonic acid is in 
itself poisonous to animals, but is thus the support and nourishment 
of vegetables ; and the latter, by using it, perform the part of purify- 
ing the air. Hence it is seen how one part of nature is adapted to 
the other ; how each element returns to its proper place, and all things 
to equilibrium. In a kind of box-tree, called Palm of Ceres, it has 
been observed that there are over 172,000 pores on one side of the 
leaf. The whole earth is covered with vegetable life in such profu- 
sion as astonishes the comtemplative mind. Not only the fertile 
plains, but the rugged mountains, the most barren spots, and even the 
caverns of the ocean, are diversified with plants of various kinds; and 
from the torrid to the frigid zones every soil and every climate 
has plants and flowers peculiar to itself. To attempt to estimate 
their number and variety would be like attempting to dive into the 
depths of infinity: and, therefore, we shall have to content ourselves 
with merely giving this interesting part of nature a passing notice, 
so far at least as to show its analogy and relation to the animal king- 
dom. Yet every diversity in the species of plants, every variety in 
the form and structure of individuals, and even every difference in the 
shade and combination of colors in flowers of the same species, 
exhibits a distinct conception which ever existed in the Eternal mind. 
Linngeus adopted the following pithy designation for minerals, 
vegetables and animals : " Minerals," he said, "grow: plants grow 
and live ; but animals grow, live and feel." An expression which 
indeed, if insufficient is not unjust. We may say more distinctively, 



230 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

however, that animals are those living beings which derive their 
nutriment from an internal cavity, the stomach ; and. vegetables are 
those living beings which derive their nutriment from without. 

If we should take a survey of the mineral kingdom we should also 
behold a striking expression of the manifold wisdom and the power of 
Deity. It is true we cannot penetrate into the bowels of the earth 
so as to ascertain the substances which exist and the processes which 
are going on near its central regions. But within a short distance 
of its surface we find such an astonishing variety of mineral sub- 
stances as clearly shows that its internal parts are constructed on the 
same plan of variety as characterizes the animal and vegetable king- 
doms. In the classes of earthy, saline, inflammahle, and metallic fossils, 
under which mineralogists have arranged the substances of the min- 
eral kingdom, are contained an immense number of genera and spe- 
cies. Under the earthy class of fossils are comprehended diamonds, 
chrysolites, menillites, garnets, zeolites, corundums, agates, jaspers, 
opals, pearl-stones, tripoli, clay-slate, basalt, lava, chalk, limestone, 
ceylenite, strontium, barytes, celestine, and various other substances. 
The saline class comprehends such substances as the following: 
natron or natural soda, rock-salt, nitre, alum, sal-ammoniac, epsom- 
salts, etc. The class of inflammahle substances comprehends sulphur, 
carbon, bitumen, coal, amber, charcoal, naphtha, petroleum, asphalt, 
caoutchouc, mineral-tar, etc. The metallic class comprehends iridium, 
platina, gold, mercury, silver, iron, lead, tin, bismuth, zinc, antimony, 
cobalt, nickel, manganese, magnesium, molj-bdenum, arsenic, scheele, 
menachanite, uran, silvan, chromium, tungsten, uranium, titanium, 
tellurium, sodium, potassium, etc. All these mineral substances are 
distinguished by many species and varieties. There are reckoned 
eight genera of earthy fossils. One of these genera, the flint, 
contains thirty-four species ; and these species are distinguished by 
numerous varieties, such as crysoberj'ls, topazes, agates, beryls, 
quartz, emery, diamond, spar, etc. Another genus, the clay, contains 
thirty-two species, such as opal, pitch-stone, felspar, black-chalk, 
mica, horne-blende, etc. And another genus, the calc, contains 
twenty species, as limestone, chalk, slate, spar, fluor, marie, boracite, 
loam, etc. There are ten species of silver, five of mercurj', seven- 
teen of copper, fourteen of iron, ten of lead, six of antimony, three 
of bismuth, etc. All these mineral bodies present differences as to 
figure, transparencj'-, hardness, lustre, ductility, malleability, texture, 
structure, sound, smell, taste, weight, and their magnetical and elec- 
trical properties; and they exhibit almost every variety of color. 
As to structure, a body may be brittle, sectile, or separating in layers, 
malleable, flexible and elastic. A mineral can onlv affect the taste 



VARIETIES AND BEAUTIES OF MINERALS. 231 

which is soluble in the saliva, and is saline, alkaline, or astringent. 
Dependent upon light are five characteristics of minerals, color, lus- 
tre, diaphaneity, refraction and fluorescence. Color is either metallic 
or non-metallic. Metallic lustre is that peculiar lustre which distin- 
guishes the metals, although it does not belong exclusively to them ; 
for graphite, which is carbon, and the scales of iodine both possess 
metallic lustre. Minerals whose color is non-metallic may be found 
of every hue, from the black onyx to the colorless diamond. The 
colors which distinguish all other objects are non-metallic. The 
degrees of lustre are five : splendent, shining, glistening, glimmering, 
dull, which expresses the absence of lustre. The degrees of dia- 
phaneity are five : transparent, semi-transparent, translucent, trans- 
lucent on the edges, opaque, when no light passes through, etc. 
Some of these substances are soft and pulverable, and serve as a bed 
for the nourishment of vegetables, as black earth, chalk, clay and 
marie. Some are solid, as iron and silver ; and some are fluid, as 
mercury, sodium, and potassium. Some are brittle, as antimony and 
bismuth ; and some are malleable, as gold and zinc ; some are subject 
to the attraction of the magnet; others are conductors of electricity; 
some are easily fusible by heat ; others will resist the strongest heat 
of our common fires. Some are extremely ductile, as platina, which 
has been drawn out into wires less than the two-thousandth part of 
an inch in diameter ; and gold, the parts of which are so fine and 
expansible, that an ounce of it is sufficient to gild a silver wire more 
than 1300 miles long. 

To have the opportunity of acquiring the most ample and impres- 
sive idea of the mineral kingdom one should visit an extensive min- 
eralogical museum, where he will have ocular evidence of the great 
beauty and the endless variety which this department of nature 
exhibits. Here it may also be remarked that not ordy the external 
aspect of minerals, but also the interior configuration of many of 
them presents innumerable beauties and varieties. A rough, dark- 
looking pebble, which to an incurious eye appeal's only like a fragment 
of common rock, when cut asunder and polished presents an assem- 
blage of the finest veins and most brilliant colors. Marble workers 
have daily experience of this in the rough blocks of California and 
other marble, as well as of granite and other stone, which they 
reduce to such smoothness and beauty by their art. If one goes into 
a lapidary's shop which is furnished on an extensive scale, and takes, 
a leisurely survey of his jaspers, topazes, cornelians, agates, garnets, 
and other stones, he cannot fail to be struck with admiration, not only 
at the exquisite polish and the delicate wavings which their surfaces 
present, but at the variety of coloring and design exhibited, even by 



232 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

individuals of the same species , the latent beauties and diversities 
'of which require the aid of the microscope to discern, and are beyond 
■the efforts of the most delicate pencil to imitate. 

And not only in the objects which are visible to the naked eye is 
the characteristic of variety to be seen, but also in those which can 
only be discerned by the aid of the microscope. In the scales of 
fishes, for example, we perceive an infinite number of diversified 
specimens of the most curious productions. Some of these are of an 
extended form, some round, some triangular, some square, in short of 
all imaginable variety of shapes. Some are furnished with sharp 
prickles, as in the perch and sole ; some have smooth edges as in the 
tench and cod fish, — and even in the same fish there is a considera- 
ble variety : for the scales taken from the belly, the back, the sides, 
the head, and other parts, are all different from each other. In the 
scale of a haddock we perceive one piece of delicate mechanism ; 
in the scale of a perch another ; and in the scale of a sole beauties 
different from both. We find some of them ornamented with a pro- 
digious number of concentric flutings, too near each other and too 
delicate to be easily enumerated. These flutings are frequently 
traversed by others diverging from the centre of the scale, and pro- 
ceedinej from thence in a straight line to the circumference. On 
every fish there are many thousands of these variegated pieces of 
mechanism. 

The hairs on the bodies of all animals are found by the microscope to 
be composed of a number of extremely minute tubes, each of which 
has a round bulbous root, by which it absorbs its proper nourishment 
from the adjacent humors ; and these are all different in different 
animals. Hairs taken from the head, the eyebrows, the beard, the 
nostrils, the hand, and other parts of the body, are unlike each other, 
both in the construction of the roots, and the hairs themselves, and 
appear as varied as plants of the same genus but of different species. 

The parts of which the feathers of birds are composed j^resent a 
beautiful diversity of the most exquisite workmanship. There is 
scarcel}^ a feather but contains a million of distinct parts, every one of 
them of regular shape. In a small fibre of a goose quill more than 
1200 downy branches, or small leaves, have been counted on each 
side ; and each apj^eared divided into sixteen or eighteen different 
joints. A very small part of the feather of a peacock, one-thirtieth 
of an inch in length, appears no less beautiful, when viewed through 
the microscope, than the whole feather does to the naked eye — exhib- 
iting a multitude of bright, shining parts, reflecting first one color 
and then another, in the most vivid manner. 

The wings of all kinds of insects, too, present an astonishing 



BEAUTIES DISCOVERED BY THE MICROSCOPE. 233 

variety, and no less captivating to the mind than pleasing to the eye. 
They appear strengthened and distended by the finest bones, and 
covered with the thinnest membranes. Some of them are adorned 
with neat and beautiful feathers, and many of them provided 
with the most symmetrical articulations and foldings for the wings 
when they are to be withdrawn and folded up in their cases. The 
thin membranes of the wings appear beautifully divaricated with 
thousands of little points like silver studs. The wings of some flies 
are filmy, as the dragon-fly ; others have them stuck over with short 
bristles, as the flesh-fly ; some have rows of feathers along their 
ridges, and borders round their edges, as in the gnats ; some have 
hairs and others hooks, placed with the greatest regularity and order. 
In the wings of moths and butterflies there are millions of small 
feathers of different shapes, diversified with the greatest variety of 
bright and lively colors, each of them so small as to be altogether 
invisible to the naked eye. The leaves of all plants and flowers, 
when examined by the microscope, are found to be full of innumer- 
able ramifications, corresponding to the closely interwoven network 
of veins on the surface of the human body, whose office is to convey 
the perspirable juices to the pores, and to consist of the barenchymous 
and ligneous fibres, interwoven in a curious and admirable manner. 
The smallest leaf, even one which is little more than visible to the 
naked eye, is found to be thus divaricated, and the variegations are 
different in the leaves of different vegetables. The way in which 
the leaves are veined is also another means, beside that of the hori- 
2?ontal sectional aspect of the trunk or stem, of determining the class 
of flowering vegetable to which their plants belong. If the veins 
run parallel to each other on the leaf, the plant belongs to the endo- 
genous class ; if they are reticulated, or interlacing each other in all 
directions, it belongs to the exogenous. Thus, referring to the leaf 
of the iris, you find that it is of an endogenous, or within-growing, 
plant ; and you know by the same kind of examination that the 
melon is an exogenous, or without-growing, plant. 

A transverse section of a plant not more than one-fourth of an 
inch in diameter, when viewed through a powerful microscope, dis- 
plays such beauties as cannot be conceived without ocular inspection. 
The number of pores of all sizes, amounting to hundreds of thou- 
sands, which are the vessels of the plant cut asunder, the beautiful 
curves they assume, and the radial and circular configurations they 
present in endogenous plants are truly astonishing ; and not only 
the two great classes but every distinct species of plants exhibit a 
different configuration. There have been counted in a small section 
of a plant, of the size above stated, 5000 radial lines, each containing 



234 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

about 250 pores, great and small, which amount to one million two 
hundred and fifty thousand of these variegated apertures. 

Even the particles of sand on the sea shore, and on the rivers' 
banks, differ as to the size, form and color of their grains ; some 
being transparent, others opaque ; some having rough, and others 
smooth surfaces ; some are spherical or oval, and some pyramidal, 
conical, prismatical, or polyhedral. Mr. Hooke happening to view 
some grains of white sand through his microscope, hit incidentally 
upon one of the grains which was exactly shaped and wreathed like 
a shell, though it was no larger than the point of a pin. " It re- 
sembled," says he, " the shell of a small water-snail, and had twelve 
wreathings, all growing proportionately one less than another to- 
wards the middle or centre of the shell, where there was a very small, 
round, white spot." This gives evidence of the existence of shell- 
fish, which are invisible to the naked eye ; and therefore smaller than 
a mite. 

The variety of forms in which animal life appears, which the mi- 
croscope enables us to explore, is indeed wonderful. Microscopic 
animals are so different from those of the larger kind, that scarcely 
any similarity seems to exist between them; and from a limited 
knowledge of them, one would be almost tempted to suppose that 
they live in accordance with laws directly opposite to those which 
preserve man and all other animals in existence. When we begin our 
explorations in this region of animate nature, we feel as if we were 
entering upon the confines of a new world, and surveying anew race 
of sentient existence. The number of these creatures exceeds all 
human calculation or conception. Many hundreds of species, all 
differing in their forms, habits, and motions, have already been distin- 
guished and described ; but we know that by far the greater part of 
the system of the earth is unexplored, and doubtless forever hid from 
the view of man. They are of all shapes and forms.' Some of them 
appear like minute atoms ; some like spheres or spheroides ; some like 
hand-bells ; some like wheels turning on an axis ; some like double- 
headed monsters ; some like cylinders ; some have worm-like appear- 
ances ; some have horns ; some resemble eels ; some are like long hairs, 
150 times as long as they are broad ; some like spires and cupolas ; 
some like fishes : and some like animated vegetables. Some of them 
are almost visible to the naked eye ; and some so small that the 
breadth of a human hair would cover fifty or a hundred of them ; and 
others are so minute that millions on millions of them might be con- 
tained within the space of a sqiaare inch. In every pond and ditch, and 
in every puddle ; in the infusions of pepper, straw, grass, oats, hay, 
and other vegetables ; in paste and vinegar, and in water found in 



WONDERS OF EXISTENCE DISCOVERED BY THE MICROSCOPE. 235 

oysters ; on almost every plant, and flower ; and in the rivers, seas, 
and oceans, these creatures are found in such numbers and variety, 
as altogether exceed our conceptions. A class of these animals, called 
Medusae, has been found, so numerous as to discolor the ocean itself. 
Captain Scoresby found the number in the olive green sea to be im- 
mense. A cubic inch contained 94 ; and consequently a cubic mile 
would contain 23,909,000,000,000,000, or nearly 24 thousand bil- 
lions ; so that if one person could count a million in seven days, it 
would have required that over 76,000 persons should have begun 
6,000 years ago, in order to have completed the enumeration at the 
present time. Yet, all the minute animals to which we now allude 
are furnished with numerous organs of life, as well as the larger 
kinds. Some of their internal movements are distinctly perceived ; 
their motions are evidently voluntary, and some of them appear to be 
possessed of a considerable degree of sagacity, and to be fond of each 
others' society. It may in short be unhesitatingly affirmed that the 
beauties and varieties which exist in those regions of the earth which 
are invisible to the unassisted eye are far more numerous than what 
appear to a common observer in the visible domain of nature. How far 
this scene of creating power and intelligence may extend beyond the 
range of our miscroscopic instruments it is impossible for us to deter- 
mine ; for the more perfect our glasses are, and the higher the mag- 
nifying power we apply, the more numerous and diversified are the 
objects which they discover to our view. And as the most perfect 
telescope is, and ever will be, insufficient to convey our view to the 
boundaries of the great universe, so we may justly conclude that the 
most powerful microscope that has been, or ever will be, constructed, 
will be altogether insufficient to guide our view to the utmost limits 
of the descending scale of creation. 

But the knowledge we already possess of these invisible and in- 
explorable regions gives us an amazing conception of the wisdom and 
intelligence of the Creator, of the immensity of His nature, and of 
the infinity of ideas which during all time existed in His all-compre- 
hensive mind. What immense space in the scale of animal life in- 
tervenes between an animal which appears only the size of a visible 
point, when magnified 500,000 times, and a whale a hundred feet 
long, and twenty broad ! The proportion of bulk between one of 
these beings and the other is nearly 34,560,000,000,000,000,000 to 1, 
or over thirty-four trillions and a half to one. Yet all the inter- 
mediate space is filled up with animated beings of every form and 
order. 

A similar variety obtains in the vegetable kingdom. It has been 
calculated that some plants which grow on rose leaves and other 



236 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

shrubs are so small that it would require more than a thousand of 
them to equal in bulk a single plant of moss ; and if we compare a 
stem of moss, which is generally not above one sixtieth of an inch, 
with some of the large trees in Brazil and California, of twenty feet 
diameter, we shall find the bulk of the one to exceed that of the other, 
no less than 26,969,706,000,000, which, multiplied by 1,000, will pro- 
duce 26,969,706,000,000,000, or nearly 27 thousand billions of times, 
which the large tree exceeds the roseleaf plant in size. Yet this im- 
mense interval is filled up with plants and trees of everj^ form and 
size. With good reason then may we repeat the language of the 
Psalmist, with reference to the Deity : " How manifold are thy 
works, O Lord ! In wisdom hast thou made them all. Marvellous 
things doeth He, which we cannot comprehend." 

On Crystallization. 

The subject of crystallization is one which is also of great inter- 
est, and in which there is great variety of forms of matter displayed. 
When a mineral from any cause has been deprived of its cohesion, 
and its particles separated, if the particles are permitted to associate 
themselves again to form a solid, in such a way that they can follow 
their own inclination, the solid will indicate its being constructed 
according to certain laws ; that is to say, the force of cohesion oper- 
ating in the new formation does not act equally in all directions, but 
in the great majority of cases sets itself to construct regular geome- 
trical solids, called crystals. For illustration, if any ordinary salt, 
common salt, or salt-petre, or alum, be added to boiling water until 
the water will dissolve no more, and a bunch of threads be suspended 
in this solution, and allowed to stand all night, in the morning the 
string will be found covered all over with crystals. If common salt 
be used the crystals will be cubes ; if alum they will be four-sided 
pyramids, placed base to base. The larger the quantity of solution, 
and the more slowly it cools, the larger will be the crystals ; muddy 
solutions also increase their size. The presence of a substance which 
does not crystallize with the salts may modify the shape of the crys- 
tals ; thus, if in the solution of common salt urea be present, the 
crystals will no longer be cubes, but, like those of alum, octahedra. 

The peculiarities of crystallization are many. We might almost 
say that crystals in their formation exlnbit signs of instinct. If a 
damaged crystal be suspended in a saturated solution of the salt 
which composes it, the salt out of the solution Avill begin to repair 
the damage, so that in a little while the general contour of the crys- 
tal will be restored. If in a solution there be small and large crys- 



CKYSTALLIZATION. 



237 



tals, and the solution by an alteration of temperature be made alter- 
nately saturated and non-saturated, it will be found that the small 
crystals become entirely dissolved, while the large crystals grow. 
Crystals may also be obtained from a vapor condensing ; sulphur, 
arsenic, and iodine, afford examples of this ; or fi-om a liquid cool- 
ing. If, for example, six or eight pounds of sulphur of bismuth be 
melted and allowed to cool, if, when a crust has been formed on it, 
the crust be removed, and the yet liquid substance be poured out, 
the cavity of the vessel will be found lined with crystals ; and often 
when a metal has been molten, and in its cooled state exhibits no signs 
of crystallization, yet the existence of the phenomenon may be shown 
if a weak solvent be applied to remove those particles which mask 
the formation. If a sheet of tin, while hot, be washed over with a 
weak solution of hydrochloric acid, the crystals which make the tin 
moiree metallique (or cr3-stallized tin plate), and which previously ex- 
isted, will appear. A bar of nickel, placed in dilute nitric acid, be- 
comes covered with tetrahedra, because the acid dissolves the inter- 
vening uncrystallized metal. But, perhaps, the tendencj^ of particles 
to arrange themselves in some order of polarity is most strikingly 
illustrated in solids which are undergoing processes which move 
their particles. For example the axle, or the tire of the wheel, of a 
railway carriage, by constant vibration occasions the particles of 
which it is composed to take positions according to the polarity of 
their kind, and the consequence is that many axles or trees, when 
broken after years of service, exhibit throughout their mass crystals 
of iron. 

Very few persons out of 
the great mass of mankind 
are aware that when they are 
walking on snow they are 
treading beneath their feet 
the most beautiful crystals. 
Snow is all composed of crys- 
tals in which, though a great 
diversity of figure is apparent, 
yet all the angles are equal, 
being those of an equilateral 

triangle, sixty degrees ; and it is the angles which are the constants 
in crystallography ; these never vary ; but the faces of the same form 
of crystal are always equally inclined. When a flake of snow is 
examined by a magnifying glass, the whole of it will appear to be 
composed of fine shining specula, diverging like rays from a centre. 
Many of the snow crystals are of a regular figure, for the most part 




238 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

stars of six points, and are as perfect and transparent ice as any we 
see on a pond or river. Their forms present an almost endless 
variety, are often very regular and beautiful, and reflect with exceed- 
ing splendor the rays of the sun. This is the reason Avhy snow 
appears white, the light being reflected from every angle and face of 
the infinite number of crystals. The crystals of snow vary from 
one third to one thirty-fourth of an inch in diameter, in the natural 
size. Ice, as we have had occasion to remark before, is crystallized 
water, just as snow is crystallized water from vapor in the air. See 
annexed figure. 

A very slight acquaintance with crystals will assure the observer 
that those of the same mineral have a close relationship to each 
other, whenever the same forms are studied. The law of symmetry 
is one of the principles upon which creation is carried on. It is ob- 
servable in every organic structure that about a certain plane or cer- 
tain planes the structure is built up. For example, a plane passing 
down through the centre of the human frame would divide the body 
into two similar halves. So with crystals they are all arranged sym- 
metrically about imaginary lines ; and according to the arrangement 
of these axes of symmetry crystals are divided into six classes or 
systems. 

1st. The Manometries Regular^ Tessular, or Cubic, System has three 
axes of symmetry, all equal, and all at right angles to each other. 
About these axial lines the crystal is symmetrically built up, so that 
when heated it expands equally in all directions, and transmits light 
without refracting the rays. The primary figures of this system may 
be found by causing planes to pass perpendicularly through the ex- 
tremities of the axis. This will produce the cube. The other pro- 
minent figure of the system, the octahedron, is formed by causing 
eight planes to pass through the three extremities of the axes. The 
reader will easily conceive of two tetrahedral, or four-sided, pj'ramids, 
being joined to each other base to base, which is the form of this oc- 
tahedron. By combining these two primary figures in various pro- 
portions a series of crystals may be produced. It is proper here to 
remark that this combination we speak of is only imaginary, for all 
the forms of crystals are natural, and that by this imaginary combi- 
ning and modifying the prominent forms of each system a series of 
crystals appear for each system, which are called secondary crystalline 
forms, which only means that they are forms which are scarce in the 
system as compared with the primary or prominent forms. The 
following are the forms of this system and the minerals which crys- 
tallize into it : 



CRYSTALLIZATION. 239 

The tetrahedron, in which form grey copper crystallizes, 

(Fluor Spar "l 

RodT-Salt I Crystallize 

Iron P^" rites j 

The Octahedron (Primary) " i SDinell Cryatalliza 

The Cube Octahedron " Galena (ore of Lead) " 

The Rhombic Dodecahedron " Garnet " 

The six-faced Tetrahedron " . .• Diamond '• 

The six-faced Octahedron " Garnet " 



V 



^ 



sa 





Figures 56, 57, 58 represent the primary. 
5a 60 



/^jipf ^T^^ 





Figures 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, the secondary forms 
of this system. 




240 



CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 



2nd class : The Dimetric, Right Square ; Prismatic or Pyramidal 
system has also three axes all at right angles to each other ; but one 
axis is longer than the other two. The prism and the double-pyram- 
idal octahedron are the usual primary forms of this system, and it 
has also its secondary forms. The following minerals are known tc 
crystallize into this system : Tinstone, ferrocyanide of Potassium, 
cyanide of Mercury, rutile, anatase, and idocrase. 









N 


^N, 


65/ 


y^ 

^ 


:^ 




\ 


70 




/^'^ [^ 


y ^^ 










^N 




Figures 69, 70, 71, 72, represent the 




primary ; and 73, 74 the secondary forms of this system. 

3rd Class : The Trimetric, Right Rectangular, or Prismatic system. 
This system has three axes all at right angles, but all unequal. The 
primary forms in this system are the rectangular prism, and the oc- 
tahedron. It has also its secondary forms. Nitre, aragonite, topaz, 
sulphate of 



75 



_..' 




Baryta, sulphur, and stilbite crystallize in this system. Figures 75, 
, represent the principal forms of this system. 



76 



CRYSTALLIZATION. 



241 



4th Class : The Monoclinic, or Oblique system. The axes of this 
system are unequal in length, like the last ; but two of them intersect 
each other, not at right angles. The effect of this is that the base 
of the prism or octahedron, which are the principal forms of this 
system, is a parallelogram of unequal sides. Green vitriol, sulphate 
of soda, phosphate of soda, sulphur, crystallized from its melted 
state, and borax, crystallize in this system. Figures 77, 78, 79 will 
give the idea of this system. 






w 




., 




^ 




: 


\: 






5th Class : The TricUnie, Doubly Oblique, or Anorthic system. 
This system has also three unequal axes, but none of them intersect 
at right angles. The prism and the octahedron are the primary 
forms, but these are necessarily different in form from the preceding j 
and there are secondary forms. But few minerals appear to crys- 
tallize, in this system. The most common are blue vitriol (sulphate 





of copper), labradorite, anorthite, and aximite. Fisfures 80 and 81 
show the octahedron and the prism of this system. 

6th Class : The Hexagonal, and Rhombohedral System. The 
crystals of this system have four axes, three of them in the same 
plane and intersecting at angles of sixty degrees, and all equal ; the 
fourth perpendicular to these, and varying in length. By the sup- 
posed joining of the extremities of these axes a hexagon is formed, 
which is the base of a prism (therefore six-sided), and of a hexagonal 
dodecahedron. These primary forms appear in snow crystals, beryl, 
tourmaline, and nitrate of soda, and the very common quartz crystals, 
which almost every one has seen, are generally six-sided prisms, termin- 
ated by six-sided pyramids. This system is also called the Rhombo- 

16 



242 



CREATOR AND QOSMOS. 



liedral, from the fact that the rhomb, so admirably shown in calc- 
spar, is the hemihedral form of the hexagonal dodecahedi'on ; that is, 
if the alternate faces of the double, six-sided pyramid be supposed 
produced, they will form a six-sided solid, which appears in figure 
84. Figures 82, 83, represent the principal forms of this system. 






Almost all minerals crystallize into some one of these systems. 
For example, gold, silver, copper, and platina are found to crystallize 
in the first or monometric, system. A sublime display of crj'stalliza- 
tion is seen in some places on the earth's surface. A visit to the 
island of Staffa, in Scotland, and to the Giant's CauscAvay, in Ireland, 
would be amply repaid to one who liked to inspect and contemplate 
such sublime natural wonders. 

In order that some of the words which we have found it neces- 
sary to use in this short description of crystallization may be under- 
stood by all our readers, we may explain that monometric signifies 
Iiaving one measurement, or equal measurement, the monometric 
:system being distinguished by equality of axes. Dimetric signifies 
iiaving two measurements, crystals in this sj^stem having one longer 
axis and two shorter ones, which latter two are of the same length. 
Trimetric signifies harving three measurements, the crystals of this 
system having three axes; all of which differ in length. Monoclinic 
signifies having one sloping axis, cr3'stals of this system having one 
axis, which is not rectangular to the other two. Tiiclinic signifies 
having three axes at oblique angles to one another. Hexagonal 
(signifies six-sided, or six angled. Dodecahedral signifies having 
■twelve sides. Rhombohedral signifies having its sides in the form of 
•a rhombus, from a figure whose four sides are equal, but its angles 
;are not right angles. 

<ON LIGHT: THE PRISM, THE SPECTRUM, SPECTRAL ANALYSIS, &C. 

But all this scene of beauty and, all these natural wonders we 
"have been contemplating need the agency of light to make them ap- 
parent. Light, as we have before remarked, is essential not onl}^ to 
the existence and growth of plants and animals, but also to the 



LIGHT, BEFLEXION OF. 243 

phenomena of colors. It is a manifestation of a substance which is 
universally present, but needs to be in certain conditions of chemical 
action in order that the light be made manifest. It radiates from a 
luminous object in straight lines in all directions, and all objects are 
seen by its reflection from their surfaces. The reflection of the rays 
of light is that property by which, after striking the surfaces of 
bodies, they are driven back or repelled. It is, therefore, in conse- 
quence of this property that all the objects around us, and all the 
divei'sified landscapes on our globe are rendered visible. When light 
impinges or strikes upon a surface, — say, for illustration, a polished 
surface, rather more than half of it is thrown back or reflected in a 
direction similar to that of its approach; that is to say, if it fall per- 
pendicularly upon a surface it will \>q perpendicularly reflected ; but, 
if it fall obliquely, it will be reflected with the. name obliquity. Hence 
the following fundamental law, regarding the reflection of light has 
been deduced both from experiment and mathematical demonstration, 
namely, that the angle of reflection is, in all cases, exactly equal to the 
angle of incidence* Thus if a ray of solar light be admitted into a 
dark room through a hole in the window-shutter, the ray will pass 
straight through to the opposite wall, and by its reflexion from the 
wall throw a certain amount of light round the whole room. Thus 
the whole room is to a certain degree lighted, although not with 
the direct rays of the sun,. Also, if the window be not situated 
dir-ectly opposite to the sun, the rays of light which enters must it- 
self be a ray of light reflected from the atmosphere, or from some 
outside objects. This la^t ray, however, when admitted, passes 
tlirough as a direct ray to the opposite Avail, and is again reflected. 
Thus it is seen that there is no end to the reflections of light, and 
the atmosphere during the day is one great illuminated ocean, from 
the fact that the solar image is reflected and refracted from every 
portion of it. You see your own image in a looking-glass, moreover, 
by the rays of light from your body being reflected ; and by placing 
two plane mirrors in certain positions in relation to each other and 
to a luminous, object, you can multiply the number of images of an 



* Let A B represent a plane mirror, and C D a line 
or ray of light, perpendicular to it. Let E D be the inci- 
dent ray, from any object; then D F will be the reflected 
Riy, thrown back in the direction D F; and it will make, 
■witl\ the perpendicular C D, the same angle which the in- 
cident ray E D does with the same perpendicular; that is, 
• tlie angle F D C is equal to the angle E D C, in all cases 
of obliquity; the perpendicular ray being, of course, per- 
pendicularly reflected. The way we see our faces and 
our persons in a looking-glass, is illustrated by figure 87. 




244 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



object indefinitely. In the case too of your image being reflected 
from a looking-glass, the angle of reflection is equal to that of in- 
cidence; for your image seems to form the same angle with the glass 
behind it, as you do before it ; and if you change your position it 
changes also, and maintains the same angle as you do in relation to 
the glass. 

While light, when proceeding from a luminous body, without 
being reflected from any opaque substance, or inflected by passing 
near one, is invariably fou)id to proceed in straight lines, without 
the least deviation, 3'et, if it pass obliquely from one medium to an- 
other, it always deviates from its original course, and takes a new 
one. This change of direction, or bending of the rays of light, is 
what is termed refraction, from the Latin ward frangere, to break or 
to bend. The angle of refraction depends upon the obliquitj" of the 
rays falling upon the refracting surface, being always such that the 
sine of the incident angle is to the sine of the refracted angle in a 
given proportion.* The incident angle is the angle made by a ray of 

Let A B represent a mirror, and O C a person 
looking into it. If we conceive a ray, proceed- 
ing from the forehead C E, it will be reflected 



Fig. 88. 





to the eye at 0, agreeably to the angle of inci- 
dence and reflection, but the mind puts CEO 
into one line, and the forehead is seen at H, as 
if the lines CEO had turued on a hinge at E. 
It is a peculiar faculty of the mind to put two oblique lines, C E and E, into one straight line 
O H: yet, it is seen every time we look at ourselves in a mirror. For the ray really strikes the 
mirror from C at E, and tlieuce strikes the eye at : and it is that journey which determines 
the distance of the object; and hence we see our image as far behind the mirror as we stand 
before it Though a ray is liere taken only from one part of the face, it may be easily con- 
ceived that rays from every part of the face must produce a similar effect 

In every plane mirror, the image is always equal to the object, at which distance soever it 
may be placed; and as the mirror is only at half the distance of the image from the eye. it will 
completely receive an image of twice its own length. Hence a man six feet in height may view 
himself completely from tip to toe in a looking-glass of three feet in height, and half his own 
breadth ; and this will be the case at whatever distance he may stand from the mirror, as is 
shown in figure 88. 



* For illustration of refraction: Let A D H I, fig. 89, be a body of water, A D its surface, 
C a point in which a ray of light, B C, enters from the air into the water. This ray, by the 
greater density of the water, instead of passing straight forward in its first direction to K, will 
be bent at the point C, and pass along in the direction C E. which is called the refracted ray. 
Let the line F G be drawn perpendicular to the surface of the water in C ; then it is evident that 



LIGHT, REFRACTION OF. 245 

light and a line drawn perpendicular to the refracting surface, at the 
point where the light eiitefs the new medium. The refracted angle 
is the angle made by the ray iu the refracted medium with the same 
perpendicular pioduced. The sine of the angle is a line which serves 
to measure the angle, being drawn from a point in one side perpen- 
dicular to the other. 

On the principle of refraction, you may, by means of a multiplying 
glass, see as many images of a luminous object as the glass has different 
surfaces. If the multiplying glass have twenty different surfaces, you see 
twenty different images ; or, if the surfaces could be cut and polished 
so small that it has five hundred surfaces then you see five hundred 
images of the same luminous object. Thus, it is seen, the light of a 
given luminous object will be the more diffused, the more surfaces there 

the ray B C, in passing out of the air, a rare medium, into a dense medium, as water, is refracted 
into a ray C E, which is nearer to the perpendicular C G than the incident ray B C; and, on the 
contrary, the ray E C passing' out of a denser medium into a rarer, is refracted into C B, which 
is farther from the perpendicular. 

The same thing may be otherwise illustrated, as follows : — Suppose a hole be made in one of 
the sides of the vessel, as at A, and a lighted candle placed within two or three feet of it, when 
empty, so that its flame may be at L; a ray of light proceeding from it will pass through the 
hole A in a straight line, L B C K, until it reach the bottom of the vessel at K, where it will 
form a small circle of light. Having put a mark at the point K, pour water into the vessel until 
it rise to the height A D; and the spot of light which was formerly at K will appear at E; that 
is, the ray which went straight forward when the vessel was empty to K, has been bent at the 
point C, where it strikes the water, into the line C E. In this experiment it will be necessary 
that the front of the vessel be of glass, in order that the course of the ray may be seen ; and if 
a little soap be mixed witli the water, so as to give it a little mistiness, the ray C E will be dis- 
tinctly perceived. If, instead of fresh water, we fill the vessel with salt water, it will be found 
that the ray B C is more bent at C. 

In like manner alcohol will refract the ray B C more than salt water, and oU more than 
alcohol; and a piece of solid glass, of the shape of the water, will refract the ray still more than 
the oil. Further explanation : In this figure B C is the incident 
ray, F G the perpendicular, B F the sine of the angle of inci- Fig. 8 •> 

deuce B C F, and G £ the sine of the angle of refraction G CE. 
Now, it is a proijosition that the sine B F, of the angle of inci- 
dence B C F, is either accurately, or very nearly, in a given pro- 
portion to the sine G E of tlie angle of refraction G C E. This 
ratio of the sines is as 4 to 3 when the refraction is made out of 
air into water; that is, B F: G E:: 4: 3. When the refraction 
is made out of air into glass, the proportion is about as 31 to 20, 
or nearly as 3 to 2. If the refraction be out of air into diamond, 
it is as 5 to 2; that is, B F: G E:: 5: 2. The denser the medium 
is the less is the angle and sine of refraction. If a ray of light, F G, were to pass from air into 
water, or empty space into air, iu the direction C F, perpendicular to the plane A D, which 
separates the two mediums, it would suffer no refraction, because one of the essentials to that 
effect is wanting; namely, the obliquity of the incidence. 

The refraction of the atmosphere produces an effect upon the lieavenly bodies that their 
apparent positions are generally different from their real. In consequence of this the sun is 
seen before he comes to the horizon in the morning, and after he has sunk beneath it in the 
evening, and hence this luminary is never seen in the place in which it really is, except in 
places within the torrid zone, when it passes the zenith at noon. The sun is visible when thirty- 
two minutes of a degree below the horizon, and when the opaque curvature of the earth is inter- 
posed between our eye and that orb. 




246 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

are for it to be refracted and reflected from. But if a luminous ob- 
ject be completely separated from you by the intervention of an 
opaque body, as is the sun from us during our night by the interven- 
tion of the body of the earth, then you have no light from the lumin- 
ous object. Light passes through all transparent substances, such as 
the atmosphere, water, and glass ; and. in its passage through these 
substances of different densities it is refracted, as we have explained, 
according to certain laws. A body, ordinarily speaking, is said to 
be transparent when every part between its tAvo surfaces is of the 
same density, and therefore the ray of light emerges on the opposite 
side Tn the case of the looking-glass, the ray of light would pass 
through it, being refracted, but for the coating of quicksilver which 
it has on its back, which prevents it passing through, and causes it 
to be reflected. A body is said to be opaque when the parts between 
its two opposite surfaces are of different densities, and so the rays of 
light are destroyed by the many refractions and reflexions, and do 
not emerge on the opposite side. All substances that are not tran- 
sparent are opaque, though there are different degrees both of tran- 
sparency and opacit}'. Light and heat usually accompany each 
other, but light is not always manifested where strong heat is evolved. 
The heat accompanying the solar light is so great that when concen- 
trated on double-convex lenses it will be sufficient to fuse the densest 
metals. Mr. Parker, of Fleet Street, London, once made a burning 
glass three feet in diameter, and when fixed in its frame it exposed a 
clear surface of more than two feet eight inches in diameter, and its 
focus, by means of another lens, was reduced to a diameter of half an 
inch. The heat produced by this lens was so great, that iron plates 
were melted in a few seconds ; tiles and slate became red-hot in a 
moment, and were vitrified, or changed into glass. Sulphur, pitch, 
and other resinous bodies were melted under water ; wood-ashes, 
and those of other vegetable substances, were turned in a moment 
into transparent glass : even gold wns rendered fluid in a few seconds ; 
and notwithstanding the intense heat at the focus, the finger might 
without the slightest injury l)e placed in the cone of ra3"s within an 
inch of the focus. The force of the heat collected in the focus of 
the double-convex glass is to the common heat of the sun as the area 
of the glass is to that of the focus ; it may, of course, be a hundred or 
even a thousand times Greater in the one case than in the othei". 
When a fii-e or a candle burns, or a horse strikes his shoe against a 
stone, light as well as heat is evolved ; but a stack of ha}-, or a pile 
of dry goods, if allowed to stand long enough in a damp condition, 
may be heated to a high pitch without any light being evolved. 
Light is produced in man}' ways artificially, as by chemical action in 



LIGHT, DISTRIBUTION OF. 



247 



the c< mbiistion of solids, liquids, and gases ; by percussion, as in the 
use of tlie flint and steel, which is called " striking fire," and by the 
electric light, which may be considered the most intense and brilliant 
of all artificial lights. This last is procured from the ignition of two 
points of charcoal through which the current of electricity from a 
powerful battery is passed. But all terrestrial modes of obtaining 
light, such as chemical action, friction, ignition of solids, phosphor- 
escence, crystallization, and the electric light, sink into insignificance 
before the great natural source of light, the sun, the centre of our 
planetary system, and the source both of light and heat to our world. 
Sir John Herschell has estimated that " the sun gives out as much 
lio'ht as 146 lime lishts would do if each ball of lime were as large 
as the sun, and gave out light from all parts of its surface ; and that 
the heat evolved from ever}^ square yard of the sun's surface is as 
great as that which would be produced by the burning of six tons of 
coal on it each hour." 

Although it is said that light is emitted in straight lines from a 
luminous body it must not be understood that a given quantity of 
light goes on continuously in the same bulk or volume ; it is continu- 
ally expanding as it recedes from the point of emission. The areas 
of space filled with it as it proceeds are to each other as the squares 
of their respective distances from the luminous point of emission ; 
and consequently the intensity or illuminating power of the light is 
inversely as the areas. Thus luminous bodies give, at the respective 
distances of two, three, or four yards, a fourth, a ninth, and a six- 
teenth, respectively, of the light they give at one j-ard from them; 
the areas illuminated and filled with the diffusing light being, at 
these several distances, four, nine, and sixteen times as great as at 
one yard distance. It may, therefore, be said more correctly that 
light diffuses itself'uhiversally in expanding volumes, bounded as the 
volumes increase by straight diverging surfaces, which form the 
boundaries of areas whose relative magnitudes are as the square of 
their distances.* The larger the luminous body is, the more space it 
will eniighlen ; and it is plain that the enlightened space will cor- 



* This may be illustrated by the following figure : Suppose that light which flows from 

a candle A, and passes through a square hole B, is 
received upon a plane C, parallel to the plane of 
the hole; or let the figure C be considered as the 
shadow of the jilane B. When the distance of C is. 
double of B the length and breadth of the shadow 
C will be each double of the length and breadth of 
the plane B, and treble when A D is treble of A B, 
and so on. Therefore the surface of the shadow C 
at the distance A C, double of A B, is divisible into four squares, and at a treble distance into 
nine squares severally equal to the square B. The light then which falls upon the plane B, 




-248 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

Respond in form with the body which enlightens it. Thus, the sun 
"being of globular figure, — and, as we may here, for illustration, sup- 
pose it luminous all over its surface, — enlightens an area, however 
great in extent, of spherical shape ; the space nearest the sun being 
most enlightened, and the light becoming less as the distance from 
it becomes greater. The larger the luminous body is, too, at the 
greater distance will it be s6en by the eye ; also, the larger it appears 
at a given place the more light it will diffuse at that place ; for the 
larger will its image be to be reflected and refracted from all objects; 
and, conversely, the smaller a luminous body appears from a given 
place the less light will it diffuse at that place, for the smaller 
will its image be reflected from all objects. When, therefore, a 
luminous body, of however great a size, is at so great a distance 
from a place as not to be perceivable by the eye, then it gives 
no direct light at that place, from the fact that there is no 
image of it to be reflected. Also, if one was situated beyond 
the range of our atmosphere, away out in the ethereal regions, it 
is determined he would experience no such flood of light as he does 
at the earth's surface, because of the absence of a reflecting medium. 
The denser and rougher in surface bodies are the better in general 
they reflect the light , for the image of the sun is reflected from one 
corner, face, or angle of rough surfaces to the other so as to make 
them more luminous than if they were smooth, though of the same 
density as they are. But the ether which exists beyond the limits 
of our atmosphere being so exceedingly rare, does not reflect the 
image of the sun; and the sun to an observer situated there, would 
appear like a luminous globe placed in a black canopy, and sur- 
rounded on all sides with pitchy darkness. So the stars might ap- 
pear like luminous points scarcely distinguishable,' iii regions of the 
blackest darkness. The appearance of the earth would depend upon 
the distance of the observer from it ; the nearer he would be to the 
earth the more luminous would it appear, the light being reflected 
from its surface and atmosphere. 

On the subject of light, two leading theories have been propounded 
in the philosophic world. Sir Isaac Newton supposed that light was 
corpuscular, or composed of minute particles of a material nature, 



being suffered to pass to double tluit distance, -will be uniformly spread over fonr times the 
space, and consequently will be four times less intense in every part of that space. And at the 
treble distance it will be nine times thinner, and at a quadruple distance sixteen times thinner 
than it was at first. The quantities, therefore, of this rarified lisht received upon a surface of 
any given size and shape, when removed successively to their several distances, will be but 
one-fourth, one-ninth, one-si.xteenth of the whole quantity received by it at the first disUmce 
A B. This law holds good with respect to the quantity of light received by the planets at their 
respective distances from the sun. 



LIGHT, THEORIES CONCERNING. 249 

"which are constantly emitted in all directions by luminous bodies. 
This hypothesis was adopted to a great extent, especially by British 
philosophers, but in later times it has given way to the theory of 
Huygens, who assumes that all space is pervaded by an elastic ether, 
the undulatory motions of which, when it is disturbed, manifest 
themselves in light, just as motion in water gives waves, or sound in 
air gives vibrations. Neither of these theories, it was afterwards 
thought, having fully explained the phenomena of light, another ex- 
planation was propounded, which corresponds very much with that 
of Huygens. This is that all space is filled with electricity, the 
elastic ether of Huygens, which, as is known, penetrates all bodies ; 
and that the great ocean of electricity in free space, having nothing 
to compress it, yields freely in all directions, and only undulates 
when passing through other media, such as the atmosphere, where it 
suffers interruption, and also, to a certain extent, absorption. Thus 
far as to the theories. But the fact is that men will be ever chang- 
ing their theories, rejecting old ones and substituting new ones, until 
they have come to a knowledge of the subject concerning which the 
theory is. No false theory will fully satisfy the mind, or last per- 
manently. The phenomenon of light does not depend upon the 
emission of luminous particles from luminous bodies, nor does it 
necessarily depend upon all space being filled with a substance of 
any particular name such as ether, electricity, or any other name, 
provided it be a transparent and reflecting medium fitted to transmit 
the rays of light, as it is ; but it consists simply in this, the infinite 
multiplication of the image of the luminous object by reflection and 
refraction from the media on all sides of it and to all visible distances 
from it. It depends simply upon this, that a luminous body exists, 
and is within visible distance, and then the amount of light places 
possess will depend upon the adaptedness or unfitness for reflexion 
of the media of these places.* As to the luminous body itself the 
phenomenon of light arises as does heat from the violent agitation of 
its ultimate elements in their seeking equilibrium by chemical separ- 
ation or combination ; and the production of the light is confined to 
the luminous body and is not necessarily common to any illuminated 
body wi£h it. When a body is permanently luminous, as the sun is, 
then the space which it illuminates is always illuminated (unless 
parts of it, Avhich, during certain intervals, are separated from the 
luminous body by the intervention of opaque bodies), and so the light 



* The case of tlie Fixed Stars, whose lisht -wt see, but whose discs are beyond the reach of 
our best telescope, does not permit a contradiction to this explanation. It is their image infin- 
itely multiplied by reflexion and refraction which we see, and they are visible in this way. But 
there are infinite numbers of .stars so remote that their light never reaches us. 



250 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

cannot be said to occupy any time in passing from one point of that 
space to another, or from the luminous body to any point of that 
space, as the common theories suppose, one of which has it to travel 
at the rate of nearly 200,000 miles a second. This theory is based 
upon deductions which have been drawn from observations made 
upon the satellites of Jupiter, at the time of their emergence from an 
eclipse. From these observations it was determined that it took the 
light a certain length of time to reach the earth from the satellites 
after their emergence from behind the body of the planet. But it 
appears quite evident that at the instant of their emergence, coming 
into the flood of solar light, they would be visible fi-om the earth ; 
and that no perceptible time might intervene between their emergence 
and their being seen by an observer on the earth. Light cannot be 
said to occupy any time in moving through a space in which it is 
constantly present. The reason why Ave do not always experience 
the light of the sun is because we are prevented from doing so by the 
intervention of the body of the earth between us and the sun during 
night-time, or by the intervention of some other object between us 
and the sun. But when the morning has come, and the sides of the 
earth on which we live has come round to face the sun ; or when an}^ 
other body, which has shut out from us the light of the sun, has been 
removed, and that luminary shines with a clear face, we can see him 
just in the same time as it takes us to see our neighbor standing at 
our elbow. No perceptible time intervenes between our opening 
our eyes to see the sun and our seeing him, although we are certainly 
separated from that luminary over ninety millions of miles. Nor 
does it take the light of any of the stars that are visible to us any 
length of time to travel from them to us. The liglit of the stars vis- 
ible to us is always present to the earth, and we only need to be on 
the side of the earth facing those stars, on a clear night, in order to 
see them instantly. The only condition necessary to our seeing the 
star instantly is for the star to be visible, and we then may see it in 
the same length of time it takes us to see the sun when that luminary 
is visible ; that is, when our eyeis are opened and directed towards it, 
no time at all ; although it may be more than a thousand millions of 
times the distance from us that the sun is. A lighted candle, it is 
said, can illuminate a space of 4 cubical miles ; that is, a spherical 
space whose dia-raeter is 1| miles, the candle being placed in the 
centre. This candle, therefore, would be seen by an observer placed 
at anv point in that space, say any extremity of a radius ; and neither 
would it take the light any time to reach his eye, nor would there 
necessarily be any luminous particles emitted by the candle towards 
his eye. But the image of the candle is present in every point in the 



LIGHT, THEORIES CONCERNING. 251 

space, and is reflected from all the reflecting media. The nearer the 
observer is to the candle the larger it appeal's, and the more intense 
is its light; the farther he removes from it the smaller it appears, and 
the less intense the light becomes, until finally the candle vanishes 
entirely from his sight, and there is no perceptible light from it in 
the surro-unding space. So it is evident that when, on their emergence 
from behind the body of the planet, a sufficiently large portion of the 
surface of Jupiter's satellites has become enlightened to render them 
visible to a telescopic observer at the earth (for these satellites 
are not discernible by the naked eye) ; no perceptible time need in- 
tervene until he sees them, provided no other body, as clouds, inter- 
vene to obstruct his view of them.* 

Nor is electricity found to occupy any perceptible time in travel- 
ling, by means of wires, to any distance on the earth's surface ; that 
is, the instant the message is sent by the telegraph operator, that 
same instant it is received at the other end of the wire, if the distance 
be over twelve thousand miles, or half the earth's circumference. 
The furthest point on the earth's surface, reckoning from any given 
place, is somewhat over twelve thousand miles, or half the earth's 
circumference. 

The reader will be likely to observe himself, the absurdity of the 
theory which supposed light to be dependent upon tlie emission of 
luminous particles from a luminous body ; for, for example, not a 
particle of the matter of which the sun is composed can ever go be- 
yond the range of his immediate attraction ; that is, every particle of 
the matter of which that body consists always did and always will 
belong to him ; he cannot lose it. Secondly, he will see the absurdity 
of supposing that luminous particles of matter could penetrate 
through thick plates of glass or other transparent substances, which 
admit the light so freely, as windows, double or multiple ; or the glass 
globes which surround our common lamps ; or diamond, one of the 
hardest known substances. But, as we have said before, light is only 
a phenomenon, the image of the luminous object infinitely multiplied 
as well as the object itself, as far as the manifestation of light is 
concerned; while, on the other hand, the substance of which light is 
a manifestation may be called electricity, or any other name one 
pleases. It is everywhere present, and manifests the light when the 
conditions necessary for that manifestation exist. All bodies possess 



* When immense distances are considered, it indeed appears reasonable that the pas- 
sage of light requires time proportionate to the distance.! Those who may understand 
it in this way I do not disagree vvitli ; although little of that belief is uecessiiry to those w no 
consider tlie lieavenly suns as permanently luminous. 

t See " Light and Electricity," by Tyudal. 



252 CEEATOB AND COSMOS. 

in themselves, to a greater or less extent, the principle of light and 
of heat. But it mostly exists in a latent state in terrestrial bodies, 
needing to be called into action in order that it become apparent. 
These principles exist in an active state in the sun ; and, therefore 
that luminary is the great source not only of light but of heat to the 
earth.* That part of the earth situated most favorably towards him 
receives the greatest quantity of his light and heat. The space which 
is constantly filled with the solar light is as constantly filled with the 
solar heat, and the reason we do not experience as much light and 
heat at one season of the year as we do at another is because the 
situation of the earth in relation to the sun does not admit of it. The 
earth is more than three millions of miles nearer the sun in Decem- 
ber than in June, yet we have less light and heat in the former 
season than in the latter, owing to the parts of the earth which we 
occupy being turned away from the sun, or in other words, being 
situated more obliquely towards him. The earth is a dense body 
situated in the mighty ocean of the solar light, as a theatre upon 
which he may display his exhaustless power and energy, and give 
animation, beauty and sublimity, to every surrounding scene. 

The Prism. 

The prism is the most important and instructive of all optical 
lenses and it has enabled philosophers to add what may be called 
another branch of science, " Spectrum Analysis," to those already 
known. This instrument is triangular, and generally about three 
or four inches long. It is commonly made of white glass, as free as 
possible from veins, and bubbles, and other similar defects and solid 
throughout. Its lateral faces and sides are perfectly plane and finely 
polished. The angle formed by the two faces, one receiving the ray 
of light that is refracted in the instrument, and the other giving it an 
issue on its return into the air, is called the refracting angle of the 
prism. By means of this triangular piece of glass we are enabled to 
decompose and analyze a ray of light, and, from the knowlege so 
obtained, to account for the phenomena of colors. If a ray of light, 
proceeding directly from the sun, be admitted through a circular 
hole, half an inch in diameter, into a room, the walls of which should 
be as dark as possible, or hung with black calico, and a prism inter- 
sect it near the window, the ray will cease to go forward in a straight 
line, being refracted, or bent a little upwards out of its original di- 



* Modem research has placed it beyond a doubt that heat is a mode of motion of the ulti- 
mate element of bodies. Thus, the great heat of the sun arises from the continued vialent 
agitation of the elements of that immense body propagated to the earth and through space by 
u-eans of the agitated ether. 



THE PRISM: THE SPECTRUM. 



253 



rection, and will be decomposed, and exhibit, on a white screen placed 
opposite to the window to receive it, a beautiful spectrum, consisting 
of seven colors, beginning below and extending upwards in order of 
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. If the refracting 
auo-le of the prism A C B, in the figure,* be sixty four degrees, and 
the distance of the white screen from the prism eighteen feet, the 
leno-th of the imao-e will be about ten inches, and the breadth two 
inches. This oblong image is called the prismatic spectrum, and in 
it the red color is least, and the violet the most bent from the original 
direction of the solar beam. The sides of the spectrum are right 
lines distinctly bounded ; and the ends are semi-circular. This cir- 
cumstance shows that it is still the image of the sun, but elongated 
by the refractive power of the prism. By an ordinary glass prism, 
such as those used for glass lustres, the margins of the colors are nut 
clearly defined, but seem to melt or mix, the one into the other. If 
a hollow glass prism filled with bisulphide of carbon be used, the 
seven colors of the spectrum are much more clearly defined. Sir 
Isaac Newton made this interesting and important discovery, that 
white light is a compound of rays of various kinds, having different 
colors, and indices of refraction ; and that all the substances which 
appear colored when illuminated with white light, derive their colors 
only from a kind of " natural selection," that is, they may reflect 
certain colored rays and absorb or transmit others. He however, 
concluded, from various experiments on this subject, tJiat every sub- 
stance in nature, provided it he reduced to the requisite degree of thin- 
ness, is transparent. This is plain also, from the fact that all sub- 
stances are of a nature reducible to an invisible gas. Many transpar- 



* The separation of a ray of wliite liglit into different colors, by refraction, may be more 
accurately understood as represented in fi|j;ure 91, where a ray of light is admitted through an 
aperture F in a window-shutter into a darkened chamber, and causing it to fall on the prism 
ABC. A ray, D, thus entering, and suffered to pass unobstructed, would form on a plane 
surface a circular disc of white light E; but the prism being so placed tliat the ray may enter 
and quit it at equal angles, it will be refracted in such a manner as to form on a screen M Ni 
properly placed, an oblong image, called the solar spectrum, and divided horizonUilly into seven 
colored spaces or bands of unequal extent. The angle A C B is the refracting angle of the 
prism. It is seen that the ends of the spectrum are semicircular. 



F5g.91 



Violet. . 
Indigo. . 
Blue- . . 
Green. . 
Yellow. 
Orange. 
Red. . . 




254 CEEATOK AND COSMOS. ' » 

ent media reflect one color and transmit another ; gold leaf reflects 
the yellow, but it transmits a sort of green color by holding it up 
against a strong light. 

Light is said to be the source of all colors ; but, if the principle 
of light is inherent in all substances, how can it be said that colors 
are not inherent in them ? Light itself is in every case, a manifesta- 
tion of matter. The matter which gives rise to the light is sometimes 
as in the case of carburetted hydrogen gas, itself invisible ; yet when 
properly examined, the light proceeding from it displays all colors, 
and renders them apparent in all other objects. The colors displayed 
by different objects, owing to their peculiar adaptedness for absorbing 
or reflecting certain of the colors of light, are various, and of differ- 
ent degrees of intensity ; but the colors displayed by light in the 
prism are permanently the same, only, it may be, differing slightly 
in their intensity, according to the source whence the light is 
derived. 

When the solar spectrum, obtained as already described, is thrown 
upon a white screen, it is amusing to see the effect of different colored 
rays upon different pigments; and if slips of colored paper be used 
the results are very distinct. By passing the ray of white light 
through two prisms, inverted to each other, and filled with bisulphide 
of carbon, the spectrum may be made to stretch much farther across the 
screen, and the sunbeam undergoes by the double refraction a greater 
amount of dispersion. The colors are now more clearly separated, 
and the experiments with the slips of colored paper or other pig- 
ments, can be made with much greater facility. The drawing apart 
or separation of the colors is called dispersion, and thus the structure 
may be made shorter or longer, by using prisms of different disper- 
sive ppwertj, Although it is difficult for .the best eyes to point out 
the exact boundaries of each color. Sir Isaac Newton concluded after 
repeated experiments, that the lengths of the colors with the j)ar- 
ticular glass prism which he used were as follows : Red 45, orange 
27, yellow 40, green 60, blue 60, indigo 48, violet 80; total number 
of equal spaces into which the spectrum was divided, 360"^. By 
making a hole in the screen opposite any one of the colors of the 
spectrum, and placing the screen in such a position as to allow that 
color only to pass, and by letting the color thus separated fall upon 
a second prism, he found that each of the colors was alike refrangible, 
because the second prism could not separate them into an oblong 
image, or into any other color. Hence he called all the seven colors 
simple or homogeaeous, in contradistinction to white light, which he 
called compound or heterogeneous. For he also, ascertained that the 
colors could be brought together, again recombined ; and that the 



THE PRISM ; THE SPECTRUM. 255 

result was the recomposition of white light. This syntnesis of color 
is readily shown by using a second prism placed in an inverted po- 
sition to the other, and allowing the ray of light to pass through this, 
or by allowing the colored rays to fall vipon a double-convex lens, 
when they are brought to a focus, and a spot of white light alone is 
visible. The experiment can be varied by mixing seven different 
colored powders together, the colors being, of course, as near as pos- 
sible to those of the solar spectrum; or these colors may be painted 
on a circular piece of cardboard, and when this is properly ad- 
justed, and whirled round with sufficient velocity, the colors seem 
-all blended together, and produce the nearest imitation of white 
light. 

If a sunbeam is passed through a double-convex lens^ which rep- 
resents a series of prisms with their bases attached to each other, and 
their thinnest edges outward, it is not to be wondered at that the 
disc of light obtained should be fringed vith colors, because it has 
been shown that a prism decomposes white light. If all the colors 
were of the same refrangibility there would be no fringes of colors 
on the edges of bodies seen through a common telescope or micro- 
scope; but as the focus of the red ray is formed further away from 
the lens than that of the blue ray, because the latter is more refrac- 
tive than the former, it follows that a separation of color must occur, 
which is technically termed chromatic aberration. Newton, however, 
examined the ratio between the sines of incidence and refraction of 
the decompounded raj^s, and found that each of the seven primary 
color-making rays had certain limits within which they were con- 
fined. Thus, let the sine of incidence in glass be divided into 50 
equal, parts, the sine of refraction into air of the least refrangible, 
and the most refrangible rays .will contain respectively 77 and 
78 such Darts. The sines of refraction of all the dearrees of red will 
have the intermediate degrees of magnitude from 77 to 77^ ; orange 
from77ito 77-1; yellow from 77-1- to 77^ ; green from 7 7 J to77i; 
blue from 77i to 77§; indigo from 77§ to 77-^; and violet from 
77^ to 78. From the foregoing statements it is evident, as has been 
shown above in the case of double-convex lenses, that as any portion 
of an optic glass bears a resemblance to the form of a prism, the 
component rays which pass through it must necessarily be separated, 
and will coi^sequently. paint or tinge the object with colors. The 
edges of every convex lens approximate to this form, and it is on 
this account that the edges of objects viewed through them are found 
to be tinged with the prismatic colors. In such a glass, therefore, 
the different colored rays will have different foci, and will form their 
respective images at different distances from the lens. 



256 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

The amount of dispersion of the colored rays in convex lenses 
depends upon the focal length of the glass, the spaces which the 
colored images occupy being about the twenty-eighth part. Thus, 
if the lens be twenty-eight inches focal distance, the space between 
the red and the violet colors of the spectrum will be about one inch- 
if it be twenty-eight feet focal distance the same space will be one 
foot, and so on in proportion. When such a succession of images, 
formed b}" the different colored rays is viewed through an eye-glass, 
it will appear to form but one image, and consequentlj- very indis- 
tinct, and fringed with various colors; and as the red color is largest 
or seen under the greatest angle, the extreme parts of the con- 
fused image will be red, and a succession of the prismatic colors will 
be formed within this red fringe, as is generally formed in common 
refracting telescopes, constructed with a single object-glass. To this 
circumstance it is owing that the common refracting telescope cannot 
be much improved without having recourse to lenses of very long 
focal distance ; and hence about 180 years ago such telescopes were 
constructed of 80,100, and 120 feet focal length. But still the image 
was not formed so distinctly as desired, and the aperture of the 
object-glass had to be limited. This is a defect which was long 
regarded as without a remedy, and even Newton himself despaired 
of discovering any means by which the defects of refracting telescopes 
might be remedied, and their improvement effected. But this diffi- 
cult}- has been most ingeniously surmounted by combining lenses of 
unequal dispersive material ; and it was Mr. Dollond who proved in 
1757 that by combining a concavo-convex lens of flint glass with a 
double-convex one of crown glass a lens was obtained which virtuall}^ 
refracts the various colored rays to one focus, and is, therefore, achro- 
matic, that is, free from color. For absolute achromatism various 
lenses are necessary, but for all practical purposes two are found to 
be sufficient, provided their curvatures are such as to combine the 
3'ellow and red rays. 

It was originally observed by Newton, and the fact has since 
been confirmed by the experiments of Herschell, that the different 
colored rays have not all the same illuminating power. The violet 
rays appear to have the least illuminating effect; the indigo more; 
and the effect increases in the order of the colors, the green being 
ver}^ great ; between the green and j^ellow the greatest of all ; the 
j^ellow the same as the green ; but the red less than the yellow. 
Herschell also endeavored to determine whether the power of the 
differently colored rays to heat bodies varied with their power to 
illuminate them. He introduced into a dark room a beam of light 
which was decomposed by a prism, and then exposed a very sensible 



ACHROMATIC TELESCOPES. 257 

thermometer to all the rays in succession, and observed the heights 
to which it rose in a given time. He thus found that their power to 
heat increased from the violet to the red. The mercury in the ther- 
mometer rose higher when its bulb was placed in the indigo, than 
when it was placed in the violet ; still higher in blue, and highest of 
all at red. Upon placing the bulb of the thermometer below the red, 
quite out of the spectrum, he was surprised to find that the mercury 
rose highest of all, and concluded that rays proceed from the sun, 
which have the power of heating, but not of illuminating bodies. 
These rays have been called invisible solar rays ; they were about half 
an inch from the beginning of the red rays ; at a greater distance from 
this point the heat began to diminish, but was quite perceptible at a 
distance of one and a half inches. He determined that the heating 
power of the red to that of the green rays was as 2f to 1, and of red 
to violet as 3^ to 1. He afterwards made experiments to collect 
these invisible caloric rays, and caused them to act independently of 
the light, from which he concluded, that they are sufficient to account 
for all the effects produced by the solar rays in exciting heat ; that 
they are capable of passing through glass, and of being refracted and 
reflected, after they have been finally detached from the solar beam, 

M. Ritter of Jena, Dr. Wollaston, Beckman and others have 
discovered that the rays of the spectrum are possessed of certain 
chemical properties ; that beyond the least brilliant extremity of the 
spectrum, namely, a little beyond the violet ray, there are invisible 
rays which act chemically, while they have neither the power of 
heating nor of illuminating bodies. Muriate of silver exposed to 
the action of the red rays becomes blackish ; a greater effect is pro- 
duced by the yellow ; a still greater by the violet ; and the greatest 
of all by the invisible rays beyond the violet. When phosphorus is 
exposed to the action of the invisible rays beyond the red. it emits 
white fumes, but the invisible rays beyond the violet extinguish 
them, 

It has likewise been found that certain rays of the spectrum, 
particularly the violet, possess the property of communicating the 
magnetic influence. Morchini, of Rome, appears to have been the 
first who discovered that the violet rays of the spectrum had this 
property. The result of his experiments was, however, involved in 
doubt, but it was believed to be established by a series of experiments, 
carried out by Mrs. Somerville, a lady who is celebrated for her 
scientific pursuits. This lady having covered half a sewing needle, 
of about an inch long, with paper, exposed the other half for two 
hours to the violet rays. The needle had then acquired north 
polarity. The indigo rays produced nearly the same effect ; and the 

17 



258 CEEATOB AND COSMOS. 

blue and green rays produced it in a still less degree. In the yellow, 
orange, red, and invisible rays, no magnetic influence was exhibited, 
although the experiment was continued for three successive days. 
The same effects were produced by enclosing the needle in blue or 
green glass, or wrapping it in blue or green ribbon, one half of the 
needle being always covered with paper. 

Though the whole space of the solar system is constantly replen- 
ished with light and heat, yet the whole system is constantly depen- 
dant on the sun for them ; and as a candle when extinguished leaves 
darkness instantly behind it, so the sun, if by any means it were 
extinguished, would leave our whole system instantly in pitchy 
darkness. This we positively know from the fact that no image can 
appear in a mirror unless an original be present to the mirror; aud 
thiit the sun exists in a luminous state we know from the fact that, 
when all things are prepared for it, his luminous image is instantly 
impressed upon the spectrum That it is the sun's elongated image 
is evident from the ends of the spectrum being arcs of a circle ; the 
elongation being effected by the different refractive powers of the 
different colored rays. Now it seetns quite evident that the differ- 
ent powers of dispersion, of illuminating, of heating, of producing 
chemical or magnetic effects, possessed by the different colored rays, 
and by the invisible rays beyond these, may arise, as the different 
degrees of light and heat themselves, from the nature of the different 
combustible substances of which the sun is made up. That these 
substances are not in general very dift'erent from the substances 
which produce light in the earth, we reasonably infer from the con- 
sideration that any common artificial light, such as a candle, a gas, 
or a petroleum light, gives the same spectral colors as the solar 
light does ; only the colors may vary slightly in intensity. The 
spectral hands, however, which we shall next consider, may give us 
some insight into the nature of the component substances of the 
sun's ignited parts. 

There was one feature of the solar spectrum which escaped the ob- 
servation of Newton, and it tends to show how much knowledge may 
be lost by performing an experiment in the least perfect manner. He 
allowed his sunbeam to pass through a circular hole to the prism, and 
thus missed the dark band> and fixed lines which cross the colors from 
end to end of the spectrum at right angles to its length. Dr. Wol- 
laston made an important discovery by admitting the light through 
a narrow slit, instead of a circular aperture, which is thus described 
by Sir David Brewster. In the year 1802, Dr. Wollaston announced 
that in the spectrum formed by a fine prism of flint glass, free from 
Yeins, when the luminous object was a slit the twentieth part of an 



THE SPECTRAL BANDS. 259 

inch wide, and viewed at the distance of ten or twelve feet, there 
Avere two fixed dark lines, one in the green and the other in the blue 
spaces. This discovery did not excite any attention, and was not 
followed out by its ingenious author. Without knowing of Wollas- 
ton's observations, Mr. Fraunhofer, of Munich, by viewing through 
a telescope the spectrum formed from a narrow line of solar light 
with the finest prism of flint glass, discovered that the surface of the 
spectrum was crossed throughout its whole length by dark lines of dif- 
ferent breadths. None of these lines coincide with the boundaries of 
the colored spaces. They are nearly 600 in number. The largest of 
them subtends an angle of from five seconds to ten seconds. From 
their distinctness, and the facility with which they may be found, five of 
these lines have been particularly distinguished by Fraunhofer. One 
of the important practical results of this discovery is that those lines 
are fixed points in the spectrum, or rather that they have always the 
same position in the colored spaces in which they are found. Fraun- 
hofer likewise discovered in the spectrum produced by the light of 
Venus, the same streaks as in the solar spectrum; in the spectrum 
of the light of the star Sirius he perceived three large streaks, which 
according to appearance, had no resemblance to those of the solar 
spectrum; one of these was in the green, two in the blue. The stars 
appear to differ from one another in their streaks. The electric light 
also is found to differ somewhat from the light of the sun, and that 
of a candle, in regard to the spectral streaks. When the spectrum 
is formed by the sun's rays, either direct or indirect, as from the sky, 
clouds, rainbow, moon, or planets, the black bands are always found 
to be in tlje same parts of the spectrum, and under all circumstances 
to maintain the same relative position, breadth and intensities. 

A very convenient instrument has been invented by Mr. John 
Browning called the " Miniature Spectroscope," by which, at any 
time, the solar spectrum may be observed in all its beauty of color ; 
and the dark lines are easily seen by properly adjusting the width of 
the slit. When this is widely opened, the spectrum is more bril- 
liant, because more light is admitted to the series of prisms contained 
in the instrument, but the lines are not then visible. By reducing 
the size of the aperture, it presents the appearance of striped ribbon, 
and is found to be crossed in the direction of its breadth by a num- 
ber of dark lines. This instrument in the case measures four inches 
in length, and rather more than three-fourths of an inch in diameter ; 
it is therefore easily portable in the pocket, and is thus kept ready 
for anjr special use, such for instance as observing the bright bands 
of color emitted by certain flames, or intensely hot gaseous matter, 
similar to that coming from the furnace in which the Bessemer pro- 



260 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

cess is carried on ; and it is by the employment of the spectroscope 
that the exact moment of the completion of the process for making 
steel or pure iron may be determined by a person skilled in the use 
of this instrument. 

In order to properly distinguish the spectral lines, it is necessary 
to classify the spectra obtained from the different sources of light. 
Thus, the light obtained from the incandescence of two graphite 
electrodes b}^ the voltaic battery, and called the " electric light," will, 
provided the graphite be middling pure, exhibit a continuous band 
of colors, perfectly free from all black lines. Such a spectrum 
teaches us nothing more than that light can be decomposed into 
seven colors. An observer looking at such a spectrum could not 
tell the exact source of the light, or say whether it was evolved by 
incandescent charcoal, lime, or platinum. Such a pure band of 
colors is called a spectrum of the first order. If a spirit lamp, burning 
pure and good spirit, is used as the source of heat, and "a platinum 
wire, looped at the end, and dipped into a solution of common salt, is 
now held in the spirit flame, it changes yellow ; and if the little hand 
spectroscope is directed towards it a yellow line is distinctly seen, 
whose position is toward the red end of the spectrum. When a 
more intense heat is used, such as the electric arc, the sodium line 
is double, and is then exactly coincident with the dark, double solar 
line known as Fraunhofer's (D) line. If nitrate or chloride of stron- 
tium be used, and placed, like the chloride of sodium, upon the 
looped platinum wire in the flame, and observed with the spectro- 
scope, the colored bands are more numerous. There are eight re- 
markable lines, one blue band, one orange, and six red. All the 
metals and the salts which can be converted into himinous gas give 
bright lines instead of dark ones ; and the various spectra obtained 
in this way are called spectra of the second order. 

The fact that metals and their salts will always give the same 
colored bands invariably in some particular part of the spectrum, 
affords a most delicate measure of quantitative analysis, which is 
generally employed where the presence of a minute quantity of some 
metallic salt is suspected. By means of spectral analysis, the three- 
millionth part of a millogramme of soda can be easily detected, of 
lithium the nine-millionth part, of calcium the ten-thousandth part 
of a millogramme. The spark from the great induction coil, when 
passed through the air, is always of a light yellow color, and when 
examined by the spectroscope it gives the yellow line of sodium ; 
and this is said to be supplied from the dust always floating in the 
air, which is continually supplied with particles of salt from the 
spray carried by the winds from the ocean. 



THE SPECTRAL ORDERS. 261 

There is but one more order to speak of; this is, spectra of the 
third order, of which the best type is the solar spectrum, crossed by 
black lines. " The spectra of this order," says Mr. Huggins, " con- 
sist of the spectra of incandescent, solid, or liquid bodies, in which 
the continuity of the colored light is broken by dark lines. These 
dark spaces are not produced by the source of the light. They tell 
us of vapors through which the light has passed on its way, and 
which have robbed the light by absorption of certain definite 
colors, or rates of motion. Such spectra are formed by the light of 
the sun and stars." If the light producing the yellow lines in sodium 
by the electric arc be allowed to pass through the vapor of metallic 
sodium, the yellow lines change to black lines. The sodium vapor 
absorbs the same kind of light as it emits; and it was by this 
remarkable discovery that Kirchoff identified many of the dark 
lines in the solar spectrum, with the bright lines obtainable from 
terrestrial substances; and ascertained that, in the solar atmosphere, 
there existed sodium, calcium, barium, magnesium, iron, chromium, 
nickel, copper, zinc, strontium, cadmium, cobalt, and hydrogen. If 
the evidence depended only on the coincidence of one or two dark 
solar lines with the bright bands from the vapors of the terrestrial 
metals, it would be worth little or nothing ; but in a complicated 
series of sets of lines, such as woiild be produced by the above 
metals, all the lines coincide ; and in speaking of one of those metals, 
Kirchoff remarks : " The observations of the solar spectrum appear 
to me to prove the presence of iron- vapor in the solar atmosphere, 
with as great a degree of certainty as we can attain in any question 
of natural science." Messrs. Huggins and Miller have continued 
observations with the planets, the stars, the nebulae, and the com- 
ets, and have added largely to our knowledge of the constitution of 
these distant heavenly bodies. 

The Rainbow. 

At certain times, when there is a shower, either around us or at 
a distance from us, in an opposite direction to that of the sun, we 
see a kind of arch or bow in the sky, adorned with all the primary 
colors of light. This phenomenon, which is one of the most beauti- 
ful meteors in nature, is named the rainbow. The rainbow was for 
ages considered as an unexplainable myster}^ and by some nations 
it is said to have been adored as a deity. Even after the light of 
modern science had begun to dispel the ignorance from the minds 
of men, it was a considerable time before any discovery of importance 
was made as to the true causes which co-operate in the production 



262 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



of this phenomenon ; and it was not until Newton discovered the 
different refrangibility of the rays of light, that a complete and satis- 
factory explanation could be given of all the circumstances con- 
nected with the rainbow. This beautiful meteor never makes its ap- 
pearance to the spectator but when he is situated between the sun 
and the shower ; and it is produced by the reflection and refraction 
of the rays of light from the falling drops of rain. It has been olj- 
served before that water is a transparent medium, and transmits the 
rays of light, refracting or bending them a little from the course they 
were pursuing before entering it ; but while it transmits some rays 
of light, refracting them, it reflects others, both from its surface and 
inside its surface. There are usually two bows seen at the same time, 
one a little above the other, and encircling it ; the inside one is called 
the primary, the outside the secondary bow. The secondary bow is 
usually much fainter in its colors than the primary. Now these bows 
are formed by the drops of rain in a given circle acting like prisms, 
and sepai-ating the rays of light, by refraction and reflection, into, 
their prismatic colors ; the red being lowest and the violet highest in 
the primary bow; and the violet lowest and red highest in the Sec- 
ondary. It has been shown from the experiments of scientific men, 
who possessed both the inclination and leisure for such pursuits, that 
the first or primary bow is produced by one reflection and two re- 
fractions of the ray of light in the drop of rain ; and the secondary 
bow by two refractions and two reflections in the drop. In the first 




THE RAINBOW. 263 

ease, the ray of light enters the drop from above, and on entering a 
new medium is, of course, refracted; it pursues its course in the 
drop, is reflected inside of it, and emerges from the same hemisphere 
of the drop as that in which it entered, and in emerging is refracted. 
Thus the ray is refracted in entering the drop, a new and denser me- 
dium ; is reflected in the drop, the same medium ; and is refracted 
again in emerging from the drop to the air, a different medium from 
the drop. 

In the second case the ray strikes the drop rather on the lower, 
side,' and is refracted on entering it ; pursues its course to the other 
side of the drop on the inside, and is reflected from the lower part of 
the inside surface of the drop ; is reflected again from the inside of 
the upper surface of the drop ; and in emerging from the drop is re- 
fracted. Thus, as in the first case, the ray is refracted in entering 
the drop, a new medium ; is reflected twice in the drop, the same 
medium ; and in emerging to the air is again refracted. Hence in 
consequence of the two reflections in the drop in the last case the 
ray must in its course have described a four-sided figure, perhaps a 
square or a parallelogram. The same thing happens in the given cir- 
cular space with respect to a whole shower as happens with respect 
to one or two drops; and by the constant falling of the rain the im- 
age is preserved constant and perfect. This subject may be partially 
illustrated in this way ; take either a small solid glass globe or a 
small glass globe filled with water, and suspend it so high in the 
solar rays that the observer with his back to the sun can see the 
globe red ; if it then be lowered slowly he will see it orange, then 
yellow, then green, then blue, then indigo, then violet ; so that the 
drop of rain, as this, at different heights shall present to the eye of 
the observer the seven prismatic colors in siiccession. It must not 
be thought that any perceptible time is taken up in the refractions 
and reflections we speak of, as by which the rainbow is formed in 
the falling rain-drops, or in the lowering glass globe ; the phenom- 
enon is produced by the positions of the falling drops, or of the globe, 
in relation to our eye and to the sun. Fig. 93 illustrates the cause . 
that produces the rainbow ; the lower drop, or series of drops, repre-. 
senting the primary bow, the upper the secondary. The rainbow 
assumes a semi-circular appearance because it is only at certain 
angles that the refracted rays come to our eyes, as is evident from 
this experiment of the glass globe, which will reflect the different 
colored rays onl}^ in a certain position. The red rays make an angle 
of forty-two degrees two minutes; and the violet an angle of forty 
degrees and seventeen minutes. Tlius if a line be drawn horizontally 
from the spectator's eye, it is plain that the angles fornied with a 



264 CEEATOB AND COSMOS. 

line of a certain dimension in every direction will produce a circle, 
as will appear by attaching a cord of a certain length to a given 
point, around which, as around an axis, it may turn ; and in every 
point it will describe an angle with the horizontal line of a certain 
and determinate length. No\y all the drops of water within the dif- 
ferenee of these two angles, namely, one degree and forty-five min- 
utes (supposing the ray to proceed from the centre of the sun), will 
exhibit severally the colors of the prism and constitute the interior 
bow of the cloud. This holds good at whatever height the sun may 
happen to be in a shower of rain. If he be at a high altitude the 
rainbow will be low ; if at a low elevation, the rainbow must be high; 
and if a shower happen in a vale when the observer is on a mountain 
he will sometimes see the bow in the form of a complete circle below 
him. The largest angle, then, or circle, is formed by the red rays, 
the middle one the green, and the smallest the purple or violet. If 
the spectator alters his position, he will see a bow but not the same 
as before ; and if there be many spectators they will see each a dif- 
ferent bow, though it appears to be tlie same. If there were no 
ground to intercept the rain and the view of the spectator, the rain- 
bow would form a complete circle whose centre is diametrically 
opposite to the sun. Such circles are often seen in the spray of the 
sea or of a cascade, or from the tops of lofty mountains when the 
shower happens in the vale below. Rainbows of various descriptions 
are frequently seen rising amid the spray and exhalations of water- 
falls, and among the waves of the sea, whose tops are blown by the 
wind into small drops. There is one regularly seen when the sun is 
shining, and the observer in a proper position, at the Fall of Staub- 
hack, in the bosom of the Alps ; one near Schaffhausen ; one at the 
cascade of Lauffen ; one at the Cataract of Niagara, and one at the 
Chaudiere Falls, Ottawa. 

A more beautiful one than any of these is said to be seen at Terni, 
where the whole current of the river Velino, rushing from a steep 
precipice of nearly two hundred feet high, presents to the observer 
below a variegated circle, overreaching the fall, and two other bows 
suddenly reflected on the right and left. Don Ulloa, in the account 
of his travels in South America, relates that circular rainbows are 
frequently seen on the mountains above Quito, in Peru. A naval 
friend, says Mr. Bucke, informed me that as he was one day watch- 
ing the sun's effect upon the exhalations near Juan Fernandez, he 
saw upwards of five-and-twenty ires marince animate the sea at the 
same time. In these marine bows the concave sides were turned 
upward, the drops of water rising from below, and not falling from 
above, as in the instance of aerial arches. Rainbows are also occasion- 



THE RAINBOW. 265 

ally seen on the grass in the morning dew, and likewise when the 
hoar-frost is descending. Dr. Langwith once saw a bow lying on 
the ground, the colors of which were almost as lively as those of a 
common rainbow. It was not circular, but oblong, and was extended 
several hundred yards. The colors took up less space and were much 
more vivid in those parts of the bow which were near him, than in 
those which were at a distance. When M. Labillardiere was on 
Mount Teneriffe, he saw the contour of his body traced on the 
clouds beneath him, in all the colors of the solar bow. He had pre- 
viously witnessed this phenomenon on the Kesrouan, in Asia Minor. 
The rainbows of Greenland are said to be frequently of a pale white, 
fringed with a brownish yellow, arising from the rays of the sun being 
reflected from a frozen cloud. 

A rainbow may be produced at any time by artificial means, when 
the sun is shining, and not at too great an altitude above the horizon. 
This is effected by means of artificial fountains, which are intended 
to throw up streams of water to a great height. These streams, 
when they spread very wide and blend together in their upper parts, 
form, when falling, an artificial shower of rain. If, then, when the 
fountain is playing, we move between it and the sun to a proper dis- 
tance from the fountain, until our shadow points directly toward it, 
and look at the shower, we shall observe the colors of the rainbow 
strong and lively ; and what is especially noticeable, the bow appears, 
notwithstanding the nearness of the shower, to be as large and as 
far off as the rainbow which we see in a natural shower of rain. The 
same experiment may be made with candle-light and with any instru- 
ment that will form an artificial shower. 

The following is a summary of the principal facts which have 
been ascertained respecting the rainbow: 1. The ordinary rainbow 
can only be seen when it rains, and in that part of the heavens oppo- 
site to the sun. 2. Both the primary and secondary bows are varie- 
gated with all the prismatic colors, the red being the highest color 
in the primary, or brightest bow ; and the violet the highest in the 
secondary or exterior bow. 3. The primary rainbow can never be 
a greater arc than a semicircle ; and when the sun is set no bow in 
ordinary circumstances can be seen. 4. The breadth of the inner or 
pi'imary bow, supposing the sun but a point, is one degree and forty- 
five minutes ; and the breadth of the exterior bow three degrees and 
twelve minutes, which is nearly twice as great as that of the other; 
and the distance between the bows is eight degrees and fiftj^-five 
minutes. But since the body of the sun subtends an angle of about 
half a degree, by so much will each bow be increased, and their dis- 
tance diminished ; and, therefore, the breadth of the interior bow 



266 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

will be two degrees, fifteen minutes ; and that of the exterior three 
degrees, forty-two minutes ; and their distance eight degrees, twenty- 
five minutes. The greatest semi-diameter of the interior bow, on the 
same grounds, will be forty-two degrees, seventeen minutes ; and the 
least of the exterior bow fifty degrees, forty-three minutes. 5. When 
the sun is in the horizon, either in the morning or evening, the bows 
will appear complete semicircles. On the contrary, when the sun's 
altitude is equal to forty-two degrees, two minutes, or to fifty-four 
degrees, ten minutes, the summits of the bows will be depressed 
below the horizon. Hence, during the days of summer, within a 
certain interval each day, no visible rainbows can be formed, on ac- 
count of the sun's high elevation above the horizon. 6. The altitude 
of the bows above the horizpn, or surface of the earth, varies accord- 
ing to the elevation of the sun. The altitude at any time may be 
taken by a common quadrant, or any other angle-measuring instru- 
ment ; but if the sun's altitude at any particular time be known, the 
height of the summit of any of the bows may be found by subtract- 
ing the sun's altitude from forty-two degrees, two minutes, for the 
inner bow; and from fifty-four degrees, ten minutes, for the outer. 
Thus, if the sun's altitude be twenty-six degrees, the height, of the 
primary bow would be sixteen degrees, two minutes ; and that of the 
secondary bow twenty-eight degrees, ten minutes. It follows that 
the height and the size of the bows diminish as the altitude of the 
sun increases. 7. If the sun's altitude be more than forty-two de- 
grees, and less than fifty-four, the exterior bow may be seen, though 
the interior one is invisible. Sometimes only a portion of an arch 
will be visible, while all the other parts of the bow are invisible. 
This happens when the rain does not occur in a space of sufficient 
extent to complete the bow; and the appearances of the position, 
and even of the bow itself, will be various, according to the nature 
of the situation, and the space occupied by the rain. 

Lunar rainbows are sometimes formed at night b}'- the rays of the 
moon striking on a rain-cloud, especially when the moon is about at 
its full ; but such phenomena are not often observed. Aristotle is 
said to have considered himself the first who saw a lunar rainbow. 
These bows appear distinct and well-defined, but the prismatic colors 
are usually not very distinct. They may be all distinguished by 
attending to the phases and position of the moon. If the moon be 
not visible above the horizon, if she be in her first or last quarter, or 
if an observed phenomenon is not in a direction opposite to the moon, 
we may conclude with certainty that whatever appearance is pre- 
sented no lunar rainbow appears. The writers of the Bible frequently 
allude to the rainbow as one of the emblems of the majesty and glory 



COLORS. 267 

of the Deity. Ezekiel represents the throne of the Almighty as 
adorned with a brightness "like the appearance of a bow that is in 
the cloud in the day of rain; the appearance of the likeness of the 
glory of Jehovah." And in the visions recorded in the book of 
Revelation, where the Most High is represented as sitting on a throne, 
it is said: " there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight 
like unto an emerald," an emblem of his glory, and holiness, as well 
as of his propitious character, as there represented. In the apocry- 
phal book of Ecclesiasticus it is alluded to by the son of Sirach after 
this manner: "Look upon the rainbow, and praise him that made 
it ; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof. It compasseth the 
heavens about with a glorious circle, and the hands of the Most High 
have bended it." 

ON COLORS; AND OTHER EFFECTS OF LIGHT. 

The common theory supposes or represents that colors are inherent 
in light alone ; whereas it is evident light only makes manifest what 
exists in something or everything else. The principles of light, of 
colors, and of heat co-exist in everything. Burn a stick of wood and 
you obtain a blaze, from which you can derive all the prismatic colors ; 
you derive light, heat, electricity, and colors, from the same bit of 
fuel. Light is that manifestation of matter which opens up to us the 
universe, displays to us all other objects, and is an object itself for 
us to experiment upon. Thus we can experiment upon the proper- 
ties of light, as well as upon all other things by means of light. It 
is essential to the existence of all vegetables and animals ; and this is 
a proof that the solar light has always existed as now, and, therefore, 
that all colors have always been displayed. It is, however, strictly 
true, that without light there would be no colors ; although they ex- 
isted in principle everywhere and in everj^thing. All colors, there- 
fore, are dependent upon light. Of all the phenomena which vege- 
tables exhibit, there are few that appear more extraordinary than 
the energy and constancy with which their stems incline towards the 
light. Most of the discous flowers follow the sun in his course. 
They attend him to his retreat in the evening, and meet his rising 
lustre in the morning, with the same unerring law. They unfold 
their petals on the approach of this luminary ; they follow his course 
by turning on their stems, and close them as soon as he disappears. 
Also, if a plant be shut up in a dark room, and a small hole be af- 
terwards opened, by which the light of the sun may enter, the plant 
will turn towards that hole, and even alter its shape, in order 
to incline towards it ; so that though it was straight before, it will 



268 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

in time become crooked, that it may get near the light. Vegeta- 
bias placed in rooms where they receive light only from one direc- 
tion always extend themselves in that direction. If they receive 
light from two directions, they incline rather towards that which is 
strongest. It seems to be rather the light than the heat of the sun 
which the plant thus covets ; for though a fire be kept in the room 
capable of giving out a much stronger heat than the sun gives there, 
the plant will turn away from the fire, in order to enjoy the solar 
light. Trees growing in dense forests, where they receive most of 
their light from above, direct their shoots almost invariably upward, 
and, therefore, become much taller and less spreading than such as stand 
single ; they are also more intensely green toward the tops. The 
green color of vegetables is found to depend upon the sun's light 
being allowed to shine on them ; for without the influence of the so- 
lar light they are always of a whitish aspect. It is found by exper- 
iment that if a plant which has been reared in darkness, is exposed 
to the light of day, in two or three days it will acquire a green color 
perceptibly similar to that of plants grown in open daylight. If we 
expose to the light one part of the plant whether leaf or branch, this 
part alone will become green. If we cover any part of a leaf with 
an opaque substance, this part Avill remain white, while the rest be- 
comes green. The whiteness of the inner leaves of cabbages is a 
partial efPect of the same cause ; and any one may produce many 
other examples of the same kind. M. Decandolle, who seems to have 
paid particular attention to this subject, makes the following 
remarks : " It is certain that between the white state of plants vege- 
tating in darkness and complete greenness, every possible interme- 
diate degree exists, determined by the intensity of the light. Of 
this, any one may easily satisfy himself by attending to the color of 
a plant exposed to the full daylight ; it exhibits in succession all the 
degrees of verdure. I had already seen the same phenomenon in a 
particular manner by exposing plants reared in darkness to the 
light of lamps. In these experiments, I not only saw the color come 
on gradually, according to the continuance of the exposure to light, 
but I satisfied myself that a certain intensity of permanent light 
never gives to a plant more than a certain degree of color. The 
same fact readily shows itself in nature, when we examine the plants 
that grow under shelter or in forests, or when we examine in succes- 
sion the state of the leaves that form the heads of cabbages. * " 

It is likewise found that the perspiration of vegetables is increased 
or diminished in a certain measure by the degree of light which falls 
upon them. M. Guetard informs us that a plant exposed to the rays 



* Memoires de la Socie'te d'Arencil. 



COLORS AND OTHER EFFECTS OF LIGHT. 269 

of the sun has its perspiration increased to a much greater degree 
than if it had been exposed to the same heat inside the shade. 
And, it is said, the experiments of Mr. P. Miller, and others, go to 
prove that plants uniformly perspire most in the forenoon, though 
the temperature of the air in which they are placed should be un- 
varied. Vegetables are likewise found to be indebted to light for 
their smell, taste, and combustibility, maturit}^ and the resinous prin- 
ciples which equally depend upon it. The aromatic substances, 
resins, and volatile oils, are the productions of Southern climates, 
where the light is more pure and intense. Another remarkable 
property of light on the vegetable kingdom is, that when vegetables 
are exposed to open daylight, or to the sun's rays, they emit oxygen 
gas, or vital air. It has been proved that in the production of this 
effect the sun does not act as a body that heats. The emission of 
the gas is determined by the light ; the pure air is, therefore, separa- 
ted by the action of light and the operation is stronger as the light is 
more intense. By this continual emission, the atmosphere is contin- 
ually purified, and the loss of pure air occasioned by respiration, 
combustion, fermentation, putrefaction and numerous other proces- 
ses which have a tendency to vitiate this fluid, so essential to the 
maintenance and vigor of animal life, is repaired; so that in this way, 
by the agency of light, a due equilibrium is always maintained be- 
tween the constituent parts of the atmosphere. 

It is evident that colors exist but in principle, except for the 
agency of light; and it is owing to the surfaces of bodies being dis- 
posed to reflect certain colors rather than others that we have such 
a variety of colors. When the disposition is such that a body 
reflects every kind of ray in the mixed state in which it receives 
them, that body appears white to us, which properly speaking, is no 
color, but rather the combination of all the colors. When a body 
absorbs nearly all the light which falls upon it that body appears 
black; it transmits to the eye so few reflected rays that it is scarce 
perceptible in itself, and its presence and form make no impression 
upon us unless as it interrupts the brightness of the surrounding space. 
Black is therefore the absence of all colors. If the body has a fit- 
ness to reflect one sort of rays more abundantly than others, by ab- 
sorbing all the others, it will appear of the color belonging to that 
species of rays. Thus, the grass is green because it absorbs all the 
colors except green. It is the green rays only which the grass, the 
foliage of the trees and shrubs, and all the other verdant parts of 
the landscape reflect to our sight, and which make them appear green. 
In the same manner the different flowers reflect their respective 
colors ; the rose the red rays ; the jonquil the yellow ; the marigold 



2T0 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

the orange; and every object whether natural or artificial, appears 
of the color which its peculiar texture is adapted to reflect. A great 
number of bodies are fitted to reflect at once several kinds of rays, 
and consequently they appear under mixed colors. It often happens 
that of two bodies which are green, for example, one may reflect the 
green of light and the other the mixture of yellow and blue. This 
quality, which varies to infinity, occasions the different kinds of rays 
to unite in every possible manner and every possible propoi-tion ; and 
hence the inexhaustible variety of shades and hues which is seen 
diffused over the scene of creation. 

Every object is black or colorless in perfect darkness, and it only 
appears colored as soon as light renders it visible. This will become 
more plain from the following experiment. If we place a colored 
bod}^ in one of the colors of the spectrum which is formed by the 
prism, it appears of the color of the rays in which it is placed. Take, 
for ilhistration, a red rose, and expose it first to the red rays, and it 
will appear of a more brilliant, ruddy hue ; hold it in the blue rays 
and it appears no longer red, but of a dingy blue color ; and in like 
manner its color will appear different when exposed to all the other 
differently colored rays. This is the reason why the colors of objects 
are altered by the nature of the light in which they are seen. The 
colors of ribbons, of cloths, of silks, or woollen stuffs, are not exactly 
the same when viewed by candle-light as in the da}^ time. In the 
light of a lamp or a candle, blue sometimes appears green, and yellow 
objects assume a whitish aspect. The reason is that the light of a 
candle or of a lamp is not as pure a white as that of the sun, but has 
a yellowish tinge, and therefore, when refracted by the prism, the 
yellowish rays are found to predominate, and the superabundance of 
yellow rays gives to blue objects a greenish hue. The following ex- 
periment, as described bj^ Sir D. Brewster, may further illustrate our 
subject: " Having obtained the means of illuminating any apartment 
with yellow light, let the exhibition be made in a room with furniture 
of various bright colors, and with oil or Avater-colored paintings on 
the wall. The party which is to witness the experiment should be 
dressed in a diversity of the gayest colors, and the brightest-colored 
flowers and highly-colored drawings should be placed on the tables. 
The room being at first lighted with ordinary lights the bright and 
gay colors of everything that it contains will be finely displayed. If 
the white lights are now suddenly extinguished, and the yellow 
lamps lighted, the most appalling metamorphosis will be exhibited. 
The astonished individuals will no longer be able to recognize each 
other. All the furniture of the room, and all the objects it contains, 
will exhibit only one color. The flowers will lose their hues ; the 



COLORS AND OTHER EFFECTS OF LIGHT. 271 

paintings and drawing, will appear as if they were executed in China 
ink ; and the gayest dresses, the brightest scarlets, the purest lilacs, 
the richest blues, and the most vivid greens, will be converted into 
one monotonous yellow. The complexions of the parties, too, will 
suffer a con-esponding change. One pallid, death-like yellow, like 
the unnatural hue which ' Autumn paints upon the perished leaf,' will 
envelope the young and the old ; and the sallow face will alone 
escape from the metamorphosis. Each individual derives merriment 
from the cadaverous appearance of his neighbor, without being 
sensible that he is one of the ghastly assemblage." 

From such experiments we might conclude that were the colors of 
the solarspectrum different from what they are, the colors which adorn 
the face of nature and embellish the landscape of the world would 
be of another aspect, and appear very different from what we are 
now accustomed to behold. Some of the distant stars appear to display 
light different in color from solar light ; and hence some have con- 
cluded that the coloring thrown upon the different scenes of the 
universe may vary somewhat in different systems, and that, along 
with other arrangements, an infinite variety of coloring of scenery 
may be displayed thoughout the immensity of creation. The differ- 
ent coloring, however, Avhich these distant stars appear to exhibit 
may arise from complementary colors, which we shall soon come to 
consider. The atmosphere, in consequence of its refractive and re- 
flective powers, is the source of a diversity of colors which frequent- 
ly embellish and adorn the aspect of our sky. The atmosphere reflects 
the blue rays most plentifully, which is the cause of its blue aspect, 
and must, therefore, transmit the red, oi^ange, and yellow more 
copiously than the other rays. When the sun and other heavenly 
bodies are at a high altitude their light is transmitted without any 
perceptible change to the earth's surface ; but when they are near 
the horizon their light has to pass through an extended tract of dense 
air, and must therefore, be considerably modified by reflection before 
it reaches the eye of the observer. If the light of the setting sun, by 
thus passing through a long tract of dense air, be divested of its green, 
blue, indigo, and violet rays, the remaining rays which are transmit- 
ted through the atmosphere will illuminate the western clouds, first, 
with an orange color, and, then, as the sun gradually sinks beloAv the 
horizon, the track through which the raj^s must pass becoming longer, 
the yellow and orange are reflected, and the clouds grow more deeply 
red, until at length the departure of the sun leaves them of a leaden 
hue, by the reflection of the blue light through the air. Similar 
changes may sometimes be seen on the eastern and western front of 
white buildings. From such atmospherical refractions and reflec- 



272 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

tions those beautiful and varied hues are produced with which our 
western sky is gilded by the setting sun, and the glowing red which 
tinges the morning and evening clouds, until their ruddy glare as 
tempered by the purple of twilight, and the reflected azure of the 
sky. When a direct spectrum is thrown upon colors darker than 
itself it mixes with them, as the yellow spectrum of the setting sun, 
thrown on the verdant grass, becomes a greener yellow. But when 
a direct spectrum is thrown on colors brighter than itself it becomes 
instantly changed into the reverse spectrum, which blends with these 
brighter colors. Thus, the yellow spectrum of the setting sun thrown 
on the luminous sky becomes blue and changes with the color or 
brightness of the clouds on which it appears. The red rays of light 
being capable of appearing through thick and resisting media Avhich 
intercept all other colors is likewise the cause why the sun appears 
red when seen through a fog ; why lamps at a distance, seen through 
the smoke of a large street, are red, while those near by are white. 
To the same cause it is owing that a diver at the bottom of the sea 
is surrounded with the red light which appears through the superin- 
cumbent fluid, while the blue light is reflected from the surface of 
the water. 

ComplerriPMtary, or Accidental, Colors. 

When the eye is impressed with a brilliant lighter color, after it has 
been removed, the retina of the eye remains for a short time impressed 
Avith a color which is usually complementary to the one first observed. 
Complementary colors mean any two colors which will, when com- 
bined, form white light ; in short, any two colors which contain red, 
yellow, and blue. Thus, a brilliant yellow light would leave ujjon 
the eye the impression of violet-colored light, composed of red and 
blue ; a green would leave a reddish violet ; a red a bluish green; a 
black a white ; a white a black ; an orange a blue ; a blue an orange 
red ; indigo an orange yellow ; and violet a yellow green. This can 
be illustrated by placing some strips, say of red paper, in the form 
of a cross on a sheet of white cardboard. If the oxyhydrogen light 
is projected from a lantern with condenser lenses on to the red cross, 
and the spectator directed to watch it steadily, on suddenly removing 
the card with the red cross, and having another white card behind 
it, it will usually be noticed that nearly all those who are watchino- 
the experiment will exclain that they see a green cross, faint green 
of course, but still quite sufficiently defined to enable them to de- 
termine that it is so. If instead of the red cross green be employed, 
red remains visible, and black, as already stated, becomes white. 



ACCIDENTAL COLORS. 273 

These effects are described by Sir D. Brewster, under the name of 
"Accidental colors;" and he appears to regard them as synonymous 
with the term already explained, that is, complementary colors. He 
thus explains the phenomena ; " When the eye has been for some 
time fixed on the red cross, the part of the retina occupied by the 
red image is strongly excited, or, as it were, deadened by its continued 
action. The sensibility of red light will therefore be diminished ; 
and, coiisequentljs when the eye is turned from the red cross 
to the white card, the deadened portion of the retina will 
be insensible to the red rays which form part of the white light 
of the paper, and consequently will see the paper of that color 
which arises from all the rays in the white light of the paper, but the 
red ; that is, of a bluish green color, which is therefore the true com- 
plementary color of the red cross." " When a black cross is placed 
on a white ground, the portion of the retina on which the black 
image falls in place of being deadened is protected, as it were, by the 
absence of light, while all the surrounding parts of the retina, being 
excited by the white light of the paper, will be deadened by its con- 
liiuial action. Hence when the eye is directed to the white card, it 
will see a white cross, corresponding to the black image on the retina ; 
so tlyit the accidental color of black is white." For the same reason if 
a white cross is placed on a black ground and viewed steadily for 
some time, the eye will always see a black cross; so that the acciden- 
tal color of white is black. The same author remarks: "It is not, 
however, necessary that the eye should be strongly impressed pre- 
viously by some colored light, as the phenomena of accidental colors 
are sometimes seen without it." 

He states that in order to see this class of phenomena, he found 
the following method the simplest and the best : " Having lighted 
two candles hold before one of them a piece of colored glass, suppose 
bright red, and remove the other candle to such a distance that the 
two shadows of any body formed upon a piece of white paper may be 
equally dark. In this case one of the shadows will be red and the 
other green. With blue glass, one of them will be blue and the other 
orange-yellow, the one being invariably the accidental or comple- 
mentary color of the other. The very same effect may be produced 
in daylight by two holes in a window-shutter ; the one being covered 
with colored glass, and the other transmitting the white light of the 
sky." 

JMr. Rose, in a paper on " Persistence," in which he describes ex- 
periments devised and carried out by himself shows that with no 
color whatever to look upon, and only gazing on a white card, while 
the starry light falling on it is gradually reduced and restored, the 

18 



274 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

white appearance of light passes into the various gradations of colored 
light. He thus describes this very interesting experiment : " An in- 
tensely white card is held before the eye, whilst a strong light, fall- 
ing on it, is gradually reduced and restored. As the light is reduced 
the whiteness passes into yellow orange, red, and sometimes thence 
into blue. Whilst at other times colors intermediate between the 
red and blue are apprehended, the gradual reduction of the light 
brings up the color by suicj-sive steps, and in reverse order to white- 
ness. All eyes, as might be expected, are not affected alike by these 
experiments ; but all see whiteness passing into yellow, orange, and 
blue; and blue returning back in deep orange, yellow, and white. 
The restoration of the light is on the whole less satisfactory than its 
reduction, for when by reduction a deeply intense blue is obtained' 
the light cannot, to some eyes, be restored slowly enough to prevent 
a sudden change to deep orange. The colors that succeed each other 
as the light is gradually reduced have none of the accepted relations 
between any given color and its complement. The white is not suc- 
ceeded by thin blackness, the yellow by faint purple, or the orange 
invariably by blue ; but the different hues do come up in an order 
that suggests the great probability that what ive name colors is only 
the various affectiofi of the optic nerve by a greater or less quantity of 
light radiating from afocaVpoint in an imperfect reflector T It is said 
the above experiment was the result of accident. Mr. Rose had been 
looking upon a white surface lying near a powerful gaslight, when 
his arm having caught the tap and reduced the light, his attention 
was drawn to a sudden change from white to red color. 

Another experiment of great beauty and interest was also sug- 
gested to him by an accidental circumstance. He was observing the 
effect of flashes of intermittent, artificial light on a revolving disc, 
having twelve large circular black spaces, ranged equidistantly 
.around the margin. It was broad day, and the window-shutters 
were closed to exclude the natural light. While the experiment was 
going on the shutter accidentally started open, and admitted a little 
daylight, when the remarkable appearance was presented of twelve 
blue circular spaces, lying upon a zone of bright orange. Mr. Rose 
regarded this at the time as simply the presentation of a complemen- 
tary color, under singular conditions which kept it permanently before 
the eye ; but as leisure afforded him opportunity to repeat the 
experiment, he soon began to perceive that he had taken far too 
limited and narrow a view. This misconception arose out of a fact 
connected with the painting of the discs. He found that lampblack 
alone would not give the depth and intensity required in the devices, 
and to remedy the defect he added a little indigo. The circular 



ACCIDENTAL COLORS. 275 

spaces, to the eye, were certainly intense black, and nothing more ; 
but he considered that they had a tendency to blueness, and that 
under the rotation they were reduced to a lighter blue, and drew 
after them trains of complementary orange, in the same way that a 
black fly, walking across a pane of ground glass, backed by gray- 
light, is seen to draw a white spectrum after him. 

But he dismissed this idea as soon as he found that absolute un- 
mixed black produced the same effect, and that the nearer the arti- 
ficial light approached to intensity of whiteness, the more decided 
and satisfactory was the result. But how is this effect to be ex- 
plained ? Mr. Rose goes on to say : " The diffused light of the zone 
is continually falling upon the eye ; but the intermittent flashes find 
the negations or black portions always in the same areas, and hence 
from the spaces no part of the flash is reflected, whilst it mingles 
with, and adds to, the diff'used light in the spaces between the 
negations. Now the diffused light is, we assume, intense light 
reduced b}^ distribution to blueness ; and in this'blueness the negative 
spaces participate ; but in the rest of the zone the flash brings up 
the light in such quality in relation to space as is necessary for the 
presentation of orange. We have more light from diffusion at the 
outer and inner edges than at the centre of the zone or ring, and 
hence the light blue at the inner margin, and the light blue, passing 
into green, at the outer margin. This common quality of the zone 
is shown in the negative spaces. But from the intervals between 
them there comes the diffused light variously affected by the flash, 
and conveying the graduated tints of orange." Mr. Rose thinks this 
explanation of the subject will appear reasonable, if the conditions 
of the action are thoughtfully considered. Eight circular spaces of 
absolute blackness produce under rotation and by persistence a 
nebulous ring. " If," he says, " this is to be viewed as a mixture of 
light and shadow, or of black and white, we cannot explain the 
manner of its affection by the intermittent light, which shows the 
apparently stationary negations as blue, and the remainder of the 
zone as orange. But it we regard the black spaces as utter absence 
of light, reducing the quantity of light for distribution over the zone, 
but giving it no quantity by admixture, all difficulty is at an end. 
A quantity of light is then understood to be diffused, over a certain 
space, whence it comes modified to blueness ; and when this reduced 
light receives the impression of the flash, it is increased in relation 
to surface, and raised to orange." 

In the " Edinburgh Journal of Science " Mr. Smith has described 
a very curious instance of the change of white light into comple- 
mentary tints. In his directions for the performance of this exper- 



276 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

iment he tells the operator to hold a strip of white cardboard upright 
about twelve inches from the eyes. The card may be six inches 
long, and a quarter of an inch wide. If the eyes are now fixed iipon 
some object at a distance of ten or twelve feet behind it, so that the 
card becomes doubled, and a lighted candle is now placed close to 
the right eye, and shaded from the left one, the latter will see the 
white strip of card green, while the former will appreciate the com- 
plementar}' color or red. On changing the candle so that the light 
falls upon the left eye the phenomena are reversed. We shall con- 
clude this part of our subject, on the persistence of vision and its 
illusions, by presenting a general summary of the effects. 1. Persis- 
tence is the retention of an image by the eye not for an absolute 
instant, but for an interval, — an interval sufficiently long for an 
object to pass over a succession of points, in all of which it will be 
ap^jrehended by the eye at the same instant. For illustration, a 
lighted stick whirled round rapidly in a circle presents a ring of 
light, because the qjq retains an imj^ression of the light at any given 
point, until the stick has returned to the same point again. 2. Simple 
Persistence presents only illusions of the simplest character, as the 
commingling of the elements of white light, the composition of color, 
etc. 3. Persistence under Conditions of Interrupted Vision offers an 
indefinite variety of illusions, depending upon the fact that a disc in 
rapid revolution, presenting the points in the circumference only for 
an instant to the eye, is virtually stationary ; and any object situated 
in these points is distinctly seen, because of its making no sensible 
advance during the exceedingly brief interval of its apparitions. 4. 
Disc Actioji presents the illusions of vision under various arrange- 
ments, in which discs revolving with different degrees of velocity, 
and bearing multiform devices, impress the eye with a number of 
images at virtually the same instant. 5. Single Disc Action is toler- 
ably well known in its application to ordinary optical instruments, 
and as the vehicles for the amusements presented in the thaumatrope, 
etc. The single action has this advantage in connection with the 
thaumatrope and kindred devices, that it shows true form, and does 
not make anamorphoses or distorted figures ; in one point of view 
confused, in another exact and regular. 6. Double Disc Action pro- 
duces, under certain arrangements, an almost unlimited variety of 
illusions. The double disc movement, as arranged by Mr. Rose, 
consists of two wheels, one of which receives a disc bearing the 
devices, and the other a black disc perforated with a number of slots 
or slits. The wheels revolve in contrary directions, and their relative 
velocities can be varied at pleasure within certain limitations. In 
these illusions the aim is at something higher than a mere optical 



ACCIDENTAL COLORS. 277 

toy ; the double disc action will be more estimable since it presents 
the most interesting illustrations of recondite optical principles, and 
also examples of compound motion, multiplication, involution, and 
combinations of the most attractive and pleasing character. 

Color is that property of light to which the universe is indebted 
for the beauties and sublimities with which it is adorned. It is color, 
in all its diversified shades, which presents to the view of intelligent 
beings that almost infinite variety of aspect which the scenes of 
nature display, which directs the eye and the imagination, and gives 
a pleasing variety to every new landscape we behold. Every flower 
which adorns our fields and gardens presents its various hues ; every 
landscape presents its shrubs and trees of different degrees of inten- 
sity of verdure ; and almost every mountain is covered with herbs 
and grass of different shades from those which are seen on the hills 
and plains surrounding it. In the rural districts during the summer 
nature is daily varying her appearance by the multitude and diversity 
of her hues and decorations, so that the eye rambles with pleasure 
over ol)jects continually diversified, and extending on all sides as far 
as the sight can reach. In the flowers which deck every landscape, 
what an admirable assemblage of colors, and what a wonderful art 
in the disposition of their shades does nature display. Here appears 
a light pencilling of delicate tints ; there they are blended in a 
manner surpassing the nicest rules of the most exquisite art. Al- 
though green is the general color which prevails over our earthly scene, 
yet it is diversified by a thousand different shades, so that every kind 
of tree, shrub, and herb, is covered with its own peculiar verdure. 
The dark green of the forests is thus easily distinguished from the 
lighter shades of corn-fields, and the verdure of the pastures. 

The world of animated nature also displays a great variety of 
beautiful colors. The plumage of birds ; the brilliant feathers of the 
peacock and the guinea-fowl, of the robin, the goldfinch, and the 
humming-bird, and the various embellishments of many species of 
the insect class, present to the eye in every region of the globe an 
interesting scene of diversified beauty. Nor is the mineral kingdom 
destitute of such beauties of color, for not only all crystals, and pre- 
cious stones, but some of the roughest and unshapeliest stones and 
minerals, when polished artificially, display a mixture of the most 
delicate and variegated colors. Now all these beauties in the scene 
arouiid us are owing to that property in the rays of light b)^ which 
they can be separated into their primary colors. To the same cause 
are to be attributed those beautiful and diversified appearances, 
which frequently adorn the face of the heavens, the yellow, orange 
and ruby hues which embellish the sky at the rising and setting of 



278 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the sun , and those aerial scenes so frequently beheld in tropical 
climes, where rivers, houses, and mountains are depicted as rolling 
over" each other along the circle of the horizon. The clouds, par- 
ticularly in some countries, reflect almost every shade of color in 
nature ; sometimes they are of a roseate hue ; sometimes they appear 
like bands of deep vermilion : and sometimes like huge brilliant 
masses heaped one upon another and tinged with various hues ; now 
they are white, like ivory ; now as yellow as native gold. In short, 
color diversifies every scene with which we are acquainted, whether 
on the earth or in the heavens. It imparts beauty to the rainbow, to 
the coruscations of the Aurora Borealis, and gives a splendor and 
sublimity to the spacious vault of heaven. 

But let us consider for a moment what the aspect of nature would 
be if instead of the beautiful diversity of embellishment which now 
appears on every side one uniform color were spread over the scenery 
of the universe. Conceive the whole of terrestrial nature to be 
covered with snow, so that no object on earth appeared of any other 
hue ; and that the vast expanse of the sky presented the same un- 
iform aspect; what would be the condition of human beings, suppos- 
ing them existing in such a world? The light of the sun would be 
strongly reflected from every object within the bounds of our hori- 
zon, and would produce such illumination as would dazzle every 
eye. The day would exhibit a greater brightness than it now does ; 
and our eyes, having become accustomed to it, might be enabled 
freely to expatiate on the surrounding landscape ; but everything, 
though enlightened, would appear confused, and particular objects 
would scarcely be distinguishable. A house or a tree near at hand 
might possibly be distinguished on account of its elevation above the 
general level of the ground, and rivers, and valleys, and other hollow 
places, by reason of their being depressed below it. But we should 
be obliged rather to guess and conjecture as to the particular objects 
we wished to distinguish than be able to arrive at any certain con- 
clusion concerning them; and if objects lay at a considerable dis- 
tance from us it would be impossible for us with any degree of pro- 
bability to distinguish one object from another. Notwithstanding 
the universal brightness of the scene the uniformity of color of every 
object would certainly prevent us from easily distinguishing them 
from one another. In such a condition human beings would be 
confounded, and friends and neighbors be at a loss to recognize each 
other! 

The heavens, too, would wear a uniform aspect; neither the moon 
nor planets would be visible to the eye, nor those numberless stars 
which now shine with such brilliancy and adorn the nocturnal sky ; 



UTILITY OF COLORS. 279 

for it is by the contrast produced by the white radiance of the stars, 
and the deep azure of the sky, that those distant bodies are rendered 
discernible. Were they depicted on a snow-white ground they 
would not be distinguishable from that ground, and consequently 
would be invisible. 

Of course, all that beautiful variety of aspect which now appears 
on our terrestrial scene, — the rich verdure of the fields, the dark green 
foliage of the stately forest trees, the rivers meandering through the 
valleys, and the splendid hues which variegate and adorn our gardens 
and meadows, the gay coloring of the morning and evening clouds, 
and all that variety which distinguishes the different seasons, — would 
not at all appear. As every landscape would exhibit nearly the same 
aspect, the poet, the philosopher, the antiquarian, the scholar, or the 
man of science, would have no inducement to visit distant countries 
to investigate the scenes of nature or the productions of jart; and 
tours from one region of the earth to another would scarcely be pro- 
ductive of enjoyment. 

The prevalence of any other single color would be attended with 
nearly the same results. Were a deep red to be uniformly spread 
over the scene of nature, it would not only be disagreeable to the 
eye, but prevent all distinction of objects. Were a dark blue or a 
deep violet to prevail, similar effects would follow, and the scene of 
nature would present a dismal and gloomy appearance. Even if all 
nature were arrayed in a robe of green, which is a more pleasing 
color to the eye, were it not diversified with the different shades 
which it now exhibits, every object would be equally undistinguish- 
able. Such would be the aspect of nature and the inconveniences 
to which human beings would be doomed, were it that the light 
which shone upon them was without that intermixture of colors 
which now appears over the face of all nature, and which serves to 
discriminate one object from another. Even our domestic apartments 
could not be decorated in the least degree, and the articles with 
which they would be furnished would be almost undistinguishable, 
so that in discriminating one object fi'om another, we would be as 
much indebted to the sense of touch as to the sense of sight. But 
worst of all would be the numerous delays, uncertainties, and per- 
plexities to which we should be subjected, were we under the neces- 
sity every moment of distinguishing objects by trains of reasoning, 
and by circumstances of time, place, and relative position. Au 
artificer, when commencing his work in the morning, with his 
numerous tools of nearly the same size and shape, would have to 
spend a considerable portion of his time before he could seject those 
he wanted to use, or the objects to which he wanted to apply them; 



280 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

and in every department of society, and in all intercourses of persons 
by travel from one place to another, similar inconveniences and per- 
plexities would occur. People would have to spend one-half their 
time in uncertain guesses and perplexing reasonings respecting the 
leal nature and individuality of objects, rather than in a consecutive 
train of thought, or a regular employment ; and after all the perplex- 
ities and conjectures they must remain in the utmost uncertainty 
and ignorance (^f the thousands of scenes and objects which are 
now obvious through the instrumentality of colors. 

For the existing state of things in the visible universe, and for 
thus enabling us to distinguish objects by such an easy and expe- 
ditious mode as that of color, which in a moment distinguishes every 
object and its several relations, we cannot but admire the wisdom 
and goodness of the Creator ! We rise in the morning to our respec- 
tive employments, and our tools, our books, and whatever is neces- 
sary for our subsistence and comforts, are at once discriminated. 
"Without the least hesitation, and without any perplexing process 
of reasoning, we can lay our hands upon whatever article we require. 
Color clothes every object in its peculiar livery, and infallibly directs 
the hand in its movements, and the eye in its surveys and observa- 
tions. But this is not the only end which is answered by the diver- 
sity of colors. They minister largely to our pleasures as well as to 
our wants. To those favored with a refined taste, as well as to 
almost every human being, the exquisite coloring of flowers, the 
delicate tints with which they are painted, the varied shades of green 
with which the hills and dales, the mountains and valleys, are ar- 
rayed, and that beautiful variety which appears on a bright summer's 
day on all the objects of universal nature, are sources of the purest 
enjoyment and delight. Color, too, as well as magnitude, adds to 
the sublimity of objects. Were the canopy of heaven of one uniform 
color, it would not produce those lofty conception.s, and those delight- 
ful and transporting emotions, which a contemplation of its august 
scener}^ never fails to inspire. The colors displayed in the solar 
light are common to all the globes which compose the solar system, 
and must necessarily be reflected in all their diversified hues from 
all objects on their surfaces. Some of the double stars appear to 
emit light of different hues, which is thought by some astronomers to 
arise from complementary colors. The larger star sometimes exhibits 
light of a ruddy or orange hue, and the smaller one a radiance 
which approaches to blue or green. There may, therefore, be some 
reason to conclude that the objects connected with the planets 
which revolve around such stars, being occasionally enlightened with 
suns of different hues, display a more diversified and splendid scenery 



UTILITY OF COLORS. 281 

of coloring than is ever beheld in our world ; and that one of the 
distingLiishing characteristics of different worlds in regard to their 
embellishments may consist in the variety and splendor of colors 
with which the objects connected with them are adorned. 

It need not be inferred from what has been said, that we intend 
to convey the idea that the light, or colors which human beings have * 
experienced in any past time were ever different to what we find 
them now to be. We believe, on the contrary, that light lias always 
been what it is now, and that it has always displayed a great variety 
of colors. Moreover, light, with its inherent colors, is a creation in 
the same sense as any otlier object is ; and in the same sense as any 
other natural object, it is an eternally created thing; that is to say, 
it has always been and always will be, created. It is a new manifesta- 
tion or combinaHon of matter, as a man, or a tree, or any other nat- 
ural object is a new manifestation or combination of matter. It is 
everywhere present in principle, and is always manifested wherever 
the conditions necessary for that manifestation exist. In this, as 
well as in many other arrangements in nature, we have a sensible 
proof of the presence and agency of that Almighty Intelligence in 
whom we live, and move, and have our being. None but an infinitely 
wise and beneficent Being, intimately j^resent in all places, could 
thus so regularly create in us, by means of color, those exquisite 
sensations which afford us so much delight, and which unite us, as 
it were, to everything around us. In the variety of hues spread over 
the face of creation we have as real a displa}^ of the Divine presence 
as Moses contemplated at the burning bush. The only difference 
is, that the one was out of the common order of Divine procedure, 
while the other is in accordance with those permanent laws which 
regulate the economy of the universe. In every color which we 
contemplate we have a sensible remembrancer of the presence and 
benevolence of that Being whose spirit hath garnished the heavens 
and the earth, and by whose power and agency we are every moment 
sustained in existence. Oh that men would, therefore, praise the 
Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children 
of men ! He givetli rain to the evil and the good, and causeth his 
sun to shine upon the just and upon the unjust ! 

ON ASTRONOMY. 

The object of the science of Astronomy is to explain the motions 
and magnitudes of the earth and the heavenly bodies, their various 
aspects, and other facts which have been ascertained concerning 
them. It is a science that has to do with our subject, since it illus- 



282 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

trates the changes of place effected in the earth and the heavenly- 
bodies by their motions ; gives the mind a more expansive idea of 
the infinite. Creator, and gives it to understand that it cannot possL 
bly comprehend the mode of existence of that Being who is every- 
where present in essence and power, amid such varied and complex 
•changes and revolutions. 

It will first be expedient for ns to say a few words in relation to 
the apparent motion of the heavenly bodies during the day and night, 
and as to the form and motions of the earth, before proceeding to 
describe particularly the phenomena of the other heavenly bodies. 
When we look up toward the sky, we perceive an apparent concave 
hemisphere, placed at an indefinite distance from us, and surrounding 
the earth on every side. During the day the principal luminous 
object that appears in this hemisphere is the sun. In the morning 
we see him rise beyond the distant mountains or the extremity of the 
ocean ; he gradually ascends the vault of heaven, and then declines 
and disappears in the opposite quarter of the sky. In the northern 
parts of the globe, where we reside, if, about the 20th of March, we 
place ourselves in an open plain at about six o'clock in the morning, 
with our face toward the South, the snn will appear to rise on our 
left, or due East, and at about the same hour in the evening he will 
set on our right hand, or due West. This time is called the Vernal 
SJquinox, when day and night are equal. About the 21st of June he 
rises to our left, but somewhat behind us in the direction of the North- 
east, reaches a greater height at noon than on the 21st of March, and 
after describing a large circle in the heavens, sets on our right hand 
and still behind us, in the North-western quarter of the sky. This 
time is called the Summer solstice, or the time when the sun appears 







This diagram of the seasons will tend to illustrate the subject more clearly. It shows the 
positions of tlie signs of the Zodiac, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, 
Sagittarius, Caprieoruus, Aquarius, Pisces. 



ASTRONOMY; PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 283 

to stand still a few days, and then begins to retrace his steps. At 
this time the day is longest and the night shortest. At about the 
23d of September the sun again rises due East, and sets due West, 
as on the 20th of March ; and this is called the Autumnal Equinox, 
day and night being now again equal. At about the 21st of De- 
cember, if Ave observe from the same position, we may see, without 
turning our eyes, the points at which he rises and sets. He rises in 
the South-east, ascends to a small elevation at noon, and sets in the 
South-w<-st, after having described a very small arc in the heavens. 
This time is called the Winter solstice, when the sun seems to remain 
stationary for a short time, as it were, preparatory to his advancing 
to describe larger circles of the heavens. The day is now shortest 
and the night longest. Each succeeding day after this he appears 
to rise a little farther towards the East, for the stars which are seen 
to the Eastward of him appear every succeeding day to be nearer to 
the place where he is seen. All these various and successive changes 
are accomplished within the period of three hundred and sixty-five 
days, six hours, in which time he appears to have made a complete 
revolution round the heavens from West to East, at the rate of about 
one degree each day. 

The moon is the next object in the heavens which naturally at- 
tracts our attention, and she goes through similar changes in the 
course of a month. When she first becomes visible at new moon, 
she appears in the Western part of the heavens, near where the sun 
went down, and she appears in the form of a crescent, having the 
horns pointed toward the Esist, the sun being now to the Westward 
of her. Every night she appears increased in size and removed to a 
greater distance from the sun, until after the lapse of about two 
weeks, she appears in the Eastern part of the horizon, just as the sun 
disappears in the Western, at which time she presents a round, full, 
enlightened face, and is called /m^Z woon. After this she gradually 
moves farther and farther Eastward, and her enlightened part grad- 
ually decreases, until at last she seems to approach the sun as nearly 
in the East as she did in the West, and rises only a little before him 
in the morning, in the form of a crescent, having its horns pointed 
toward the West, the sun being now to the Eastward of her. All 
these different changes may be traced by attending to her apparent 
positions from time to time with respect to the fixed stars. 

Again, if on a winter evening, about six o'clock, we direct our 
view to the Eastern quarter of the sky, we shall perceive certain stars 
just risen above the horizon ; if we observe the same stars at mid- 
night, we shall see them at a considerable elevation in the South, 
having apparently moved over a space equal to one-half of the whole 



28-i CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

hemisphere. On the next morning, about six o'clock, the same stars 
will be seen to set in the Western part of the sky. If we now look 
quite toward the South, we shall find that the stars there only describe 
very small arcs, rising but a little above the horizon, and setting 
again, after a short time, not far from the same point ; the highest 
altitude attained at any time not being more than a few degrees. If 
we turn our eyes towards the North, we shall perceive a similar 
apparent motion of these twinkling orbs, but with this difference 
that a considerable number of them neither rise nor set, but seem to 
describe circles of greater or less diameter, round an apparently im- 
movable point, called the North Pole. Near this point is situated 
the pole star, which in our latitude appears elevated about half way 
between the horizon, and the zenith, or point directly over our heads ; 
and to a common observer seems fixed; but is found by the telescope 
to describe circles of about three degrees in diameter around the 
north polar point, from which the star is, therefore, really distant 
about one and a-half degrees. Thus, these Northern stars never set 
to us, but seem sometimes above, sometimes below, and sometimes to 
the East or to the West of the north polar point; the dimensions of 
the circles they describe depending upon their distances from the 
north pole ; and the time they occupy in completing their circles is 
about 24 hours ; or more accurately 23 hoars, 56 minutes, and 4 
seconds, that is, one day ; and they all finish their revolutions in 
exactly the same period of time. 

A person who has for the first time directed his attention to the 
heavens after having made such observations, will naturally enquire; 
whence come these stars that begin to appear in the East ? Whither 
have those gone that have disappeared in the West ? And wl:^at be- 
comes during the day of the stars which are visible during the night? 
It occurs at once to an intelligent observer who is convinced of the 
roundness of the earth, that the stars which rise above the Eastern 
horizon come from another hemisphere, Avhich we are apt to imagine 
below us, and Avhen they set return to that hemisphere again ; and 
that the reason why stars are not apparent during the day-time is not 
because they are absent from our hemisphere, or have ceased to shine, 
but because their light is obscured by the more vivid splendor of the 
sun. The fact of their presence in our hemisphere during the day is 
put beyond all doubt hj the use of the telescope, which instrument, 
adapted to an equatorial motion, enables us to see many of the stars 
even at noon-day. We ourself have seen with the naked e3'-e one of 
the planets at a pretty high elevation in the North-Eastei^n part of 
the heavens, on the forenoon of a day when the sun was shining 
brightly ; its appearance at that time excited the attention of many 



ASTRONOMY ; PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 



285 



others also. From such observations we are led to conclude that the 
earth on which we dwell exists in empty space surrounded on all 
sides by the celestial vault, and that the whole sphere of the heavens 
has an apparent motion round the earth every twenty-four hours. 
Whether this motion be real or apparent is, however, determined by 
other considerations. 

Although such general views of the nocturnal heavens, which 
every common observer may take, have a tendency to expand the 
mind, and to elevate it to the contemplation of an invisible Power 
by which such movements are conducted ; yet such is the apathy 
with which the greater portion of mankind gaze at the heavens, that 
there are thousands who have occasionally viewed the stars for the 
space of fifty years, who are still ignorant of the fact t*hat they per- 
form an apparent diurnal revolution round our globe. 

Again, if we contemplate the heavens with some attention for a 
number of nights in succession, we shall find that by far the greater 
number of the stars never seem to alter their position with respect 
to each other. If we observe two stars at a certain apparent distance 
from each other either North or South, or in any other direction, they 




Fig. 'Jo. — The constki.i.ation okion. 



will appear at the same distance, and in the same relative position, 
the next evening, the next month, and the next year. The stars, 



286 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

for iustauce, which form the sword and belt of Orion, (which constel- 
lation may be seen during the winter in the Southern part of the 
heavens), present to our view the same figure and relative aspect 
during the whole period they are visible in winter, and from one 
year to another. And the same is the case with the stars of the Great 




Fig. 94. 



Bear, situated in the Northern parts of the sky,* and with all the 
fixed stars in the heavens. 

There is, however, another fact with respect to the general 
appearance of the sky, wliich the observer can likewise verify for 
himself. Having fixed upon any bright star, let him observe it 
carefully on any evening at the exact time of its passing the merid- 
ian, or of its disappearance behind some conspicuous object, say a 
tree, or a church steeple. Let him observe it again on the follow- 
ing evening, and again after the lapse of a few days more, and he 



* Figure 93 represents the constellation Orion; 94 represents the constellations of the Great 
Bear, the Little Bear, and the Pole Star. The seven stars in the lower part of the fisiire rejire- 
sent Ursa JMajor, or the Great Bear, sometimes known as the Plow and Charles' Wain. The 
seven stars in the upper part represent Uisa Minor, or the Little Bear, the largest star of which 
on the right hand side is the pole star. The two stars on the right hand side of the Great Bear 
are called the Pointers, because they point straight toward the north pole, and they are distant 
from each other about 5°. If a line connecting these two stars be considered as prolonged up- 
wards to a considerable distance, about 29°, until it meet the first bright star, that star is the 
pole star, which is here represented at the highest part of the figure. About the beginning of 
November, at 6 or 7 o'clock in the evening, the Great Bear will appear near the north, at a low 
elevation above the horizon, nearly in the position rejjresented in the figure. Let an observa- 
tion be made about the middle of April, at 10 o'clock in the evening, the Great Bear will appear 
almost directly over our heads, above the pole star; and then we must conceive the line joining 
the two pointers as drawn doivnwards toward the pole star. At different times of the night, 
and at different seasons of the year, the Great Bear will appear to be in different positions with 
respect to the pole star, sometimes below, sometimes above, and sometimes to the East or West 
of it. But in all positions a line drawn through the pointers will direct the eye to the pole star. 



ASTRONOMY ; PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 287 

will find that the star is a little earlier every day in arriving at the 
place. Thus, if it be on the meridian, or in a line with the marking 
object, at nine o'clock one day, it will be there about four minutes 
before nine on the next, and so on. It is owing to this that we see 
different constellations at different seasons of the year. Many of 
those which shine brightly on a winter's night are above the horizon 
in summer, during the day-time, and hence are invisible. In this 
way, we see by far the' larger portion of the stars at some time or 
other of the year ; but just as those stars within fifty degrees of the 
north pole never set to us, so those within a similar distance of the 
south pole never rise at all in our latitudes. Among the most bril- 
liant of the constellations thus hidden from us is» that called the 
Southern Cross, and when travellers are going toward the southern 
hemisphere they anxiously await the first appearance of this constel- 
lation. As they approach the tropics and the equator the north pole 
star seems to sink lower and lower in the sky, and the number of 
stars which never set in our latitudes become less and less, till, when 
they reach the equator, the pole is in their horizon, and all the stars 
are seen rising in the east, remaining visible exactly twelve hours, 
and then setting in the western horizon. They all appear here also 
to travel in straight lines instead of in curves, as they appear to do 
in the north and south latitudes. By placing an artificial globe so 
that its axis is horizontal, and its pole in the horizon, one may 
obtain a representation of these phenomena. 

But while the fixed stars never appear to alter their positions in 
relation to each other, we find, by a close inspection of the sky, 
another class of bodies, which regularly shift their positions ; some- 
times these appeal? to move towards the east, sometimes towards the 
west, and sometimes to remain stationary. These bodies have 
received the name of planets, or wandering stars, in opposition to 
those which do not alter their position, and are hence called fixed 
stars. In our latitudes the planets are most frequently seen in the 
eastern and western, or in the southern quarters of the heavens ; 
and they are situated, with the exception of a few of the minor ones, 
in a belt called the zodiac, extending for nine degrees on both sides 
of the ecliptic (this is the apparent path of the sun) ; and hence the 
planets are easily found by observers. More than one hundred of 
these planetary orbs have been discovered, six of which were known 
in times of great antiquity, and only about five are visible to the 
naked eye. By long continued and careful observations of the 
aspects and motions of these planets, astronomers have determined 
that they all move round the sun as the centi-e of their motions, and 
form, along with the earth, one grand and harmonious system. This 



288 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

assemblage of heavenly bodies, iu connection with the earth, is termed 
the solar sj^stem, of which we shall exhibit a brief description after 
Ave shall have shown the ball of the earth to be in motion. 

For a long time during the dark ages, and the infancy of science, 
the earth on which we live was considered the largest body in the 
universe. It was supposed to be an immense plane, diversified with 
inequalities in the shape of mountains and valleys, and stretching 
out to an unlimited extent on all sides, bounded by the sk3^ What 
was below this immense mass of land and water, and how it was sup- 
ported, none ventured positively to tell; though some of the Chris- 
tian fathers strenuously asserted that the earth was extended in- 
finitely downwaa-d, and established on several foundations ; a plain 
contradiction, for what is infinite cannot have a foundation. Ac- 
cording to the ideas of some of the ancients, however. Atlas bore up 
the world on his shoulders ; and many of the Hindoos of the present 
day assert that it is supported bj^ a serpent and a tortoise ; but it is 
clear that these attempted solutions of the diificulty, as the founda- 
tions of the Christian fathers, only remove it one step farther ; for 
we should have to seek some support for the man and the serpent. 
Such, however, were some of the absurd and foolish opinions of 
those who viewed the system of the universe through a false me- 
dium, and who were ignorant of the facts and principles of modern 
science. It is only within the period of the last three centuries that 
the true figure and dimensions of the earth have been accurately as- 
certained. This figure is noAv found to be that of a sphere or globe, 
deviating, however, from the perfect spherical form, only so slightly 
that it could not be perceived in any model we could make of it. 
Suppose, for instance, we made a globe of thirty inches diameter, the 
difference between the polar and equatorial diameters would be only 
y-J-Qth of an inch, a difference too small for the keenest eye to detect. 
The real dimensions of the earth's diameters are found to be as fol- 
lows : The greater, or equatorial, diameter, 7925^ miles ; the lesser 
or polar, diameter, 7899 miles ; showing a difference of a little over 
twenty-six miles. We do not know but that further investigations 
will make this difference even less, so that the earth may be regarded 
as a perfect sphere. That this is in reality the form of the earth will 
appear from such considerations as the following : when Ave stand 
by the sea shore on a calm day Ave easily perceive that the surface 
of the water is not quite plane, but someAAdiat convex or rounded; 
and if we are on the shore of an arm of the sea, three or four miles 
broad, placing our ej'^es near the level of the water, and looking 
along its surface toward the opposite shore we plainly see the water 
elevated about midway between our eyes and the opposite shore, so 



ASTEOKOMY; PRELIMINARY OBSEBYATIONS. 289 

as to prevent us seeing the objects which are near the edge of the 
water there. If we make the same experiment on a lake of three or 
four miles in extent, a small boat near the end of the lake may be 
seen by one who is at some height above the water ; but if we lay 
our eye near the surface the view of the boat will be intercepted by 
the convexity of the water, which proves the lake to be a small seo- 
ment of a globe. On land, it is seldom a large tract of land can be 
chosen sufficiently level to answer the purpose of making such ex- 
periments, as even in large planes there are frequently undulations 
which materially alter the earth's natural convexity. Again, when 
we view a ship departing from the coast in any direction as it retires 
from our view we still see the masts and rigging of the vessel, when 
the hull has disappeared, and has sunk, as it were, beyond the boun- 
daries of our sight. First we lose sight of the hull, then of the sails, 
and last of all of the topmast. On the other hand, when a ship is 
approaching the shore, the first part of it which is visible when at a 
considerable distance is the topmast ; as it approaches nearer the 
sails come into view ; and last of all the hull gradually comes within 





--'-^ " Fig. 95. 

Here only that part of the sliip above the line A C can be seen by the spectator C : the rest of 
the ship is hidden by tlie swell of the curve D E. 

the limits of our sight ; but the vessel will pass over several miles of 
the sea, from the time of our first perceiving the topmast until the 
hull appears in sight. In order that such observations should be 
made with accuracy it is requisite that a telescope should be used. 




Fig. 96. 
What is it then that prevents the hull of the ship, the largest part of 
it, from being seen Avhen the topmasts are visible ? It is evidently 
the round or convex surface of the water, bulging up, as it were, be- 
tween our eye and the lower part of the ship. When the ship is at 
a certain distance from us, when the hull has just begun to disap- 
pear from a person standing on the surface of the ground, the whole 
will be visible to an observer on an elevated building ; and if there 
be a lofty mountain near by the vessel will be seen from this after 
everv portion of it is hidden from those on the beach. See Fig. 96. 

19 



290 CBBATOE AND COSMOS. 

This proves without doubt that the earth's surface is round; and, in 
fact, a rough estimate of the size of the earth maj"- be formed in this 
way. We have only to fix upon two elevations of equal height, as, 
for instance, marked places on the masts of two vessels, and ascer- 
tain the exact distance at which they are hidden from each other by 
the curvature of the earth. We must also know the elevation of the 
marked places on the masts above the level of the sea, and then by 
a simple proportion we shall obtain the diameter of the earth. The 
question is stated thus : As the height of the station of observation 
is to the distance of the visible horizon (which is half the distance 
between the two stations), so is this distance to the diameter of the 
earth. By another calculation it is found that two places elevated 
ten feet become hidden from one another at a distance a little short 
of eight miles ; that is to say, a straight line drawn from one of these 
to the other would just touch the earth midway between them. The 
curvature then may be set down as ten feet in 3s miles ; and the 
proportion is as follows : As 10 feet : 3| : : 3g miles : the diameter 
of the earth. This gives 7828^ miles for the earth's diameter, Avhich 
is not far from correct. But the more accurate and philosophical 
mode of ascertaining its dimensions is by measuring an arc of the 
meridian, a process which enables us accurately to determine the 
length of a degree of latitude from the equator to the pole. 

Now as such appearances as those we have mentioned, with re- 
spect to the water's surface and the ship, are observed on ever}^ sea 
and ocean on the face of the earth, it follows that the ocean at large 
is a convex surface, or a portion of a globe ; and the waters cover 
more than three-fourths of the earth's surface ; and if tlie ocean, con- 
stituting three-fourths of the earth, be globular, so also is the land, 
the remaining one-fourth, notwithstanding that the hills and the 
mountains form a few inequalities on its surface ; for the regions of 
the land are all nearly on a level with the ocean, with the exception 
of the ranges of elevated mountains. The height of the table-lands 
and mountain ranges bears such a small proportion to the actual di- 
ameter of the earth, that they in no way interfere with its general 
spherical outline. The greatest elevations are only about five miles, 
and there are l)ut a few of these ; Avhile the diameter of the earth is 
about 8000 miles. If then Ave would accurately represent these on 
a globe having a diameter of 16 inches, we must make them y-j^-Qth of 
an inch high; or they might be well represented by very small grains 
of sand. The thinnest tissue-paper Avould fully represent the eleva- 
tion of table-lands ; and minute scratches, almost invisible without 
a microscope, would show the mountain gorges and valleys of rivers ; 
so for all ordinary purposes the earth is considered absolutely spher- 
ical. 



ASTRONOMY ; PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 291 

On the other hand, were the surface of the sea a level plane the 
appearances would be very different. A straight line might be drawn 
from an object, as a ship, upon it, from any distance out, to the 
shore. In this case any object on the earth or sea would be visible 
at any distance, vvhich was not so great as to make its appearance too 
small or faint to be perceived. An object would be visible at the 
same distance whether the eye were situated high or low. Sailors 
would not in such a case have to climb to the topmast in order to 
descry ships or other objects at a distance, for they could see them 
just as plain and at as great a distance from the deck, after the ob- 
jects had come within visible distance. The largest and not the 
highest objects would be visible at the greatest distance. The top- 
mast of a ship would first disappear, and the hull, as being the largest 
object, would be the longest visible ; but this is contrary to all ex- 
perience. The considerations already adduced are, therefore, clear 
and decisive proofs that the earth is not an extended plane, but a 
globular body ; and it seems truly wonderful that such a conclusion 
was not generally arrived at until a comparatively recent date. 

Moreover, tliat the earth is round from east to west is clear from 
the fact that navigation has long been conducted on that principle 
with the greatest precision, and that navigators have repeatedly 
sailed around it from east to Avest. They have set sail from England, 
crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn, sailed along the Pacific 
Ocean to the northern coasts of Australia, crossed the Indian Ocean, 
and, passing the Cape of Good Hope, have again arrived, by travers- 
ing the Atlantic, at the port whence they set sail. These experi- 
ments, therefore, show that the earth is round from east to west, but 
they do not prove that it is also round from north to south, for it 
has never been actually circumnavigated in that direction, owing to 
the obstruction caused to navigation by the immense masses of ice 
Avithin the polar regions. Had Ave, therefore, no other proof of the 
earth's rotundit}'' than this, Ave might be apt to suppose it somewhat 
resembling the shape of a cylinder; but that the earth is really 
round from north to south appears from the following considerations. 
When Ave travel a considerable distance from north to south, or from 
south to north, a number of new stars successiA'^ely arise in the 
quarter of the heavens (whichever it may be) to Avhich Ave are ad- 
vancing, and many of those in the opposite quarter gradually disap- 
pear. For example, in sailing toward the south, Avhen Ave approach 
tlie equator the brilliant constellation called the Southern Cross, 
before mentioned, Avliich is never seen in our northern latitudes, 
makes its appearance ; and if Ave go farther south the constellations 
of the Great Bear, Cassiopeia, and other stars, visible in our northern 



292 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

sky, will entirely disappear, which could not happen if the earth 
were a plane in that direction ; for in such a case all the stars of 
heaven would be visible in every point from the north to the south 
pole. Another corroborative proof of the earth's globularity is this. 
In excavating a canal of any length, in order to have the waters on 
a level, certain allowances require to be made for the earth's convex- 
ity. The slope required to be made on this account is about eight 
inches in the mile, thirty-two inches in two miles, and so on, increas- 
ing with the square of the distance. If the earth were a level surface 
no allowances of this kind would need to be made in order that the 
water in a long canal might stand on a level. 

But another most evident and conclusive proof of the earth's 
rotundity is that afforded in the shape of its shadow. The earth is 
an opaque body, shines by reflected light ; and, must, therefore, cast 
a dark shadow in the direction opposite to the sun ; but the shape of 
this shadow can only be seen Avhen there is some solid body on 
which it can be thrown. Now there is but one body which ever 
comes near enough to the earth to receive this, and this body is the 
moon. When, therefore, the lunar eclipse happens, if we watch the 
moon as it enters the shadow of the earth, and again as it emerges 
from it, we shall find that the dark line of the shadow on the moon's 
disc is always curved to an arc of a circle. The earth therefore must 
either be a globe or a flat circular disc, and at first sight we might 
incline to the latter -view, and imagine, with some of the ancients, 
that we dwell on a flat surface, like the top of around table. When, 
however, we remember that in all cases and in every position of the 
t:arth and moon at the time of an eclipse the shadow is always circu- 
lar^ we are assured that the earth must be globular, as no other 
figure could always cast a circular shadow. 

It is to be presumed that after the sensible and undeniable de- 
monstrations that have been given of the rotundity of the earth, none 
of our readers will have any doubts left that the earth in which Ave 
live is of globular form, but there may still be some who are not yet 
convinced that it moves round its axis, and with immense velocity, 
through the regions of space, in company with the other planets. On 
this subject, therefore, we shall now offer a few considerations tend- 
ing to show that the earth we inhabit, however steadfast it may 
appear to the eye of sense, is really a moving body, and that it moves 
with a velocity far greater than we are accustomed to see around us, 
There are two different motions considered as connected with the 
earth ; one by which it is viewed as turning round its axis every 
twenty-four hours, and producing the succession of day and night ; 
and another by which it moves round the sun every year, bringing 
about the changes of the seasons. 



ASTKONOMY ; PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 



293 



We shall here chiefly illustrate those arguments by which its 
diurnal motion may be demonstrated, and its annual motion after- 
wards. In the first place then there is one thing of which all feel 
certain ; that is, that motion does actually exist, either in the earth 
or in all the heavenly bodies around the earth. We behold every 
day the sun apparently moving from the eastern to the western 
horizon. We observe also all the stars apparently moving in a body 
round the earth in the course of twenty-four hours, and in the man- 
ner described above. Such observations, which everyone has it in 
their power to make, clearly show, that there is motion somewhere , 
and the question is, is this only apparent with respect to the heavens, 
or is it the motion of the earth that produces this appearance ? Let 
us suppose for a moment that it is the earth which moves ; what will 
be the rate of its motion in turning round its axis to produce the 
apparent revolution of the heavens ? For if the earth really revolves 
round its axis from west to east, the heavens will, of course, appear 
to revolve round us from east to west, just as when one is on board 
a steamboat on a river, and not noticing the motion of the vessel, he 
sees the trees and other objects on the bank, apparently moving in 
the opposite dii'ection to that in which the vessel is really going. The 
same kind of appearances often happen to a person sitting in a rail- 
road car when in motion ; one is apt to think the fields and fences, 
the whole side of the country, to be moving in the contrary direction 
to that of the cars' motion. The rate of the earth's motion will de- 
pend upon its magnitude. Now we know that the earth is a globe 
somewhat more than twenty-four thousand miles in circumference, 
and consequently in turning round every twenty-four hours some 
portions of its surface must move, at least, a thousand miles every 
hour. This is a motion far more rapid than has ever been produced 
in the smallest bodies by human 
art ; and, thei'efore. it may appear 
incredible to some that such a 
motion can exist in a globe of such 
vast dimensions as the earth. But 
if such pei'sons deny that the earth 
thus moves then they must admit 
that the heavens move. There is 
no alternative, for motion actually 
exists either in the one or in the 
other. Now if the motion is to be 
considered as existing in tlie hea- 
vens, let us see what the rate of 
this motion must necessarily be. 




294 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

If a small globe of eighteen inches diameter and a globe of two thou- 
sand yards, or seventy-two thousand inches in diameter were each 
supposed to perform a revolution round its axis and to finish a 
rotation in the same time, this large globe would move with a velo- 
city four thousand times greater than the other. In the annexed 
figure, if A B in the centre, represent the earth, then if the circle 
C E revolve around it in a certain time, and the other two 
circles revolve round it in the same time, it is certain that the 
circle F H must revolve with a quicker motion than the circle 
C E : and the circle I L with a still greater velocity, in proportion 
to its greater distance from the centre of motion A B. We shall 
consider then what would be the rate of motion of some of the 
heavenly bodies whose distances from the earth are known. The 
sun is ascertained to be somewhat near ninety-five millions of miles 
distant from the earth; and, consequently, were he to move round 
the earth every day, as he appears to do, he would move along a cir- 
cumference of five hundred and ninety-seven millions of miles every 
day ; that is, at the rate of about twenty-four millions of miles an 
hour, four hundred and fourteen thousand miles a minute, and six 
thousand nine hundred miles a second. Again the planet Uranus at 
its nearest point to tlie earth is more than one thousand seven hun- 
dred millions of miles distant ; and consequently the circumference 
of its orbit is more than ten thousand six hundred millions of miles. 
If, therefore, this planet were supposed to move round the earth 
every day, its motions would be at the rate of four hundred and 
forty-five millions of miles in an hour, seven millions four hundred 
and twenty thousand miles in a minute, and one hundred and twenty- 
three thousand six hundred and seventj^-seven miles every second. 
Again the nearest fixed stars are known not to be within 20,000,000,-- 
000,000, or twenty billions of miles off the earth ; and consequently 
their daily circuit round our globe would measure 125,000,000,- 
000,000, or one hundred and twenty-five billions of miles ; this is at 
the rate of fourteen hundred millions of miles in the space of a single 
second, or the interval of time which the pendulum of a common 
clock takes in moving from one side to the other ; stars at distances 
hundreds of times greater, of which there are many in our firmament, 
would move with a rapidit}" of hundreds of times swifter; and those 
still further removed from us in the depths of immensity with a velo- 
city far exceeding human conception; yet all the stars of heaven 
appear to move round our globe every t\yenty-four hours. If the 
circle C D E of the figure represent the supposed diurnal orbit of 
the sun ; F G H that of Uranus ; and I K L ]\I that of some of the 



ASTRONOMY; PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 295 

fixed stars ; then it is evident that in proportion to the distance of 
the body from the earth will the velocity of its motion be, if it be sup- 
posed to move round the earth. 

If, therefore, there be any reader disposed to reject the motion of 
the earth because it is inconceivable he must necessarily admit of 
motions ten hundred thousand times greater and far more incompre- 
hensible ; more especially when it is considered that the bodies in 
the heavens to which we have alluded are incomparably greater than 
the globe of earth on which we live ; the planet Uranus being eighty 
times, and the sun more than one million three hundred thousand 
times larger than the earth, and the fixed stars on an average as large 
as the sun. Such a rate of motion in such a number of magnificent 
globes appear altogether overwhelming, incomprehensible, and in- 
credible. 

The question, then, that is to be decided is, which of the motions 
to which we have referred is the most probable, — the motion of the 
earth or that of the heavens? Is it really necessary that the whole 
universe, composed of sun, moon, planets, comets, stars, and nebulse, 
should move round our globe with such astonishing velocities in 
order to produce the alternate succession of day and night on the 
earth ? Reason says that it is not. It would contradict all our ideas 
of the simple and reasonable operations of nature, and of the intel- 
ligence of the Deity. The succession of day and night can be 
accomplished by a simple rotation of the earth on its axis, which is 
found to completely account for all the apparent diurnal revolutions of 
the celestial bodies. This is understood to be the case with the other 
planets of the solar system. The planet Jupiter is fourteen hundred 
times larger than the earth, and is said to move round its axis in less 
than ten hours, at the rate of 28,000 miles an hour, which is a veloc- 
ity twenty-eight times greater than that of the earth, supposing the 
latter to move round its axis. The planet Saturn is about a thousand 
times larger than our globe, and it is said to revolve round its axis 
in ten hours and a-half, at the rate of 24,000 miles an hour in those 
places near its equator. To a spectator then, placed on these planets, 
the heavens would appear to revolve around him every ten hours, 
as they appear to us to revolve every twenty-four hours, but Avith 
an apparently more rapid motion ; while he, himself, might sup- 
pose, as we are apt to do, that the planet on which he is is really at 
rest. The earth, therefere, must be considered as revolving round 
its axis, in accordance with the revolutions of the other planets of the 
system to which it belongs ; and to suppose otherwise would be in 
opposition to all the laws Avliich govern the material universe, and 



296 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

^ould distort all our ideas of the harmony and order of the opera- 
tions of nature. 

Another consideration which demonstrates the diurnal motion of 
the earth is this ; that such a rate of motion in the heavenly bodies 
as has now been stated would shatter the material universe to atoms. 
Were a ball of soft wood projected from a cannon at the rate of 800 
miles an hour, in a few moments it would be reduced to splinters ; 
and hence the forage and other light substances projected from a 
pieoe of ordnance are instantly torn to pieces. What then might be 
•supposed to be the consequence, were a body impelled through the 
'etilelial regions with a velocit}^ of a hundred thousand millions of 
miles in a minute, as multitudes of the stars behoved to be, were the 
earth at rest in the centre of the universe? It would undoubtedly 
reduce to atoms the most solid bodies in existence, though they were 
composed of substances harder than adamant. 

Another corroborative argument which astronomers bring forward 
in support of the motion of the earth is this : that there is no in- 
stance known in the universe of a larger body revolving round a 
smaller one. We do not find, say they, such planets as Jupiter and 
Saturn revolving round their satellites ; but all these satellites, which 
are much smaller than their primaries, perform their revolutions 
around the latter as the centre of their motions. The earth, which 
is fifty times greater than the moon, does not revolve round her, but 
that nocturnal luminary regularly revolves round the earth. The 
sun does not revolve round the planets Mercury or Venus, which are 
thousands of times less than that luminary, but they invariably re- 
volve around him as their centre of attraction, light, and heat. As 
the sun is over one million three hundred thousand times larger than 
the earth it cannot, therefore, be supposed for a moment that such 
an enoi-mous globe would revolve with such an inconceivably rapid 
motion round so inconsiderable a ball as the earth, and much less 
that the whole universe should revolve around it every day. Were 
the earth not revolving around its circumference every day there 
would be an infraction of all the laws which are known to govern 
the system of universal nature; and, therefore, it is absolutely neces- 
sary to admit its motion in order to direct our views and to become 
fully convinced of the systematic order and harmonj^ of the opera- 
tions of universal nature. What would be thought of a machine (if 
such could be conceived to be constructed) as large as the cit}^ of 
London, or any other large city, bearing a huge lamp near its centre, 
and revolving daily round a little ball of one inch in diameter, sus- 
pended in empty space, merely for the purpose of giving light and 



CIRCLES, DEGREES, ETC. 297 

heat to the surface of this little ball, when, at the same time, a revo- 
lution of the ball round its axis would answer the same purpose ? 
The designer and constructor of such a system, however ingenious 
he might be thought by some for his great contrivance, would justly, 
by all wise men, be considered insane for having so disproportioned 
means to ends in the accomplishment of his object. Such a scheme, 
however, absurd as it seems, would not be half so preposterous as to 
suppose the vast universe to turn round so inconsiderable a ball as 
the earth to produce the alternate succession of day and night, when 
the same object could be effected by the earth's simply revolving 
round its axis once in twenty-four hours. But the whole system 
of universal nature is proportionate as to its constituent parts, 
and their operations ; none of its parts, are unnecessary ; none of its 
operations take place inconsistently with infinite intelligence and 
wisdom; and its operations all appear simple and reasonable when 
rightly considered. Now, all these supposed inconsistencies and im- 
possibilities, which we have been considering, are at once got rid of, 
and complete, universal harmony and order restored, by the admis- 
sion of the rotation of the earth round its axis every day. 

Circles, Degrees, etc., explained. 

If we refer to an ordinary terrestrial globe, such for example as 
those used in schools and colleges, we shall find that there are several 
circles drawn upon it, and we shall also observe that these are of 
different sizes, those called parallels of latitude near the poles and 
the polar circles being much smaller than those nearer the circle 
called the equator. These circles are accordingly divided into 
two classes, called respectively great and small circles. Great 
circles are those whose plane passes through the centre of the 
globe, so that they divide it into two equal portions; and, assuming 
the earth to be a perfect sphere, all 
these great circles will be exactly 
equal. All other circles are called 
small circles. The most import- 
ant of the great circles is the equa- 
tor, which is an imaginary line 
drawn round the earth, equally 
distant from the north and south 
poles, and therefore dividing the 
globe into two equal halves, called 
the northern and southern hemi- 
spheres. If now we conceive theplane 




298 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

of this circle to be extended to the sky, we shall have a great circle of the 
heavens, known as the ce/es^iaZ equator, or more usually the equinoctial. 
This latter term is derived from two Latin words signifying " equal " 
and "night," and is applied to it because when the sun appears to be 
on this line it shines equall}- on both hemispheres ; and day and night 
are then of equal length in all parts of the earth, the sun being above 
the horizon at everyplace for about 12 hours, and below it for about the 
same length of time. The days on which this happens are the 20th of 
March and the 23d of September; and b}- counting the days between 
these dates we shall find that in the northern hemisphere the summer 
is a few days longer than the winter; or in other w^ords, that the 
period during which the sun is north of the equator is a few days 
longer than that during which he is south of it. 

The sun's apparent path is not, however, along the equinoctial, 
but in a great circle, inclined to it at the present time at an angle of 
about 28° 27' 30", and known as the ecliptic. Round this the sun 
appears to travel, performing the complete circuit of it in the space 
of one year. The space extending for 9° on both sides of the ecliptic, 
and thus constituting a band or zone 18° wide, is known as the 
zodiac ; and within this space, as we have already explained, all the 
planets, Avith the exception of a few of the minor ones, are constantly 
found ; so that we can alw^ays tell somewhat of the position in which 
they are. The zodiac is divided into twelve equal portions, each 
containing 30°, and the stars in these spaces are mapped out into the 
constellations known as the " signs of the zodiac," which we shall 
notice hereafter. 

As we shall have frequent occasion to speak of degrees it is well 
that it be clearly understood what is ' meant by a degree, and the 
mode in which it is measured. It is evidently necessary for us to 
have some means of measuring the distances of the heavenl}' bodies 
from one another, and this can only be done by measuring the angle 
which imaginar}' lines, drawn from them to our eye, subtend. By a 
little consideration we shall find that it is in the same way we form 
our» estimate of the dimensions of ordinary objects around us, and 
hence when we bring them nearer to our eye they appear larger, be- 
cause the rays coming from their extremes to our eye contain a 
larger angle. Now we want some means of measuring and express- 
ing in words the angle thus contained, and this we do by means of 
degrees and fractions of a degree. A degree then is the 360th part 
of a circle ; that is, if we draw a large circle on paper, for example, 
and divide its circumference into 360 equal parts, and then draw 
straight lines from these divisions to the centre of the circle, the 



CIRCLES, DEGREES, ETC. 299 

angle contained between any two adjacent lines will be just one 
degree. On any circle we can draw on paper these divisions will 
necessarily be very small ; when, however, we deal with a globe like 
the earth we find that a degree at the equator measures about 69 
miles. 

In a right angle there are, of course, ninety degrees, and if we 
can make a triangle with three equal sides, each angle will contain 
just sixty degrees. A degree is divided into sixty parts called 
minutes (^minute ■psLrts') ; each of, these is divided into sixty parts, called 
seconds ; and in more delicate and accurate observations each of these 
is again divided into sixty parts, called thirds. These divisions are 
usually expressed by the signs for degrees ("), minutes ('), seconds 
("), thirds ('") ; thus 16°, 37', 6", 15'". As a general guide to us in 
estimating approximately the distances or dimensions of the heavenly 
bodies it will be expedient to remember that the apparent diameter 
of the sun or moon is about half a degree ; the distance between the 
pointers in the Great Bear is six degrees, and that between the pole 
star and the pointer nearest to it about twenty-four degrees. By 
means of an accurately graduated semi-circle Ave can easily measure 
any angle, and ascertain the number of degrees it contains. 

We have stated above that the inclination of the ecliptic to the 
equator, or, as it is termed the " obliquity of the ecliptic " is nearly 
23i degrees. This amount, however, is not constantly the same, but 
varies a little in the lapse of centuries. The rate of this variation is 
very slight, being less than 1' in 100 years, and it is found that it can 
only take place within very narrow limits. At present it is decreas- 
ing, but before it can have deviated as much as a degree and a-half 
the causes producing it will have been so modified as to act in a con- 
trary direction, and increase the inclination again. All through 
astronomy instances are met with of these slow and gradual varia- 
tions ; but all are confined within very narrow limits, and instead of 
tending to a total change in the status of the earth or the system to 
which it belongs, they tend to the permanency of the system. 

Now since these two great circles are thus inclined there must be 
two points in which they intersect one another, and these are called 
the equinoctial points, or the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. One 
of these is the first degree in the sign Ay-ies, and the other the first 
in Libra. The first of these, or the vernal equinox, is the most im- 
portant, as it is taken as the fixed point to be employed in measuring- 
distances from, when we want to indicate the place of any body. 
We then take the equinoctial or equator as our base line, and first 
of all measure the distance of any star north or south of that. On a 



300 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



terrestrial globe parallels of latitude, are drawn at distances of ten 
degrees.* It must be remembered that when we speak of degrees of 
latitude what Ave really mean is the inclination, which a straight 
line drawn from the place to the earth's centre would have to the 
plane of the equator. A degree is a measure of an angle, and not of 
a distance. It is well that this point should be clearly understood, 
as mistakes often arise through want of understanding it. Some 
folks will say, " a degree equals somewhat over sixt3'"-nine miles," 
when what they really mean is that at the equator two lines meeting 
at the earth's centre, inclined to one another at this angle, would in- 
clude between them a portion of the earth's surface of that length. 
On Jupiter, or any globe larger than the earth, the amount thus sub- 
tended at the equator would naturally be much greater ; and on the 
other hand, in any small circle which we may draw on a piece of 
paper there is still 360° ; each degree, therefore, is very minute. 

In astronomy, the distance north or south of the equinoctial is 
called the declination of a heavenly body. If now we draw another 
great circle passing through the poles, and also through the star, it 
will intersect the equator in two places, and the one of these on the 
same side as that on which the star is situated will furnish us with 
the other distance required. 

If we examine the equinoctial on a celestial globe, we shall find 
that it is divided into degrees from 0°, to 360°, reckoning from east 
to west, the starting point being the first point of Aries. 

The great circles to which we have referred, as passing through 
the poles perpendicular to the equator, are called meridians, and any 
number of them might be drawn ; usually, however, twenty-four are 
drawn on the globe, their distance apart being fifteen degrees. They 
are then frequently termed hour lines, as the firmament seems to 
move just the interval between two of them in the space of an hour. 

* In figure 98, the line P P represents the earth's 
axis, that is, the diameter of the sphere passing through 
tlie poles P P, and the centre C. The great circle E Q 
represents the equator, the great circle S T the ecliptic; 
the points R and O, where it intersects the equator, 
are called the nodes, and also the equinoctial points; 
and the points S and T, its farthest points north and 
south of the equator, are called the solstices; respect- 
ively the summer and winter solstice. The two small 
circles jM S, and T N, parallel to the equator, are called 
the tropics, that to the north the tropic of Cancer; and 
that to the south the tropic of Capricorn. Now terres- 
trial parallels of latitude are small circles drawn par- 
allel to the earth's equator ; while celestial parallels of 
latitude are drawn on the celestial globe parallel to the ecliptic. The two great circles iM P Q 
N P T E, and R P P (if the latter be conceived as a great cirele at right angles with the 
other), are called respectively the solstitial and equinoctial colures. 




CIRCLES, DEGREES, ETC. 301 

We can obtain a clearer idea of these meridians by taking the globe 
out of its framework, and letting the brass meridian be free to turn 
round on its poles ; we can then bring it over any star or place, and 
it will represent the meridian of that place. We shall likewise be 
able to see on the equator, the distance of its intersection from the 
first point in Aries. This distance is known as the right ascension, 
usually abbreviated thus, R. A. Thus, we see the way in which the 
position of a star is determined, the two measures being its right 
ascension and its declination. Suppose, for example, we wish to 
point out the place of a star in the tip of the tail of the Great Bear, 
we first find it on the globe, and bringing it to the brass meridian, 
we shall find that its elevation above the equinoctial is very nearly 
50°, this is its declination. We now look to the equinoctial, and find 
the point of it directly under the meridian is 204°, or 13 hours, 36 
minutes, from Aries ; and thus vi^e assign its place as 50° north de- 
clination, and 204° right ascension. In a similar way when the right 
ascension and declination are given, the star can be found. 

If we examine a celestial globe we shall find that though the 
mark T, signifying the commencement of the sign Aries, is placed at 
the intersection of the equinoctial and the ecliptic, yet the portion 
of the zodiac commencing at that sign is in reality occupied by the 
constellation Pisces. The stars forming Aries are moved 30° to the 
east, occupying the place assigned to Taurus, and all the other 
zodiacal constellations are moved one sign to the eastward. The cause 
of this is the precession of the equinoxes, which was first discovered 
by Hipparchus in the second century B. C. The points of intersec- 
tion of the equator and the ecliptic, or as they are usually termed 
the nodes, do Jiot remain constantly in the same place, but are slowly 
moving toward the west, that is in a retrograde direction. This was 
first observed by noticing that the right ascensions of all stars were 
slowly and uniformly increasing. This could only be accounted for 
in one of two ways ; either they must all be slowly moving forwards, 
or the point from which we measure their right ascension must be 
moving backwards. The latter of these explanations, being by far the 
most simple, has been adopted. The rate of this motion is but slow, so 
that its effect on the position of the stars from year to year can only 
be ascertained by the most careful and delicate observations. When 
however, we compare the position of a star with that assigned to it 
by observers a few centuiies ago Ave soon become aware of the change. 
The most careful observations fix the annual amount of this motion 
at 50" 2'"; so that the time occupied by the nodes in making a com- 
plete circuit of the heavens would be a little more than 25,900 years. 
* By reckoning backward it is found that the constellations and the 

*In the regrees of the nodee from 0° Anes to 181° in Libra, and then arrain to 0^ Arie>i, those climatic 
changes are occasioned which at certain stages are so disastrons to life. The gradnal progress of 
those changes enables the species to seek more congenial latitudes. Formerly the codes were gener- 
ally said to retrograde 64" in a year, or 15° in 1,00U years. 



302 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

signs of the zodiac coincided with one another about the year 370, 
B.C. Besides this motion of which we have spoken, there is another 
of much smaller amount, which is known as nutation or the noding 
of the pole. It arises from the circumstances that the earth's dis- 
tance from the sun varies at different times of the year, and thus the 
amount of precession varies slightly from day to day. The effect of 
this variation is to cause the pole to describe, in the course of about 
18i 3'ears, a very small ellipse, the longer axis being about 18i", and 
the shorter nearly 14". This motion, combined with the other, 
produces a vibratory or undulatiug movement of the pole ; it is only^ 
however, in very accurate observations that this has to be taken into 
account. One important effect of the precession of the equinoxes is 
to change the pole-star. That at present known by this name is dis- 
tant about 1-^° from the true pole ; its distance is, however, gradually 
diminishing, so that in the course of years it will be within half a 
degree, and it will then commence to recede from it. In about 
12,000 years it is estimated the brilliant star Vega, in the constella- 
tion Lyrse, will be very close to the pole, and serve as a j)ole-star. 

There are also two other points in the ecliptic especially distin- 
guished, and known as the solstitial points. These are situated mid- 
way between the nodes, and are at the commencement of the signs 
Cancer and Capricornus. The term solstitial is derived from the 
Latin sol, the sun, and stare, to stand, and is applied to these points, 
because when the sun reaches them it has attained its greatest north 
or south declination, and appears to stand for a few days before com- 
mencing to retrace its steps. Two great circles are drawn on the 
celestial globe, passing through the poles, the one passing through 
the equinoctial points, and the other through the solstitial points; 
and these are distinguished as the equinoctial and solstitial colures. 
They divide the ecliptic into four equal portions, and mark the divi- 
sions of the seasons of the year. The days on which the sun is at 
the solstices are the 21st of June, and the 21st of December ; and 
these are respectively the longest and the shortest days. 

Two small circles, parallel to the equator, and passing through 
the solstitial points are called the Tropics, that to the north being 
distinguished as the tropic of Cancer, and that to the south as the 
tropic of Capricorn. These, however, are of more importance in the 
use of the terrestrial globe than in that of the celestial. There are 
also two circles situated at a similar distance from the poles which 
mark the limits of the polar regions, from which the sun is sometimes 
hidden for more than a complete day ; that to the north is called the 
Arctic, and that to the south the Antarctic, Circle. 

The most usual way of describing the position of any star in the 



THE HORIZON. 303 

heavens is by giving its declination and right ascension, as described 
above, the distances being reckoned from the equinoctial. Some- 
times, however, these distances are reckoned from the ecliptic, and 
are then called the latitude and longitude. Parallels of latitude, 
circles parallel to the ecliptic, are frequently drawn on celestial globes 
to enable the latitude to be found without difficulty ; the pole of the 
ecliptic is, of course the centre of these circles. Celestial longitude, 
as right ascension, is reckoned from the point Aries, and like it, is 
reckoned only in one direction from 0° to 360°. Terrestial longi- 
tude, on the other hand, is reckoned from 0° to 180° east or west. 
Celestial longitude, therefore, measured from the point Aries on the 
ecliptic, corresponds to right ascension measured from the same point 
on the equinoctial ; and celestial latitude measured from the ecliptic 
north or south, corresponds to declination measured from the equi- 
noctial. 

The Horizon. 

As we shall have sometimes to speak of the horizon, it will be well 
for us distinctly to state what we understand by it, as sometimes there 
is a little confusion on this matter. 

The rational or true horizon is an imaginary plane drawn through 
the centre of the earth, so that the line, where it cuts the surface, is 
everywhere equidistant from the observer. If we take an orange or 
an apple and divide it into two equal portions, or place a ring round 
it, so as to be midway between the eye and the stalk, it will represent 
the horizon. In an ordinary celestial globe, if the poles be elevated 
to the latitude of the place, the situation of the wooden horizon will 
correspond with that of the rational horizon to the observer. Thus, 
it will be seen that if this plane be extended on all sides to the sky 
it will divide it into two exactly equal hemispheres, one of which 
will be visible to the observer. There is, however, another sense in 
which the word horizon is used. When we ascend any height we 
see a line all around us where the earth and sky appear to touch ; 
this is called the sensible or visible horizon. At sea or on a level 
plain this will appear to be a perfect circle ; on land the elevations of 
the country usually interrupt the outline ; still we can perceive that 
it is of a circular form, and that our point of observation is situated 
in the middle of it. The size of this circle increases with our eleva- 
tion above the earth. Hence, when a sailor wants to know if any 
vessel is in sight, he ascends to the mast-head, where his view is 
much more extensive than it is from the deck of the ship. In the 
same way, if we ascend a high mountain, we gain a very extensive 



304 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



view of the surrounding country. If we could' place ourselves at a 
great distance from the earth, as for instance, on the surface of the 
moon, we should see just one half of the globe of the earth, and the 
rational and sensible horizon would then exactly coincide. This, of 
course, cannot be, and the highest elevation ever yet reached by man, 
or that in all probability ever will be attained, is so small, when com- 
pared with the earth's diameter, that only a small portion of our globe 
has ever been visible at once. 

The following general rule will enable us approximately to cal- 
culate the distance of the visible horizon when we know the height 
of the station of observation. Express the height in feet and increase 
it by a half; then extract the square root, and this will give the dis- 
tance in miles. Thus, if a building be 24 feet high, we then add 12 
feet to it, makiag it 36, the square root of which is 6. The visible 
horizon is, therefore, distant six miles. 

Eclipses Explained. 

A dark shadow is occasionally seen to move across the face of the 
moon which obscures her light, and gives her the appearance of tar- 
nished copper. Sometimes this shadow covers only a small portion 
of her disc • at other times it obscures the whole of it for an hour or 

two, and its margin al- 
ways appears in the form 
of the segment of a circle. 
This phenomenon, which 
happens on an average 
about twice every year, 
is tei'med an eclipse of 
the moon. It is produced by the shadow of the earth falling 
upon the moon, when the sun, the earth, and the moon are in 
the same straight line ; the earth being interposed between the 
sun and the moon ; and this can only happen at the time of full 
moon. Sometimes the moon appears to pass across the disc of the 
sun, when her dark side is turned toward the earth, covering his 
disc, either in whole or in part, and intercepting his light from a 
certain portion of the earth. This is called an eclipse of the sun., and 
can happen only at the time of neiu moon, when the moon is inter- 
posed between the sun and the earth. In a total eclipse of the sun, 
which seldom happens, the darkness is so striking that some of the 
planets, and occasionally the larger stars, are seen and the inferior ani- 
mals appear struck Avith terror. 

The theory of lunar eclipses will readily be understood by refer- 
ence to the annexed figures. In figure 99, S represents the sun and 




ECLIPSES. 



305 



E tlie earth, whose shadow is a long cone reaching into space. This 
dark shadow is called the umhra, and it gradually shades off into the 
penumbra, which is bounded by the lines B D, A F, and tapers toward 
the earth instead of away from it ; M represents the moon revolving 
round the earth, and on its journey it sometimes passes through the 
dark cone and becomes for a time invisible. The commencement is 
marked by a faint shade, beginning to creep over the east side of the 
moon's disc. This is the first contact with the penumbra. As the 
moon travels onwards it enters the umbra, and the east side of its 
disc then becomes almost invisible. When fully immersed in the um- 
bra, the moon may usually be feebly seen, and appears of a ruddy hue. 
The duration of a total eclipse of the moon may be as great as 1 hour 

IHBBJ^^^^BBhBBJ 50 minutes. This is when the moon passes 
^H^BHH^n^^H directly through the middle of the umbra. 
J|B^^H|^^H0^^| At other times it passes near the edge, 

and is the7i obscured for only a short 
period. When it passes through the cen- 
tre of the shadow the total duration, from 
the first contact to the last, may be 5^ 
hours. 

Figure 100 shows at one view the phe- 
nomena of both lunar and solar eclipses. 
The solar eclipse represented here is an an- 
nular one, as the shadow of the moon ter- 
minates at m before it reaches the earth. 
A moment's careful inspection of this dia- 
gram will show that an eclipse of the sun 
can only take place at the period of the 
new moon, as the enlightened hemisphere 
is turned away from the earth; and that an 
eclipse of the moon, on the other hand, can 
only occur at full moon. The reason why 
eclipses do not happen at every new and 
full moon is that the moon's orbit is inclin- 
ed to the earth's orbit at an angle of 5 ° 9' ; 
so that during one half of its journey, the 
moon is below the plane of the ecliptic, and 
in the other above it. Now the earth's 
shadow is in the same plane as its orbit, and 
hence at the period of full moon the shadow 
I may be above or below the moon, and in 
either case no eclipse will occur. The 
points in Avhich these planes intersect are 
20 




806 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

known as the nodes, and hence there is an eclipse of the moon 
Avhenever a full moon happens at or near one of the nodes. In 
a similar way a solar eclipse occurs when the moon is near one of the 
nodes at the time of new moon. The position of the nodes of the moon's 
orbit is continually changing, at the rate of 19 ° 20' 1-3 minutes in a 
year ; so that they perform a complete revolution in a trifle less than 
ISj'ears and 219 days. After an interval of 346.62 days, they come 
again into the same position in regard to the sun : and this period 
is called a synodical revolution of the node. Now it happens that 19 
of these periods are almost exactl}^ equal to 223 synodical revolutions 
of the moon ; so that after this interval the sun, earth and moon, are 
again almost in the same relative position and the same series of 
eclipses is therefore repeated. This period of 6,585 days, or 18 years 
and 10 days, is called a cycle of the moon. It was known to the an- 
cients and called the Saros, and by means of it eclipses were roughly 
calculated before any great progress had been made in the science of 
astronom}-. 

Conjunction and Ojjposition. 

When a heavenlj" body is said to be in conjunction it is meant that 
the body is in a line with the sun and the earth, either between the 
earth and the sun, or having the sun interposed between it and the 
earth. "When the body is between the earth and sun it is in its in- 
ferior conjunction ; when on the other side of the sun from the earth 
it is in its superior conjunction. When a body is said to be in opposi- 
tion it is meant that it is in a line with the sun, and the earth, the earth 
being interposed between it and the sun. The planets whose orbits lie 
between the earth's orbit and the sun. Mercury and Venus, have each 
two conjunctions, one inferior, or when either of them happens to be 
in a line between the earth and the sun; the other superior, or when 
they are in that part of their orbit that lies beyond the sun from the 
earth, in a line with the earth and sun ; but these have no opposi- 
tion. The superior planets, or those whose orbits lie without that 
of the earth have each one conjunction, the superior, and one oppo- 
sition. The moon, whose movements are round the earth as a cen- 
tre, and always accompanying the earth in its journe}' round the sun, 
has one conjunction, at new moon, the inferior ; and one opposition, 
at full moon. 

Proofs of the Earth's Annual Motion. 

Now the annual motion of the earth and its position in the solar 
system are proved and illustrated by such considerations as the fol- 
lowing : That if this motion did not exist, the motions of all the 



earth's annual motion. 307 

planets would present a scene of inextricable confusion, consisting 
of direct and retrograde movements, and looped curves so anomalous 
and irregular as to be altogether inconsistent with anything like 
harmony, order, or intelligence : That Mercury and Venus have two 
conjunctions with the sun, but no opposition, which could not hap- 
pen did not the orbits of these planets lie within that of the earth : 
That Mars, Jupiter, and all the other superior planets, have each 
their conjunctions with, and oppositions to the sun, which could not 
take place unless their orbits were exterior to that of the earth : 
That the greatest elongation (apparent distance) of Mercury from 
the Sun is only about 29*^, and that of Venus 48° ; but if the earth 
were the centre of their motions, as the Ptolemaic system, and some 
other systems suppose, they might sometimes be seen 180° from the 
sun, or in opposition to him, which never happens : That some of 
the planets appear much larger and brighter at some times than at 
others on account of their different distances from the earth ; but on 
the other hypothesis, their brilliancy and apparent size would be 
always about the same : That Mercury and Venus in their superior 
conjunctions with the sun, are sometimes hid behind his body, and 
in their inferior conjunctions sometimes appear to pass across the 
disc of the sun like round black spots, which would be impossible 
according to the Ptolemaic system : And in short, that the times in 
which the conjunctions and oppositions, stations (or when the plan- 
ets are in that part of their orbit in relation to the earth and sun in 
which they appear to be stationary), and retrogrations (or when the 
planets are iu that part of their orbits in relation to the sun and 
earth, in which they appear to go backward), happen are not such as 
they would be if the earth were at rest in the centre of their motions, 
but precisely such as would happen if the earth move along with all 
the other planets in the stations and periods assigned them in a system 
Avhich has the sun for its centre. For as the sun is intended to cheer 
and irradiate surrounding worlds, it is most fit that those agencies 
and influences should proceed from the centre of the system from 
which they are communicated in an uniform and equable mode to 
the planets in every part of their orbits. Were the earth the centre 
of the system and the sun and planets revolving around it, the plan- 
ets, when nearest the sun, would be scorched with excessive heat ; 
and when farthest distant would Ije frozen with excessive cold. 

Tliere is another potent consideration by whicli the earth's revo- 
lutio7i, and its position in the system, are demonstrated, and that is 
that the inferior planets Mercury and Venus, when viewed through 
moderately good telescopes, are found to assume different phases in 
different parts of their orbits. Sometimes they appear as a crescent, 



308 CREATOE AND COSMOS. 

sometimes with a gibbous phase, sometimes like a half moon, or 
having a full enlightened hemisijhere, which could not happen if they 
revolved around the earth as their centre of motion, and if the earth 
were not situated in an orbit exterior to theirs. This can be illus- 
trated with peculiar effect by means of an equatorial telescope and a 
planetarium. Having placed the Earth and Venus in their true po- 
sitions on the planetarium by means of an ephemeris (a little book 
showing the positions, etc., of the planets for every day in the year), 
or the Nautical Almanac, the observer should place his eye in a line 
with the balls representing these planets, and mark the phases of 
Venus as seen from the earth, whether a crescent, a half moon, or a 
gibbous phase. He should tlien adjust the equatorial telescope for 
Venus, if she be within the range of view, and he will see the planet 
with the same phase in the heavens. This exhibition never fails to 
gratify and convince the observer. But it can seldom be done if we 
must wait until the planet be visible to the naked eye and capable 
of being viewed with a common telescope ; for it is sometimes invis- 
ible to the naked eye for nearly one-half of its course from one con- 
junction to another. Besides, the phases of this planet are more 
distinctly marked in the day time, when it is near the meridian, than 
either in the morning or evening, when at a low elevation, in which 
case it appears glaring and undefined on account of the brillianc}^ of 
its light, and the undulating vapors near the horizon through which 
it must then be viewed. With an equatorial telescope of a jjower 
of 60 or 80 times, most of the stars of the first magnitude and some 
of those of the second, can be seen even at noonday. Venus may 
be seen with this instrument in the day time during the space of 19 
months, with the interruption of only about 13 days at the time of 
her superior conjunction, and 8 days at the time of her inferior ; so 
that the phase she exhibits may be seen almost ever}^ clear day. 

Admitting then that the earth is of globular form, as doubtless 
all our readers are now prepared to do, it necessarily follows that it 
may be inhabited on every side, and consequently that those who 
live on opposite sides of the globe must have the soles of their feet 
pointing towards each other, and their heads pointing in opposite 
directions ; and that if by any motive power acting from the earth's 
interior, they should be carried forward in the directions to which 
th'cir heads point, and the power to be continued in operation they 
would never meet during all eternity. This would result from the 
gradual and equal expansion of the earth on all sides by the opera- 
tion of some expanding force in the interior, of which supposed cir- 
cumstances we have spoken before. It also follows that could we 
suppose a hole bored through the earth's centre, commencing at the 



PHENOMENA ARISING FROM THE EARTh's MOTION. 



309 



point where we now stand, and extending to the opposite side, it 
would terminate at our antipodes, and would measure nearly eight 
thousand miles. It likewise is most evident that this terraqueous 
globe is either at rest in empty space or is moving round its axis 
every day, and with immense velocity round the sun every year. 
If we suppose the earth in a quiescent state in empty space, we have 
presented to our view a globe containing two hundred and sixty- 
four millions of cubical miles resting upon nothii:ig, and surrounded 
with the immense bodies of the universe with no visible support to 
prevent it from sinking into the depth of infinity. If we suppose it 
to be revolving round its axis and at the same time round the sun, a 
globe of the huge dimensions now stated, moving Avith a velocity of 
over a thousand miles an hour round its circumference, and of at 
least sixty-eight thousand miles an hour in its course round the sun, 
without ever intermitting its speed a single moment, we have pre- 
sented to us a view sublime and astonishing indeed, but not anything 
more so than what we see in the case of other heavenly bodies of a 
thousand times larger dimensions, and a view a great deal more rea- 
sonable than that of supposing it at rest in space with all the huge 
bodies of the universe revolving round it as their centre. It is plain, 
however, that whichever of these suppositions we hold to be the true 
one, an astonishing and sublime idea is conveyed to our mind. 

Plienomena arising from, the EartKs motion. 



First : if the earth revolve round the sun once every year, it is 
evident that the sun will appear to make a revolution round the 

heavens in the same time. In ^-^ 

the figure let' S represent the sun 

in the centre, and A B C D, the 

earth, in four positions ; and let 

us suppose the earth to move in 

the order of the letters A B C D ; ^^ 

it is evident that when the earth H=SDifA 

is at A, the sun will appear in ^^ ' 

that part of the heavens in which 

the stars at G are situated. 

When the earth has moved to 

B, the sun will appear to have 

moved to the stars opposite to 

H. And, in like manner, when 

the earth has moved to C, the sun Avill appear opposite to E. And 

when it has moved to D, the sun will appear at F. And when the 




310 CREATOR AJSTD COSMOS. 

earth has moved to A, the sun will again appear at G. And, as 
the earth revolves round the sun in the orbit A B C D, so the sun 
will appear to a spectator on the earth, to describe the circle in the 
heavens, E F G H. Hence it is that we see the sun gradually pro- 
ceeding in his course round the concave of the sky from west to east, 
at the rate of nearly one degree every day, through the twelve signs 
or constellations of the zodiac. And at the end of a year he returns 
to the same point from which he set out. Hence, also, it follows, that, 
if the plane of the earth's orbit be conceived to be extended to the 
heavens, it will cut the stariy firmament in that very circle in which 
a spectator in the sun would see the earth revolve every year, while 
an inhabitant of the earth observes the sun to go through the same 
circle in the same space of time. This circle, then, is called the 
ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun, the real path of the earth 
through the heavens. And, although the path of the sun, and the 
particular stars he is passing along, cannot be seen in the day-time, 
yet, by observing the stars which are directly opposite to him at 
night, we can tell at anj time what particular stars the sun is pass- 
ing along at every point of his course. 

The inhabitants of all the other planets will perceive different 
motions in the sun as we observe, but performed in different periods 
of time, according to the times of their annual revolutions. An in- 
habitant of the planet Mars, for example, Avould see the sun appar- 
ently revolving round him in the heavens in the space of about one 
year and ten nionths. The circle which the sun would appear to him 
to describe would not be very different from that of the earth, as the 
inclination of his axis to the plane of his orbit is not very different 
from that of the earth to the plane of the ecliptic. An inhabitan' 
of the planet Jupiter would see the sun apparently revolving around 
him describing a circle in the heavens in the space of twelve years. 
This circle would not be exactly the same as our ecliptic, because the 
orbit of this planet is somewhat inclined to that of the earth; but it 
would pass very near it. In the space of one of our years the sun 
from Jupiter would appear to pass through onl}^ a twelfth part of the 
circumference of the heavens. The sun from Saturn will appear to 
move in another circle in twenty-nine and a half years ; from Uranus, 
in another circle, in about eighty-four years, from Neptune in one 
hundred and sixty four and three fourth years ; and a spectator in 
Venus Avill see the sun moving in a circle different from all these 
with greater apparent rapidity, in the space of seven and a-half months. 
All these apparent motions of the sun arise from the real motions of 
the respective planets. Secondly ; the annual motion of the earth 
shows whj^ we behold one set of stars in our firmament at one season 



PHENOMENA ARISING EKOM THE EARTH'S MOTION. 311 

of the year, and another set of stars at a diflferent season. For example, 
the stars and constellations which, in our northern latitudes, are 
seen in the south during the winter months, are altogether 
different from those which are seen in summer ; and those stars 
which surround the pole in the north, and which never set, if 
they are below the pole in winter, they will be seen as far above 
the pole in summer. At the equator, where all the stars north 
and south rise and set, the stars which are seen in the middle of 
winter are all completely different from those that are seen at the 
same hoiir in the middle of summer. This is easily explainable by 
the preceding diagram, in which the earth, in four situations in its 
orbit, appears half enlightened and half in the dark, representing 
day and night. When it is at A, the sun will appear at noon at G, 
and obscure all the stars in the hemisphere F G H ; when, as at mid- 
night, the point of the heavens E will be in the meridian, and all the 
stars in the other hemisphere, F E H, will be visible. Three months 
afterwards wlien the earth comes to the situation B, the sun at noon 
will be seen at H, and all the heavens, G H E, will be day, illuminat- 
ed by the sun ; and over all the other half, E F G, the stars will shine 
at night ; consequently, the stars in the quarter F G will now be 
visible, which, in the former position, were obscured by the sun ; and 
those in the quarter H E, formerly visible will become obscured by 
daylight. In like manner when the earth is at C, the heavens H E F 
will be day, and F G H night, when all the stars which were obscured 
when the earth was at A, will not be visible. And, lastly, when the 
earth is at D, the stars and constellations in the hemisphere E F G will 
be obscured by the light of the sun, and those on G H E will be visible 
during the night. Hence all who are accustomed to observe the 
heavens will have seen that the bright constellation Orion, the bril- 
liant star Sirius, which follows it, and the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, 
which are visible in the southern sk} during the winter and the ap- 
proach of spring, are never seen during the summer months, because 
the sun is then illuminating that portion of the firmament Avherethey 
are situated ; but, being above the horizon in the day-time, they may 
be seen by means of equatorial telescopes. 

By observation of the starry heavens we find that the stars never 
alter their positions in relation to each other. The}^ appear to move 
around us in one compact body as the figures of the constellations do 
on a celestial globe, when that instrument is turned round its axis ; 
but the stars of one constellation never approach or move aAvay from 
those of another. If, for example, we direct our attention to tlie 
stars of the Great Bear in the northern sk}^ Ave shall find that at all 
hours of the day and night, and at every season of the year they pre- 



312 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

seat the same definite figure, and maintain the same relative positions 
to each other, without any sensible variation of distance or magnitude ; 
and the same may be observed from one year to another. Hence, as 
before mentioned, they are usually denominated the " Fixed Stars." 
But when we examine the heavens with more care and minuteness 
we occasionally perceive a few bodies, having the appearance of stars 
which when carefully watched for a few weeks or months, are found 
shifting their positions with relation to the surrounding stars. In 
most cases their movements are toward the East, but not unfrequently 
toward the West ; and at certain times no motion can be observed 
for a considerable number of days. The bodies which are thus per- 
ceived to change their positions among the stars are called planets, 
which word, as before mentioned, means " Wandering stars." Until 
very recently there were only ten bodies of this description known 
to astronomers, and the paths of these had been traced in the heavens 
and their motions accurately ascertained. Nearly one hundred of 
these bodies, all of them of small dimensions, have lately been dis- 
covered in the space intervening between Mars and Jupiter. Five of 
the planets are visible to the naked eye, and these were known to 
the ancients, who gave them the following names, derived from the 
heathen mythology : Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn ; 
and if we count the Earth in it makes six. By long and careful in- 
vestigations of the phenomena and motions of these planets, astron- 
omers have ascertained that they all move round the sun, as the centre 
of their motions ; and along with the earth, the minor planets and 
the moons form one grand and harmonious system with which we are 
intimately connected, and which is called the solar system. 

The following is a list of the principle bodies of this group, in 
their order in space ; First the Sun, the common centre around which 
the planets all revolve ; Vulcan, a planet very recently said to be 
discovered, but whose existence is as yet by some considered doubt- 
ful, Mercur}^ and Venus ; which all are distinguished as the inferior 
planets, their orbits being included within that of the earth ; the 
Earth, and the superior planets ; i\Iars, the minor planets or asteroids, 
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. There are also many second- 
ary planets or moons, as well as comets, which are reckoned as 
belonging to this system : besides there may be many other planetary 
bodies in it ; doubtless there are many, that yet remain undis- 
covered. 

As we enquire more particularly into the movements of these 
bodies Ave discover many striking points of similarity. They all move 
round the sun in the same direction, and in elliptical paths of no 
great eccentricity. They are all opaque bodies, like the earth, shin- 



THE SUN. 313 

ing only by reflected light ; and all rotate on their axes, so as to pro- 
duce the alternation of day and night. Their orbits, too, are all in- 
clined to the plane of the ecliptic or earth's orbit. The following is 
a method by which we may obtain a tolerably correct idea of their 
comparative magnitudes and distances, and the relative dimensions 
of their orbits. Select a large, clear space, and place nearly in the 
centre, a ball of about two feet in diameter to I'epresent the sun ; 
Vulcan will then, supposing such a body to be really existing, be rep- 
resented by a small pin's head 27 feet from the globe ; Mercury by 
■a mustard seed 82 feet distant ; Venus by a pea at a distance of 142 
feet; the earth by a pea of about the same size, or slightly lai'ger, at 
■a distance of 215 feet ; Mars by a large pin's head at a distance of 
327 feet : the minor planets or Asteroids by very small grains of sand 
between 500 and 600 feet distant ; an orange of about 2i inches 
diameter, and 1120 feet distant, will represent Jupiter ; one about 2 
inches in diameter and distant two-fifths of a mile will stand for 
Saturn ; a full-sized cherr}^ three quarters of a mile distant, Uranus ; 
and a plum, a mile and a quarter off, for Neptune. On this scale 
the distance of the nearest fixed star is reckoned at 7,500 miles. 

The Sun. 

As the sun is by far the largest of these bodies we shall treat 
of him first ; and the question which at once suggests itself is, what 
is the distance of this body ? The accurate solution of this question 
is found to be one of the most important problems in astronomy, as 
this distance is taken as the measure for determining the distances 
and magnitudes of the other heavenly bodies. Thei'e has always 
been great difficulty experienced in determining the distance of the 
sun, owing to the fact that the earth's diameter, being so small com- 
pared with the sun's distance, did not afford a base line of sufficient 
length for a triangle by which the sun's parallax, and thence his dis- 
tance, might be obtained. There has however, been obtained what 
is considered as a near approximation to it, by means of obser- 
vations taken of tlie transits of Venus. A< a result of these 
observations tlie sun's mean distance is determined to be about 
91,430,000 miles. Until recently the sun's distance has been taken 
at 95,000,000 miles ; but subsequent investigations have shown an 
error in these measurements. The numbers here given, however, 
are only given as approximations subject to future correction. 
The next transit of Venus, is anxiously awaited to settle the 
question decisively. It may be remembered, too, that the distance 
given above is the mean, the difference between the minimum and 



314 CKEATOE AND COSMOS. 

maximum being about 3,000,000 miles. Having ascertained the dis- 
tance of the sun, and knowing its apparent diameter to be about 32', 
a little over half a degree, we obtain his real magnitude by a simple 
proportion ; and in this way we find his diameter to be, in miles, 
about 853,000, or more than one hundred and eight times that of the 
earth. The sun's volume is so great that it would require over 1,300,- 
000 globes of the size of the earth to be rolled into one to equal it ; 
and it is computed to be 450 times as large as all the known planets 
which revolve around it taken together. Its surface contains more 
than 12,000 times the number of square miles on our globe. The 
reason Avhy the sun appears so small to our eyes, although being a 
globe of such immense magnitude, is owing to its great distance 
from our world. This distance may be illustrated somewhat as fol- 
lows : It would require a cannon ball, though flying continually vs^ith 
a velocity of 500 miles an hour, 21 years before it could reach the 
sun. Suppose a steam carriage to set out from the earth in the di- 
rection of the sun, and to move without intermission at the rate of 
twenty miles an hour, it would require over 520 years before it had 
traversed the Avhole space which intervenes between us and that 
luminary. How wonderful then that the sun at such a distance 
should exert his attractive power upon the earth, raise the tides in 
the oceans, and diffuse light, heat, color, and animation over all its 
region? I Some idea can be formed of its light and heat when Ave 
remember the enormous distance at which we are from its surface, 
and the degree, notwithstanding this, to which we feel its power and 
influence. Its light is computed to be equal to that of 5,500 standard 
candles placed at a distance of a foot from the given surface to be 
illuminated. We naturally want to know something more about 
the ph3^sical properties of this wonderful and stupendous orb ; but 
we are to a great extent baffled in this enquiry, just as we are in re- 
gard to the exact physical properties of the bodies which make up 
the earth's interior ; though many great and imjjortant discoveries 
have been recently made by means of spectrum analysis. In this 
way it has been ascertained that many of the metals present in the 
earth are also present in the sun. 

When pieces of very dark glass are placed in front of the eye-piece 
of a telescope, so as to screen the ej'^e from the intense glare of the 
sun, its surface may be carefully examined, and it is found to present 
an appearance by no means uniform. Many dark spots termed 
maculae are found at times to exist on its surface. See figures 102 and 
103. The centre of these is usually of a very dark color, and is sur- 
rounded by a margin much lighter in appearance which is known as 
the penumbra. These spots are very irregular in shape, and frequently 



& 



THE sujsr. 



31,' 



change in size or disappear altogether. This may in the main be ac- 
counted for by the rotation of the sun on his axis, by which different 
portions of his surface are presented to the earth in succession. The 
spots appear first on his eastern margin, at which time they appear 
narrow and somewhat obscure ; they move gradually onward to the 




Fig. 102. 



'S> a ^ 



WJ 






Fig. 103. 



316 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

centre of the disc, when they appear larger and more distinct : after- 
wards they proceed toward the western margin, where they again 
appear narrow and obscure ; and after a period of about 13 days from 
their first appearance on the eastern edge, they disappear from the 
western limb ; and, in many cases, they again appear on the eastern 
limb, after the same period of 13 days. But they are frequently 
somewhat changed in their aspect before they reappear; and in num- 
erous instances, after disappearing from the sun's western boundary, 
they are never again visible in the same shape ; but other spots at 
uncertain intervals, are seen diversifying the solar disc ; though not 
unfrequently scarcely a single spot is to be seen on the whole sur- 
face of the sun. The spots appearing narrower and less distinct on 
the eastern and western limbs, is owing to our viewing obliquely 
those parts of the sun's surface. The conclusions which may be de- 
duced from these circumstances are : 1st. That the sun is a globe 
and not a flat surface, as it appears to the naked eye ; otherwise the 
spots would appear equally large and distinct on every part of its 
surface : 2nd. That this luminar}^ moves round his axis in the same 
direction as the rotation of the planets ; for its spots do not alter 
their places on its disc, but are carried along with the whole body 
of the sun. The time of the apparent revolution of these spots is 27 
days, 8 hours ; but the real period of the sun's rotation on its axis is 
25 days, 7 hours, and 48 minutes ; and therefore, the spaces about 
the sun's equator move at the rate of 4,407 miles an hour. * 

The solar spots are of different sizes, and of different shapes. 
Their dimensions vary from the ^xio'^h to the 3^o"th of the sun's diameter. 
The smallest of these spots which can be distinctly seen are nearly 
1000 miles in diameter. Spots the g^oth part of the sun's diameter, 
which are frequently seen, are 17,600 miles in diameter, or more than 
double the diameter of the earth ; and if the spot be considered only 
as a plane, and somewhat circular, it will contain a considerably 
greater area than the whole terraqueous globe, and sometimes a spot 
of this vast size disappears in a few weeks not unfrequently in a 
few days. Sometimes no spot is to be seen on the solar disc for weeks 
and even for months together ; at other times, over a hundred spots 
of different sizes are dispersed over its surface at one time. In such 
cases, there are generally five or six large spots such as that alluded 
to above, accompanied with ten, fifteen, or twenty smaller spots ; but 
after disappearing at the sun's western limb, it is seldom they come 
round again in the same order as before. Some appear to have been 



* This is obtained by dividing the sun's circumference 2,679,785 miles by the number of 
hours in which the rotation is performed, namely 608; and the quotient is the rate of motion 
per hour. 



THE SOLAR SPOTS. 317 

altogether dissipated, and others to have changed their shape and rel- 
ative positions to surrounding spots in which they formerly appeared. 
Some of these spots of considerably larger dimensions than the earth, 
containing three or four hundred millions of square miles, occasion- 
ally appear and vanish in the space of 48 hours. The parts of the 
sun's surface where these spots most frequently appear, are those 
which lie adjacent to its equatorial regions ; no spots being ever seen 
near its northern or southern poles. In some years these spots 
appear in great numbers, and seldom a week passes without a few of 
them being seen while in other years comparatively few are visible. 
Careful records have been kept of their appearance. 

They are found to diminish in frequency for about five or five and 
a half years, when the number is at a minimum, the surface being then 
free from them on more than half of the days of observation. They 
then increase again in number for the next five and a half years; 
and thus their period appears to be about eleven years. A remark- 
able fact has been noted in connection with this, and that is that the 
daily variation of the magnetic needle is found to have a precisely 
similar period, and to increase or diminish with the increase or dimi- 
nution of the number of spots. Other phenomena seem further to 
show that there is an intimate relationship existing between the 
movements of the magnetic needle and the sun. Further observa- 
tions will doubtless reveal to us more of this natural bond, and new 
, discoveries on the subject are frequently being made. 

Besides the dark spots, which we have now described, there are 
spots which display a bright and mottled appearance, and which it 
is difficult in most cases to distinguish from the real body of the sun. 
These are termed faculoe. They are chiefly to be seen when they first 
appear on the eastern margin of the sun, and when they approach 
near the western limb ; but they are rarely seen near the middle of 
the disc. They are most generally seen in connection with clusters 
of dark spots, and when they are first seen near the eastern limb they 
frequently indicate that dark spots are about to appear. They appear 
like luminous mountain ranges, plainly indicating that the sun is 
not a smooth surface, but is diversified with elevations and depres- 
sions, or in other words, with mountains and vales of stupendous 
dimensions ; otherwise we could by no means perceive them at the 
immense distance at which they are placed from us. 

Recent telescopic investigations, however, show that, beside the 
markings of which we have spoken, the whole surface of the sun has 
somewhat a mottled appearance. According to Nasmyth it presents 
an appearance as if it were covered over with scattered filaments, 
shaped like willow leaves. The whole question of the physical con- 



318 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



stitution of the sun is now engaging the attention of many astronom- 
ers. A total eclipse of that body presents a good opportunity for 
the observation of many points, and among the most remarkable 
features in connection with these phenomena is the presence of dark 
flames or protuberances surrounding the dark body of the moon at 
the moment of total obscuration. These have recently been seen at 
other times also, and are believed by some to be connected with the 
solar atmosphere. They probably arise from certain portions of the 
sun being for the present more combustible, and in a state of more 
intense incandescence than others. 

The question will naturally suggest itself — if the sun is continu- 
ally in a state of combustion, will it not at some time be consumed? 
A knowledge of chemistry will go far toward answering such a ques- 
tion as this. Bodies while undergoing combustion are also under- 
going chemical decomposition, or a separation of their component 
parts into their primary elements, but not a single particle of them is 




Fig. 104. ECLIPSE OF THE SUK, JULY .18, 1860. 

lost by the process. Light is only a manifestation which attends 
combustion, and is equally attendant upon the combination as upon 
the separation of chemical elements ; the matter of the body under- 
going combustion, unless what residuum there may be from it, is 
resolved into gaseous elements wliich ascend to the level of their 
gravitation in their atmosphere, and there float, until, perhaps, re- 
combining with other chemical elements for which they have an 
affinity, they thus return to the surface of their sphere again, it may 
be — as in the case of the earth's atmosphere they do — in the form of a 
meteor, but in some way or other they eventually return to the surface 



"WILL THE SUN EVER BE CONSUMED ? 319 

of their spheres, not a particle of them being lost by the manifestation 
of light. By this it is understood that the elements of the sun in 
connection with which light is manifested, may go on separating and 
recombining under the influence of combustion* without any actual 
waste or exhaustion of matter, as long as the want of equilibrium 
between his elements makes combustion to be a consequence of their 
contact. The constitution of the sun appears to be of such a nature, 
and such is the yjurpose which it answers in the system, that it may 
have ever existed and may ever exist luminous. Albeit, what hin- 
ders that during certain periods of the past our system may not have 
been enlightened by some other luminous body ? 

According to Sir Wm. Herschell's estimate the atmosphere of the 
sun is not less than 1840 and not more than 2760 miles in depth. 
This he regards as the outermost coating of the sun, or his visible 
surface ; and under this superior stratum he conceived there is another, 
more dense and highly reflective, which throws back the light of the 
upper regions, and that this lower atmosphere constitutes the umbra 
of the spots, and that the dark central parts of the spots or the nu- 
clei, are part of the solid matter of which the sun's body is composed. 
According to such views the globe of the sun may be regarded as of 
considerable density, not altogether unlike the earth and the other 
planets, and not a very great portion of its surface, compai-atively 
speaking, as being in a state of combustion ; and there is no improb- 
ability in supposing it to be inhabited Avith sensitive and intelligent 
beings having constitutions adapted for their situation ; and it may 
constitute the most glorious habitation connected with the solar 
system. It is evident, however, whatever may be the real nature and 
constitution of this luminary, from the rapid and extensive changes 
which are seen to take place in connection with the spots on his sur- 
face that there are forces of prodigious power in continual operation 
there, producing the most astonishing effects in short spaces of time. 
And such changes are doubtless necessary for preserving the present 
state of the sun, for enabling him to diffuse light and heat, and to 
act as the soul of surrounding worlds. This magnificent luminary 
is the great source of light and heat and color to our Avorld ; and to 
all the planetary globes, with their satellites and rings, which belong 
to our system. By its influence it cheers, animates, and adorns a 
retinue of worlds; by its attractive energy it directs their motions, 
and confines them all to their proper paths, so that none can wander 



* There are, however, some who douot consider the sun's light to arise from combustion. 
Anioii"; these were Sir Wm. Herschell and Humboldt who supposed the sun's outer atmos- 
phere to be in a state of permanent luminosity, by means of electric or magnetic agency, 
that is to say, the sun's light would be somewhat after the nature of a continnal " Northern 
Light." 



320 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

from their course or interfere with the others. Without the influence 
of this luminary darkness and all its gloomy accompaniments would 
involve our world ; the beauties which adorn the face of nature 
would nowhere be seen ; the warbling of the birds would not be 



Fig. 105- 

heard; the flowers would not be decked in their gay colors, nor shed 
their rich perfumes ; our earth would be a hideous chaos. Can we 
reflect therefore upon the grandeur and magnitude of this luminary, 
and the manifold beneficial eff"ects which it produces in our world, 
without raising our thoughts to Him who ap)points it for this purpose I 
In all our surveys and contemplations of nature it becomes us to 
raise our thoughts from the effect to the cause, from the creature to 
the Creator, — for God is the Creator of the solar light, as of all other 
creatures, — and to give Him the glory due to His name. 
The Planet Vulcan. 
We now pass on to notice the planets which revolve in ceaseless 
courses round the sun. About fourteen years ago Le Verrier, a French 
astronomer, having veiy carefully examined the movements of the 
planet Mercury, found in it a slight variation which he could account 
for only by supposing that the mass of the planet Venus was incor- 
rectly ascertained, or else that there was a planet revolving round the 
sun in an orbit within that of Mercury. He published some state- 
ments to this effect in the hope that some further light might be 
thrown on the matter. It must be remembered, however, that Mer- 
cury itself, which until now was coijsidered the nearest planet to the 
sun, can only be seen at occasional intervals, and then with difficulty, 
on account of its apparent proximity' to the sun; and that, therefore, a 
planet much nearer to the sun would never appear far enough removed 
from that body to be clearly discerned. Almost the only opportunity 
of observing it then would be when it should be in transit. As sooji 
as Le Verrier had published his statement a French physician, named 
Lescarbault, announced that on the 26th of March, 1859, he had seen 
a small body pass across the sun, but had not liked to announce the 
fact before, no other observer having called attention to it. Le 



THE PLANKT VULCAN. 



32L 



Verrier at once saw him and carefully enquired into the matter. At 
first he thought the whole affair was a delusion ; but after question- 
ing the physician, and enquiring as to the apparatus he had used, he 
became convinced that he had indeed discovered a new planet, which 
was then called Vulcan. From this one observation no very decisive 
details could be drawn so as to calculate its orbit accurately ; its 
distance from the sun was, however, set down at about 14,000,000 
miles, and its time of revolution in its orbit at a period of a little 
under twenty days. It was conjectured that a second transit 
might be observed in March, 1860 ; but though a careful Avatch 
was kept it was not seen; nor has it, that we have learned, been 
seen again up to the present time, excepting that was it which was 
observed by Mr. Lumniis of Manchester, England, on March 20th, 1862, 
when he saw a black spot pass across the sun's disc, and conjectured 
it might be a planet in transit. Instances have also been previously 
recorded of spots resembling planets being seen on the sun ; and 
future observations will perhaps show, that the planet really exists, 
as well as some others, in that luminous space, and that these have 
been transits. Astronomers, however, do not pronounce definitely 
either way as to the alleged planet, and are only awaiting the results 
of future investigations concerning it. 

.NEPTUNE The Planet Mercuey. 

This planet has been 
known from the earliest ages 
of astronomy of which we 
have any records. This 
speaks well for the research 
of the early astronomers ; 
for, owing to its small size, 
and its proximity to the sun, 
it is very difficult to obtain 
a satisfactory view of this 
planet. It is said that the 
celebrated Copernicus, al- 
though the greatest part of 
his life was devoted to the 
study of the heavens, never 
once succeeded in obtaining a 
view of this orb. The great- 
est distance at which it can 
ever be from the sun is 29°, 
.^. .„.,,. .. , and sometimes its elongation, 

Diagram illustrating the relative positions, etc., of , . , . 

the sun, planets, and planetoids. before it begins tO return, IS, 

21 




322 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Bot more than 16J°. The mean distance of Mercury from the sun is 
nearly 35,390,000 miles. Its eccentricity, that is, the distance from 
the centre of its orbit to the centre of the sun, being very great 
(about seven millions of miles), its distance varies between 28,000,- 
000 and 43,000,000 miles. It performs its journey round the sun in 
a trifle over 87 days, so that its year is less than a fourth the length 
of ours. Its speed in its orbit is far greater than that of any of the 
other known planets ; being computed to be at an average 109,800 
miles an hour, or 1,830 miles a minute ; hence in the ancient my- 
thology Mercury was represented with wings to his feet : and his 
mane is said to signify "the swift messenger." This planet is 
but small, its diameter being reckoned at 2,960 miles, or rather more 
than one-third that of the earth. Hence its circumference, or a line 
extending quite round it, would measure about 9,299 miles ; and the 
number of square miles on its surface would be nearly 27,525,040. 
Its period of rotation round its axis is 24 hours 64 minutes, and thus 
it clearly resembles the earth as to the length of its day. A transit 
of this planet occurs whenever it is in one of the nodes (that is, at 
the point where its orbit intersects that of the earth), at the time 
of an inferior conjunction. The next time this will occur will be on 
the 6th of May, 1878. If the orbit of this planet were in the same 
plane with that of the earth it would transit the sun's disc at every 
inferior conjunction, or three or four times every year. But as its 
orbit is inclined to the ecliptic a transit can happen only when it 
comes to the inferior conjunction at the time when it is at or near its 
nodes, and when the earth is in the same longitude ; and this occurs 
only at intervals of several years. This planet exhibits phases cor- 
responding to those of the moon. On account of its proximity to the 
sun few discoveries have been made on its surface by the telescope. 
It has been observed, however, that when it appears as a crescent 
one of its horns is truncated, or cut off at the point, by which tlie 
period of the planet's rotation round its axis has been deteimined. 
This truncature is doubtless the effect of elevations and depressions 
on its surface ; and hence some astronomers have concluded that 
mountains of considerable height exist on Mercury, one of which is 
estimated to be 8 miles in perpendicular altitude. The quantity of 
light received on Mercury is nearly seven times that which we re- 
ceive ; and the sun will appear from Mercury seven times the size he 
•does to us. This planet is supposed also to be enveloped with an 
extremely dense atmosphere. 

Though diminutive in its appearance, and seldom seen by the in- 
habitants of the earth, we can scarcely doubt that there exist on 
Mercury millions of sentient and intelligent creatures, perhaps 



MERCUKY. 32y 

superior in scale of being to man, with constitutions fitted for that 
sphere in which they are, and with mental powers which qualify 
them to know, to love, and to adore their great Creator. 

Appearance of the Heavens as Viewed from Mercury. 

The situation of this planet being so near the sun has prevented 
us from discovering various particulars which have been discovered 
in relation to several of the other planets ; and therefore not much 
can be said with respect to the scenery of its firmament. The starry 
heavens will appear to move around it every 24 hours, as they do to 
us ; but as the direction of its axis of rotation is not known we can- 
not tell what stars will appear near its equator or its poles. The sun 
will present a surface in the heavens seven times as large as he does 
to us, and of course will present a very grand and splendid appear- 
ance in the sky, and will produce a corresponding brightness and 
vividness of color on the objects which are distributed over the sur- 
face of the planet. Both Venus and the Earth will appear as 
superior planets ; and when Venus is near its opposition to the sun, 
at which time it will rise when the sun sets, it will present a very 
brilliant appearance to the inhabitants of Mercury, and serve the 
purpose of a small moon to illuminate the evenings in the absence 
of the sun. As Venus presents a full enlightened hemisphere at this 
time to the inhabitants of Mercury, it will exhibit a surface six or 
seven times larger than it does to us when it shines with its greatest 
brilliancy, and, therefore, will appear a very bright and conspicuous 
object in the firmament of this planet. At all other times it will ap- 
pear at least two or three times larger than it ever does to us. It 
will generally appear round ; but at certain times it will exhibit a 
gibbous phase, as the planet Mars frequently does as seen from the 
eartla. It will never appear to the inhabitants of Mercury in the form 
of a crescent or half moon, as it sometimes does through our teles- 
copes. There is no celestial body within the range of this planet, of 
which we have any definite knowledge, which will exhibit either a 
a half moon or a crescent phase, unless it be the supposed planet 
Vulcan, and unless the planet itself be accompanied with a satellite. 
The earth is another object in the sky of Mercury which appears next 
in splendor to Venus. The earth and Venus are nearly of an equal 
size ; but the earth being nearly double the distance of Venus from 
Mercury its ajiparent size at the time of its opposition to the sun is 
only about half that of Venus. The earth, however, at this period 
will appear in the firmament of Mercury of a size and splendor three 
or four times greater than Venus does to us at the time of its great- 



324 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

est brilliancy. Our moon may also be seen, like a small star, ac- 
companying the earth, sometimes approaching to or sometimes reced- 
ing farther from the earth, and sometimes hidden from the view by pass- 
ing across the disc of the earth, or through its shadow. It will prob- 
ably appear about of the size and brightness of Mars, as seen from 
the earth. The earth, with its satellite, and Venus will be seen 
near the same point of the heavens at the end of every nineteen 
months, when they will appear for some time the most conspicuous 
objects in the sky, and diffuse a considerable portion of light in the 
absence of the sun. At other periods the one rises in the eastern 
horizon as the other sets in the western ; so that the inhabitants of 
Mercury are seldom without a conspicuous object in their nocturnal 
firmament, diffusing an illumination far superior to that of any other 
stars or planets. The earth is in opposition to the sun every four 
months, and Venus after a period of five months. The planets Mars, 
Jupiter, and Saturn will appear with a somewhat inferior degree of 
magnitude and brilliancy than they do to us, particularly in the case 
of Mars. The period of the annual revolution of Mercury being 88 
days, the sun will appear to move from west to east through the 
circle of the heavens at a rate more than four times as great as his 
apparent motion through the signs of our zodiac. 

The Planet Venus. 

This planet is the next in order from the sun. It has been known 
from remote antiquity as the morning and the evening star, because 
in one part of its course it makes its appearance in the West in the 
evening before any other star is visible, and in another part of its 
course it appears in the East in the morning, ushering in the dawn, 
and giving notice of the approach of the rising sun. So brightly in- 
deed does it shine that it is visible at times to the naked eye during 
the day, and casts a shadow at night. But its apparent size and 
brilliancy vary very greatly, as will be easily understood if we re- 
member that when in its inferior conjunction it is within twenty-five 
millions of miles of the earth ; while when it is in superior conjunc- 
tion this distance is increased by the diameter of the orbit of Venus, 
and becomes nearly one hundred and sixty millions of miles. The 
quantity of light which this planet receives from the sun is nearly 
double that which falls upon the earth, owing to its greater neai-ness 
to the source of light ; so that the sun will appear from its surface 
twice as large as it does to us. When in the part of its orbit direct- 
ly between the earth and sun, that is, in inferior conjunction, it is at 
its least distance from us, and hence would appear most brilliant if 



VENUS. 325 

it were luminous. If indeed at this point its enlightened side were 
turned toward the earth it would present a surface twenty-five times 
larger than it generally does, and shine with the splendor of a small 




moon ; but as its dark side is now turned toward the earth it is in- 
visible just as the moon before new moon. Besides this, it appears 
so close to the sun as to be lost in his brightness, unless it should 
happen to pass across tlie sun"s disc, where it appears as a round 
black spot. This will be seen as at A in the figure where S in the 
centre represents the sun, and the earth is conceived to be in a line 
with the sun and Venus on the dark side of the latter. As the 
planet now travels onwards towards B it gets further and further 
removed to the West of the sun, and thus rises earlier and earlier, 
being then known as Lucifer or the morning star. At the same time 
its bright hemisphere becomes partly turned toward the earth. 
When exactly half enlightened, as at B, it is at its greatest elonga- 
tion from the sun, being distant about 48°. Its period of greatest bril- 
liancy is, however, a little before this when about one-third of its disc 
is illuminated. Having attained its greatest elongation, it seems sta- 
tionary for a short time and then appeai-s to return toward the sun, 
an increasing portion of the disc being illuminated, though, on ac- 
count of its increasing distance, it appears smaller. It is then lost 
again in the sun's rays for a time, and when it reappears to the East 
of the sun, it does not rise till after that luminary, and, therefore, is 
no longer the morning star. x\t this time, liowever, it remains visi- 
ble for some time after sunset, and is known as Hesperus, or the 
evening star. After attaining its greatest eastern elongation at D it 
returns to A to go through the same piiases again. While travelling 
about half the distance between D and A, or that half next to D, it 
appears stationary, in the other half, or that nearest to A, it appears 
to retrograde ; and so while travelling half the distance from A to B, 
or that half nearest A, it appears still to retrogade, while in the 
other half, or that nearest to B, it appears stationary. These phases 



326 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

are not visible to the naked eye, and hence the absence of them was 
adduced as an argument against the truth of the Copernican system. 
This was before the invention of the telescope. Galileo, however, 
in 1610, on turning his newly-constructed telescope to the planet, at 
once discovered the fact of their existence. This is one of the 
strongest arguments adduced in proof of the system which has the 
sun as the centre of the planets' motions. The period which elapses 
between one inferior conjunction and another, or that is occupied in 
going through this cycle of changes is 584 days, and this is called its 
synodic period. The time, however, that is occupied in completing 
a circuit round the sun is only 224 da3^s and 17 hours. At first sight 
these results appear inconsistent, but the apparent discrepancy 
vanishes when we recollect that the earth is itself in rapid motion, 
so that by the time Venus has completed a revolution round the sun, 
the earth has travelled round a large portion of its orbit, and Venus 
has to overtake it before another conjunction can take place. 

The distance of Venus from the Sun is about 66,130,000 miles; 
and its orbit is nearly circular, its eccentricity being less than half a 
million of miles, or about the l-276th part of its diameter, so that its 
distance varies but slightly. When viewed through a good telescope 
this planet is a very beautiful object, especially when near its inferior 
conjunction, so as to appear in the form of a crescent; but tlie bril- 
liancy with which it shines is so great that no distinct markings can 
be made out on its surface. The inner edge is, however, considerably 
indented, indicating the presence of inequalities on its surface; from 
this some observers have calculated that the height of its mountains 
is much greater than that of any on the earth. The height of such 
elevations is ascertained from the length of their shadows. M. Schroter, 
a celebrated German astronomer, estimated the perpendicular height 
of one of these mountains to be ten and a half English miles, and 
that of another no less than nineteen miles. Although these eleva- 
tions so far surpass the highest mountains on our globe, yet, on this 
account, such estimates should not be considered as improbable. 
For, in nature, there is an endless variety, and our observations on 
the moon and nearest planets show us that every planet differs from 
another in the peculiar features of its surface. Such lofty elevations 
must add to the sublimity of nature on the surface of Venus, and will 
afford, from their summits, prospects far more extensive than we can 
now conceive. M. Schroter also deduced from several observations 
that Venus has an atmosphere of considerable extent, the densest 
part of which is above three miles high. A similar conclusion was 
deduced l)y a number of observers in different places, when viewing 
the transit of this planet in 1761. At the time when the planet 



VENUS. 327 

entered on the sun's disc, and when it was about to emerge from the 
eastern limb, a faint penumbra, or dusky shade, was seen surrounding 
the planet, which indicated an atmosphere of considerable height. 
The period of the rotation of this planet on its axis is not very dif- 
ferent from that of the earth, being twenty-three hours twenty-one 
and a-half minutes ; its day is, therefore, but thirty-five minutes 
shorter than ours. Its axis has an inclination of 73^°. Its diameter 
also closely approaches in dimension that of the earth, being 7,510 
miles ; so that the planet which is nearest to us is found in many 
important respects to resemble the earth very closely ; and analogy 
leads us to infer that in many other respects it may be a counterpart. 
Its circumference, or a line extending quite round it, measures 23,593 
miles, and the number of square miles on its surface is 177,183,430. 
Several observers assert that they have seen a satellite accompanying 
Venus. Observations of some able astronomers, who have given 
some attention to it, have as yet failed to corroborate these state- 
ments. The testimony of Mr. Montaigne, however, who observed it 
on several successive occasions, we consider to be conclusive evidence 
as to its existence.* But it is evident this satellite would be difiScult 




* Numbers 3, 4, 7, 11, in figure 107, mark 
the situatious of the satellite, as seen by Mr. 
Montaigne, on May 3rd, 4th, 7th and 11th, 
1760. On May 3rd, he perceived, at 20, dis- 
tance from Venus, a small cresent, with the 
horns pointing the same way as those of 
Veil us. Its diameter was one-fourth tliat of 
its primary ; and a line drawn from Venus 
to the Satellite, made below Venus, an angle 
with the verticle of about 20' toward the 
south, as seen in the figure, where Z N repre- 
sents the vertical, and E C a parallel to the 
ecliptic, making then an angle with the ver- 
tical oi 45^. On May 4th, at the same hour, 
he saw the same star, distant from Venus 
about one minute more than before, and 

making an angle with the vertical of 10= below, but on the north side, so that the satellite 
appeared to have described an arc of about 30=, whereof Venus was the centre, and the 
radius 20°. The two following nights being hazy, Venus could not be seen. But on May 
7th, at the same hour as on the preceding days, he saw the statellite again but above Venus, 
and on the north side, as represented at 7, between 25' and 26' upon a line which made an 
angle of 45°, with the vertical toward the right hand. On May the 11th, at nine o'clock, p.m., 
the only night when the view of the planet was not obscured by moonlight, twilight or 
clouds, the satellite appeared nearly at the same distance from Venus as before, making- 
with the vertical an angle of 45° toward the south, and above its primary. The light of 
the satellite was always very weak; but it had always the same phase with its primary, 
whether viewed with it in the field of the telescope or alone by itself. He imagined that the 
reason why the satellite has been looked for so often without success might be, that one 
part of its globe was crusted over with spots, or otherwise unfit to refk'ct the rays of the 
sun with any degree of brilliancy, as is supposed to be the case with the fifth stitellite of 
Saturn. 



328 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

to detect, its diameter being so small as onlj one-fourth that of its 
primary. It could not be seen at superior conjunction of the planet, 
for then it would be overpowered by the light of the sun ; nor would 
it be easily seen in any other part of the orbit, its enlightened part 
being so extremely small. The best time to see it would be at the 
time of the planet's greatest elongation, when it would appear about 
half enlightened. Observers should not despair of finding it, for the 
satellite exists, awaiting their discovery. 

The last transits of Venus happened in 1769, when the British Gov- 
ernment sent out an expedition for the purpose of making observa- 
tions ; and on December 9th, 1874, when not only the British, but the 
United States, and other governments, sent out expeditions to differ- 
ent parts of the earth for the same purpose. The next transit will take 
place in 1882; and none will occur after that till June 8th, 2004. 

This planet is doubtless well replenished with inhabitants, and 
may far surpass the world in which we dwell, not onh' in point of 
population, bat in sublimity of scenery. Its superficial area is nearly 
that of our globe ; and it does not appear as if a very large portion 
of it is covered with water; otherwise it would not shine with such 
uniform brilliancy ; the water not being as good a reflector as the 
solid, rough surface of the land. This beautiful planet, distinguished 
above all others by its great brilliancy, is occasionally alluded to by 
the writers of the Scriptures as " the son of the morning." " the day 
star," and " the bright and morning star," emblematic of the enlight- 
ening and cheering effect of truth and godliness upon the minds and 
hearts of sinful men when the " day star " from on high hath risen in 
their hearts. When contemjjlating the bright luminaries of the sky, 
and especially the morning star, the placid influence the}- diffuse and 
the harmony with which all their movements are conducted, we can 
scarcely refrain from contrasting those scenes with the darkness and 
disorder which prevail in the moral world. While the sun diffuses 
his light by day, and the moon and the stars shed their mild radiance 
by night, it is still necessary to the well-being and happiness of man- 
kind that intellectual light and sacred jo}" should be diffused in their 
minds and hearts, of which the light of these luminaries has often 
served as an emblem. When the morning star makes its appearance 
near the eastern horizon, it is a sign that the sun will ere long arise, 
and that the darkness of night will soon be dispelled. When the 
day star arises in the benighted mind, it intimates that now the light 
ol Divine truth has begun to irradiate it, and to dispel the darkness, 
with all its miserable accompaniments, which formerly reigned in it ; 
it is a sign that this light will still increase and shine more and more 
unto the perfect day. 



VENUS. 329 

Celestial Phenomena, as Viewed from Venus. 

To the inhabitants of this planet the firmament will present an 
aspect nearly similar to that of Mercury, with a few variations. 
Mercury is to Venus an inferior planet, which never appears beyond 
34° from the sun. Tt will appear in the evening after sunset for the 
space of two or three houis when near its elongation, and in the 
moniing before sunrise, when in the opposite part of its course ; and 
will be alternately a morning and an evening star to Venus, as that 
planet is to us, but with a less degree of splendor. The most splen- 
did object in the nocturnal sky of Venus is the earth, when in oppo- 
sition to the sun, when it ajDpears with a magnitude and splendor 
five or six times greater than either Jupiter or Venus appears to us 
at the time of their greatest brilliancy. Tt will serve, in a great 
measure, the purpose of a moon to Venus, if this planet have no sat- 
ellite ; and will cause the several objects on its surface to project 
distinct and well defined shadows, as our moon does when she appears 
a crescent. Our moon, in her revolutions round the earth, appears 
also a prominent object in the heavens of Venus, and probably ap- 
pears about the same size that Jupiter does to us. Her occultations, 
eclipses, and transits across the earth's disc will be distinctly visible. 
With telescopes such as the best we possess, the earth would appear 
from Venus a much larger and more variegated object than any of 
the planets do to us when viewed with high magnifying powers. The 
forms of our different continents, seas, and islands; the different 
strata of clouds in our atmosphere, with their several changes and 
motions, and the earth's diurnal rotation, would in all probability be 
distinctly perceived. Even the varieties which characterize the sur- 
face of our moon would be visible with telescoj^es of a high magni- 
fj'ing power. The circumstances now mentioned prove the connec- 
tions of the different parts of the planetary system with one another; 
and that the parts of it are so arranged that one world is, in a certain 
degree, subservient to the benefit of another. Thus the earth serves 
as a large and splendid moon to the lunar inhabitants ; it serves in a 
certain degree, the purpose of a small moon to Mercury ; it serves 
the purpose of a larger moon, by exhibiting a surface and a radiance 
four times greater, to the inhabitants of Venus ; and it serves as a 
morning and an evening star to the planet Mars; so that while we 
experience enjoyment in contemplating the moon walking in bright- 
ness, and hail with pleasure the morning star as the harbinger of day, 
and feel a delight in surveying those nocturnal luminaries through 
our telescopes, the globe on which we dwell affords similar enjoy- 
ments to the intellectual beings in neighboring worlds, who behold 



330 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

our habitation from afar as a bright speck upon their firmament, 
diffusing amid the shades of night a mild and placid radiance. From 
Venus the planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear nearly as they do 
to us ; but the planet Mars will appear considerably smaller. The 
sun to this planet will appear twice as large as he does in our sky, 
and will appear to make a revolution round the celestial sphere in 
the course of seven and a half mouths, which completes the year of 
Venus. 

The Earth. 

The next planet in order is the Earth, which Ave have hitherto 
considered as the base from which we made all our observations. It 
may still seem strange to some of our readers that this world on 
which we live should be considered a planetary orb ; as at first view 
it does not appear to bear any resemblance to any of the luminaries 
that appear in our sky. The planets, as they are seen in the 
heavens by the naked eye, appear as only comparatively small points 
of light, whereas the earth, from whatever point we view it, appears 
the largest body our ejes anywhere behold and when we traverse its 
surface either by sea or land there appear no boundaries to its dimen- 
sions. We have explained before that the nearer a body is to the 
eye the larger it apppeais, for the larger the angle is which its ex- 
tremities subtend in the eye ; and on the other hand the farther 
removed a body is, the smaller it appears, for the smaller the angle it 
subtends in our eye. This is the reason why the planets, some of 
which are much larger than the earth, appear but as visible points in 
our sky ; and why the moon, though sixty millions of times smaller 
than the sun, appears equal in bulk to that luminary. From the 
positions in which we can view any portion of the earth, even when 
we ascend several miles above its surface in balloons, it does not ex- 
hibit a luminous aspect, such as that which the celestial bodies pre- 
sent ; so- that at first view we might be inclined to suppose that no 
similarity exists between our sublunar}- world and the orbs of heaven. 
Besides, the celestial orbs are apparenth" in rapid motion from one 
region to another, while the earth appears to be at rest in the centre 
of their motions. There is not, perhaps, one out of a thousand of 
the earth's present inhabitants who has the least conception that be- 
side every other motion of which he is susceptible, he is carried 
along through the regions of space with the rapidity of thousands of 
miles ever}^ hour. Yet this is a iact which appears not merel}" pro- 
bable but certain, and can be demonstrated to the conviction of 
every one who is both willing and qualified to enter into such inves- 
tigations. 



THE EARTH. 331 

Could we stand on the surface of the moon we should behold the 
earth like a great globe in the firmament, appearing with a surface 
about 13 times larger than the moon does to us, and presenting its 
different sides to our view. Sometimes America, and the Pacific 
Ocean ; and at other times, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Atlantic 
Ocean ; sometimes appearing like a large crescent, or half moon, and 
at other times with a full enlightened hemisphere. Could we take 
our station on the surface of Venus we should behold the globe on 
which we live appearing in the azure sky like a large bright star ; 
and the moon, which appears so large in our firmament, would be 
seen only like a very small star very near the earth and constantly 
moving around it. The earth would in general appear about of the 
same size that Venus does to us, but perhaps not quite so brilliant, 
owing to three-fourths of its surface being covered with water; at 
certain times, however, it would appear ten times larger than Venus 
does to us and like a small brilliant moon. (On the other hand, if 
the bright side of Venus were turned toward us at the time of her 
inferior conjunction, that planet would appear about 25 times as 
large as it usually does.) Were our situation on the planet Mars, 
which is much farther from the sun than Venus, the earth would 
appear alternately as a morning and evening star, exhibiting different 
phases, as Venus does to us, but with a less degree of size and splen- 
dor. It might not, perhaps, shine with so much brilliancy as Venus, 
but it would probably appear of a lustre similar to that Avhich Mars 
presents to us, or somewhat brighter. It need not be wondered at 
that the earth would appear as a luminous body from such distant 
positions ; for we have demonstrative proof that Venus, Mars, and 
all the other planets, though they appear like shining orbs, are in 
reality dark bodies like the earth, and receive their light from the 
sun, the reflection of which from their surfaces makes them appear 
luminous to us ; and it is only when the portions of their sides which 
are enlightened by the sun are turned toward us, that we see them in 
the heavens. On some occasions the dark side of Venus is com- 
pletely turned toward the earth, and then she is invisible; and some- 
times in this position is seen to pass, as a dark spot, across the disc 
of the sun. These and many other circumstances demonstrate that 
the planets are in themselves dark bodies, and shine only by reflec- 
tion : and consequently that the earth, though a dark body, Avill 
appear luminous at a distance by reflecting the solar rays which fall 
upon it as the moon does to us. We have already proved that as a 
planet the earth turns round its axis ever}' 24 hours, and also moves 
round the sun every year; this latter part of our position we will 
endeavor in the sequel to illustrate by a figure. 



332 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

The earth's mean radius is 8,956i English miles ; its mean dia- 
meter being 7,913 miles; consequently its circumference, or a line 
extending quite round it, measures 24,859 miles; and the number of 
square miles on its surface is nearl}^ 196,709,267. Of this it is esti- 
mated that 149,000,000 square miles are occupied by the seas and 
oceans ; thus leaving 47,000,000 square miles of dry land, or less 
than one-third of that occupied by the water. The mean diameter 
of tlie earth's orbit is about 182,862,000 miles, and its approximate 
circumference about 574,709,000 miles. The linear eccentricity of the 
earth's orbit, being about one-sixtieth of its semi-axis major, or mean 
distance of the earth from the sun, we have 1,523,850 miles for the 
distance between the centre of the earth's orbit and the centre of 
the sun, or the focus of that orbit. Consequently the eai'th is about 
double this distance, or 3,047,700 miles nearer to the sun in winter 
than in summer. In the diagram the earth is represented in four 
different positions (momentary positions) in its orbit, namely, at raid- 
spring, mid-summer, mid-autumn, and mid-Avinter. In all these posi- 
tions, as well as all round in its orbit, the parallelism of its axis N.S. 
is preserved, that is, its axis is always directed to the same points of 
the heavens. Some find it difficult to understand how the earth's 
axis in all parts of an elliptical orbit can remain parallel to itself. 
They should remember that the diameter of the earth's orbit is as 
nothing in comparison with the distance of the fixed stars. If two 
parallel lines are drawn at the distance of three or four yards from 
one another they will point directly to the moon, when she is in the 
horizon. Three or four yards are accounted as nothing in comparison 
of 240,000 miles, the distance of the moon from us. And perhaps 
three or four yards bear a greater proportion to 240,000 miles, than 
182,862,000 miles, the diameter of the earth's orbit, bear to our dis- 
tance from the pole-star. The earth's axis is inclined to the plane of 
its orbit at an angle of 66° 32', hence it makes an angle of 23° 28' 
with the perpendicular to the plane of its orbit ; for the perpendicular, 
represented by the dotted line passing through the centre O, makes 
an angle of 90° with the plane of the orbit; and subtracting 66° 32' 
from 90° leaves the remainder 23° 28', which is the angle included 
between the axis, N. S., and the perpendicular or dotted line. The 
true cause of the variation of the seasons consists in the inclination 
of the axis of the earth to the plane of its orbit, or, in other words, to 
the ecliptic. If its axis were perpendicular to the ecliptic, the equator 
and the orbit would coincide; and as the sun is always in the plane 
of the ecliptic, it would in this case be always over the equator; the 
two poles would be always enlightened, and there would be no diver- 
sity in the length of days and nights, and but one season throughout 



THE EARTH. 



333 



the year. Because of the parallelism of the earth's axis it so hap- 
pens that at mid-spring, or March 20th, this axis is perpendicular to 
a line drawn to the centre of the sun, and the sun being now directly 
vertical to the equator there is equal day and night to all places on 
the earth, the poles being the boundaries of light and darkness; thus 

f 

SPRING. i N MARCH 20. 





JUNE. 21. 



''//i\r' 



OECEMBEin 21. 



AUTUMN. 





SEPTEMBEB 23. 



there are twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness to every 
spot on the earth's surface for this day. Hence this day is called the 
equinox (equal night) of spring, or the vernal equinox. At this time 
the earth is in the sign Libra, and the sun appears in the opposite 
sign Aries. As the earth travels onwards from March to June the 
northern hemisphere comes more into light ; and on the 21st of that 
month the sun is vertical to the tropic of Cancer. The earth is now 
in Capricornus and the sun appears in the opposite sign of Cancer. 
At this time the half of the globe is illuminated from the circum- 
ference of the north polar circle at the distance of 23^ 28' beyond the 
north pole N, to the circumference of the south polar circle, at the 
same distance from the south pole S. At this time there is no day 
within the south polar circle, but the night continues twenty-four 
hours; and there is no night within the north polar circle, the day 
continuing for the same length. As at this point the earth begins 
to return to a position similar to that of the vernal equinox, and the 
sun seems to be stationary for two or three days before and after this 
day, it is called the summer solstice (sun standing), or the tropic 
(turning) of summer. As the earth now travels on from June to 
September the sun shines less and less over the north pole, until on 
the 2Brd of that month we find him again vertical to the equatoi*. 
The days and nights are now again exactly equal all over the earth, 
or there are twelve hours of light, and twelve hours of darkness to 



334 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

every spot on the earth's surface for this day. At this time, as at 
March 20th, the earth's axis is perpendicular to a line drawn to the 
sun's centre. It is now called the equinox of autumn, or autumnal 
equinox ; the earth is in the sign Aries, the sun appearing in the 
opposite sign Libra. Since it is summer to every part of the earth 
where the sun is vertical (and we find it vertical to the equator twice 
in the year), we see the reason why those living near the equator 
have two harvests every year. Following the earth in its journey to 
December we find that when it has arrived in the sign Cancer, at the 
21st of that month, the sun appears in the opposite sign of Capricorn, 
and is now vertical to that part of the earth called the tropic of Cap- 
ricorn. The half of the globe is now illuminated from the circum- 
ference of the south polar circle at a distance of 23^^ 28' beyond the 
south pole, S, to the circumference of the north polar circle, at the 
same distance from the north pole, N. At this time there is no day 
Avithin the north polar circle, the night continuing twenty-four hours; 
and there is no night within the south polar circle, the day continu- 
ing twenty-four hours. 

In looking at the diagram, you see at the vernal equinox, or 
March 20th, the whole of the illuminated hemisphere of the globe, 
because from the I'epresentation of its position it is turned in front 
both to the sun at F, and to you the spectator. At the stimmer sol- 
stice, or Jtme 21st, you see only half the illuminated hemisphere of 
the globe, because it is turned in front to the sun at F, but sideways 
to you the spectator, j^ou being supposed outside of the orbit. At 
the autumnal equinox, or September 23d, you see none of the illu- 
minated hemisphere of the globe, because it is turned in front to the 
sun at F, but its back is to you the spectator, you being outside of 
the oi'bit, and as it were behind the globe. And at the winter solstice, 
or December 21st, you again see half of the illuminated hemisphere of 
the globe, because it is turned in front to the sun at F, but only side- 
ways to you the spectator, for the same reason as before. But were 
you placed in the middle of the orbit, at the point F, you would, by 
turning round and round to the different positions Ave have been de- 
scribing, see the whole of the illuminated hemisphere of the globe at 
each point of its course. In the course of this revolution the inhabi- 
tants of every clime experience, though at different times, a variety 
of seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter follow each other 
in constant succession, diversifying the scenery of nature, and mark- 
ing the different seasons of the year. In those countries which lie 
in the southern hemisphere of the globe, November, December and 
January are the summer months : while in the northern hemisphere, 
Vi^here we reside, these are our months of winter. In the northern 



THE EARTH. 335 

and southern hemispheres the seasons are opposite to each other, so 
that when it is spring in the one it is autumn in the other ; when it 
is winter in the one it is summer in the other. During six months, 
from March 20th to September 23d, the sun shines without intermis- 
sion on the north pole ; so that there is no night there during all that 
interval, while the south pole is all this time enveloped in darkness. 
During six months, from September 23d to March 20th, the sun 
shines without intermission on the south pole, so that there is no 
night there during all that* interval, while the north pole is, in its 
turn, deprived of the sun, and left in darkness. From 66 J" north or 
south latitude the inhabitants of these two opposite climes enjoy a 
length of day during their respective summers varying from 24 hours 
to six months. The nearer the pole the longer is the day. Our 
summer is nearly eight days longer than our winter. By summer 
with us is meant the time which passes between March 20th and 
September 23d, or between the vernal and autumnal equinoxes ; and 
by winter the time between September 23d and March 21st, or be- 
tween the autumnal and vernal equinoxes. That portion of the 
earth's orbit that lies north of the equinoctial contains 184'', while 
that portion which is south of the equinoctial contains 176° ; being 
8" less than the other portion ; which is the reason why the sun is 
nearly eight days longer on the north of the equator than on the 
south of it. In our summer the earth's motion is through the six 
southern signs, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, 
Pisces, while the sun appears in the opposite or northern signs; 
and in the winter the earth moves through the six northern signs 
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, while the sun appears in 
the opposite or southern signs. Li the former case, from March 21st 
to September 23d, the sun is about 186 days, 11 hours, in passing 
through the northern signs ; and in the latter case only 178 days 18 
hours, in passing through the southern signs, the difference being 
about 7 days, 17 hours. The reason of this difference is that the 
earth moves in an elliptical orbit, one portion of which is nearer the 
sun than another ; in consequence of which the earth's motion is 
faster while moving through the northern signs in winter, — it being 
over three millions of miles nearer to the sun then than in summer ; 
and the nearer the sun the planet approaches the quicker it moves ; 
— and slower while passing through the southern signs in summer ; 
which makes the sun appear to move slower through the northern 
signs. That the earth is nearer the sun in winter than in summer, 
is ascertained from the variation of the apparent diameter of the sun. 
About the first of January, when he is nearest the earth, the appa- 
rent diamerter is 32', 35" ; and on the first of July, when he is most 



336 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

distant, it is only 32' 31". This proves that the earth is farther dis- 
tant from the sun in one part of its orbit than in another. In Janu- 
ary the earth's motion every hour is at the rate of 69,600 miles ; but 
in July its rate of motion per hour is only about 66,400 miles ; a dif- 
ference of more than 3,000 miles an hour. 

The earth completes its revolution in its orbit in 365 days, 5 
hours, 48 minutes, and 49 seconds. This period is called a solar, or 
tropical year, and is reckoned from the time of the sun's passing the 
equinoctial point till it again reaches the same spot. The siderial 
year is reckoned from the time of the sun's passing any fixed star till 
its return to it again, and is 20' 21" longer than the solar ; the reason 
of the difference being the retrograde motion of the equinoctial point 
(called the precession of the equinoxes, which is fifty seconds of a de- 
gree every year), by which it travels as it were to meet the sun, so 
that he comes to it before he has quite completed his circuit. These 
two periods may be stated thus : solar year 365 daj^s, 5 hours, 48 
minutes, 49 seconds ; siderial year 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, 10 
seconds. In early times the year was taken to consist of 365 days. 
As, however, the solar year is nearly 365i days, the day of the equi- 
nox soon became wrong ; to remedy which Julius Caisar introduced 
an additional day into February of ever}'- fourth year, thus making 
that year contain 366. This arrangement was known as the Julian 
style, and continued in use until nearly the end of the sixteenth cen- 
tury ; but as the year is a few minutes shorter than 365 ^ days, the 
equinoxes had by this time fallen back as much as 10 days. Pope 
Gregory XIII. corrected this error by ordering ten days to be left 
out of the year 1582 ; and then he modified the Julian style by the 
following rule : Every year divisible by 4 was to contain 366 days ; 
the even hundreds, however, unless divisible by 400, were to be con- 
sidered as ordinary years of 365 days ; thus 1800 and 1900 are ordi- 
nary years, while 2000 will be a leap-year. By this means the error 
is very nearly eliminated. This alteration, which is known as the 
Gregorian Calendar, was not adopted in England till 1752, and 
eleven days had then to be struck out of that year, to correct the 
error, which had increased one day in 170 years. 

In addition to this movement round the sun, by which the sea- 
sons are produced, the earth, as we have seen, has a rotation on its 
own axis, whereby are brought about the changes of day and night. 
The interval in which this diurnal rotation is completed, as ascer- 
tained by the passage of any star across the meridian on two succes- 
sive days, is called a siderial day. It is, in fact, the time occupied by 
the heavens in making one apparent revolution. In this we have an 
invariable measure ; it is, therefore, frequently adopted in. the observ- 



THE EARTH. 337 

atories ; but for practical purposes of ever3^day life it would not 
answer well, as it is 3 minutes, 55". 91 seconds shorter than that 
determined by the sun ; and thus clocks regulated by it would gain 
that amount on the sun every day. The day, therefore, in ordinary 
use is that reckoned by the movements of the sun, and is known as 
the solar day, being the interval which elapses between two successive 
meridian passages of the sun. As, however, the distance of the earth 
from the sun varies in different parts of its orbit, and its diurnal 
rate of motion varies in like manner, this period is not uniform ; its 
mean length is, therefore, ascertained and taken as the natural or 
mean solar day. Our clocks are all regulated so as to indicate mean 
solar time, and hence they are sometimes faster than the sun, and 
sometimes slower. The greatest discrepancies are about February 
10th, when the clock is fifteen minutes faster than true solar time, as 
indicated by a sun-dial ; and October 27th, when it is sixteen min- 
utes slower. 

As the sun is further from us in summer than in winter, some nat- 
urally enquire why we experience the greatest heat in the former 
season. The following among other reasons may be assigned, which 
will partl}^ account for this effect 1. The sun rises to a much 
greater altitude above our horizon in summer than in winter, and con- 
sequently its ra3^s falling more directly upon the earth the thicker 
and denser will they be, and so much the hotter, when no counter- 
acting causes from local circumstances exist. 2. The greater length 
of the day in summer contributes to augment the heat ; for the earth 
and atmosphere are heated by the sun in the daytime more than 
they are cooled in the night ; and, on this account, the heat will go 
on increasing in the summer ; and for the same reason will decrease 
in winte)', when the nights are longer than the days. The main 
cause is that in summer, when the sun rises to a great altitude, his 
rays pass through a much smaller portion of the atmosphere, and are 
less weakened by it than when they come to the earth in an oblique 
direction, weakened by their passage through the dense vapors near 
the horizon, and by many refractions and reflections of the atmos- 
phere. 

The cause of the changes of the seasons can be exhibited with 
more clearness and precision by means of machinery than by verbal 
explanation ; and, therefore, those whose conceptions are not clear 
and well-defined on this subject should have recourse to planeta- 
riums, which exhibit the celestial motions by wheel-work. There 
has been some time ago a small instrnment called a Tellurion, manu- 
factured by Messrs. Jones, Holborn, London, which conveys a pretty 
clear idea of the motions and phases of the moon, the inclination of 

22 



338 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit, and the changes of the sea- 
sons. This instrument was sold at moderate prices according to the 
quantity of wheel-work, and doubtless it is j-et obtainable. 

The subject of the seasons and the variety of the phenomena they 
exhibit, have frequently been the theme of the poet and the philoso- 
pher, who have expatiated on the beauty of the arrangement, and the 
benignant effects they produce ; and therefore they conclude that other 
planets experience the same vicissitudes and seasons similar to ours. 
This, howisver, by no means follows, for the cause of the changes of the 
seasons, as we have them, is owing to the degree of inclination which 
the earth's axis has to the plane of its orbit, and every planet discov- 
ered in our system has a different degree of inclination in that re- 
spect, and, therefore, the seasons of each will be different from ours, 
though they may be analogous. But though in the present consti- 
tution of our globe there are many benign agencies and effects, which 
accompany the revolutions of the seasons, and contribute to the 
wants and happiness of the earth's inhabitants, yet how few there 
are out of the great mass of mankind who properly appreciate them, 
and render to their Creator due praise for circumstances so good, and 
gifts so rare ! "Were the habitable parts of the earth generally Avell 
cultivated, its marshes drained, and its desolate parts reduced to 
order and vegetable beauty by the hand of art, and replenished with 
an industrious and enlightened population, there can be little doubt 
our seasons would be considerably meliorated, and many physical 
evils prevented with which we are now annoyed. And all this man 
has it in his power to accomplish 2:)rovided he chooses to direct his 
wealth, and his physical, intellectual, and moral energies into this 
channel. "We are highly favored, but we may to a considerable ex- 
tent improve our circumstances ; and God always assists every effort 
that is made in the right direction. 

The Moon. 

The earth, in its journey round the sun, is attended by a secondary 
planet, or satellite, the moon. This globe may almost be considered 
as a part of the earth, for in its revolution round the sun it is not the 
earth's centre that travels along the orbit, but the centre of gravity 
of the earth and moon taken together. As the moon is our nearest 
neighbor in space, and exerts a greater influence on the earth than 
any of the other heavenly bodies, with the exception of the sun, it 
has at all times attracted a large share of attention. Its great ap- 
parent size and the phases it presents increase the interest. To 
the eye the moon appears ver}^ nearly as large as the sun. This, 
however, results entirely from its great proximity to us ; it is in re- 
ality the smallest of the heavenly bodies which can be discerned by 



THE MOON. 339 

the naked eye. Although its apparent size is nearly equal to that of 
the sun, yet it would require more than sixty-three millions of globes 
of the size of the moon to form a globe equal in magnitude to the sun. 
The moon's distance from us is easily learned from its horizontal 
parallax, which is sufficiently great to be accurately measured. This 
varies in different parts of its orbit, but its mean value is about 57', 
and thus the moon's distance is found to be 238,833 miles. We may 
here observe that the parallax of the moon, or of any heavenly body, 
is the difference in the apparent position of that body as viewed from 
two different stations on the earth's surface, which are the length of 
the earth's semi-diameter, about 4000 miles apart.* 



B 



* In order that the general reader may understand what is meant by the diameter or 
semi-diameter of the earth forming the base line of those triangles by which the distances, 
etc., of the heavenly bodies are measured, we thinli it necessary to give the followhig ex- 
planation : ' 

In any triangle, as A B 0, if tlie length of the side A B be known, and likewise the quantity 
of the angles at A and B, or the number of degrees and minutes they subtend, be ascertained, 
we can find the length of the sides A C and B C. If A B represent a horizontal plane 100 feet 
in extent, and C B a tower whose height we wisli to determine, and if with a quadrant we find 
the angle at A to C A B to be 44°, then by an easy process in trigonometry: Radius: is to the 
tangent of A, or 44=: : as the side A B 100 feet: is to the height of the tower C B ; which will 
give the answer, in this case 96i feet. 

It is on this general principle that the distances and magni- 
tudes of the celestial bodies are determined. But in all cases 
where we wish to ascertain the dimensions of the different 
parts of a triangle, the dimensions of at least one side must be 
given along with two angles ; otherwise the length of the dif- 
ferent sides of the triangle cannot be determined. Now, in 
measuring the distance of a heavenly body, such as the moon, 
the diameter or semi-diameter of the earth is the known side of ' -p-^ ..qo 

tlie triangle by which such a distance is to be determined. In "' 

the annexed figure let E C, represent the earth ; M the moon ; and A B a portion of the 
starry sky. If a spectator at the earth's surface at E, view the moon in the horizon, he 
will see it in the line M, among the stars at H. But if he view it from the centre of the 
earth at C, or from the surface at D, which will be the same in effect, he will see it in the 
line C D M, among the stars at S. The difference of position in which the moon is seen- as 
viewed from the surface of the earth E, and the centre C, is called the moon's horizontal 
paraUax, or tlie arc S H, which is subtended by the angle 
S M H, which is equal to the angle E JM C. In determining 
the distance of the moon, therefore, we must first find by 
observation the horizontal parallax, or in other words the 
angle E JI C: and the side E C, or the semi-diameter of 
the earth, being known to be about 4000 miles in extent, 
serves as the base line of the triangle EMC; and hence 
the other sides of the triangle E JI, and C M, or the dis- 
tance of the moon from the earth, can be found by an easy 
calculation. 

From what has been now stated it will appear that it is 
of great importance that we have correctly ascertained 
the figure and magnitude of the earth ; for if the length 
of the base line which we take in our trigonometrical cal- ^^S- 109- 

culations of the moon, or any other celestial body, be incorrectly stated, the whole calculation 
must be necessarily wrong, and the results false. In the foregoing explanation we have merely 
given the principle on which astronomers proceed in measuring the distances of the heavenly 
bodies, without euteiiug into details. 




340 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

This will be understood by reference to the subjoined figure and 
explanation at the bottom of the page. Knowing the moon's distance, 
and also the angle which its disc subtends to an observer, we easily 
ascertain its mean diameter to be 2,153 miles ; its circumference 6,764 
miles ; and consequently its area 14,562,892 square miles. This body 
revolves in its orbit round the earth, and completes its circuit, reck- 
oning from the time of its passing anj- star till its return to the same 
star, in 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes, 11-5 seconds, which period 
is known as a siderial revolution. The more usual plan, however, 
of reckoning its period is by reckoning from the time of one full 
moon to the next. This period is the greater, the reason of the 
difference being that the moon is full when it is in the part of the 
heavens diametrically opposite to the sun. Now, if the earth were 
stationary, this would always happen in the same part of the sky ; 
but as the earth is moving in its orbit round the sun, carrying the 
moon with it. — by the time, therefore, that the moon has completed 
its circuit, the earth has travelled round nearly one-thirteenth of its 
orbit, and the moon must overtake the earth by travelling so much 
farther, before it again comes opposite to the sun. This may be 
illustrated by the revolutions of the hour and minute hands of a 
watch or clock. Suppose the hour-hand to represent the sun, and a 
complete revolution of it to represent a year ; suppose the minute- 
hand to represent the moon, and its circuit round the dial plate a 
month, it is evident that the moon or minute-hand must go more 
than round the circle where it was last conjoined with the sun or 
hour-hand, before it can again overtake him. If, for example, they 
are in conjunction at 12 o'clock, the minute-hand or moon must make 
a complete revolution, and above one-twelfth, before they can meet 
again at a little past 1 ; for the hour-hand, being in motion, can never 
be overtaken by the minute-hand at that point from which they 
started at their last conjunction. This surplus of motion occupies 
the moon 2 days, 5 hours, minutes, 5* seconds, which, added to 
the siderial, makes the synodical revolution, or the period between 
one new or full moon and another. The average length of this period 
is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds. This interval is, 
therefore, termed a lunar month, and during it the moon passes in 
succession through all its phases. The sun always enlightens one-half 
of the moon, and sometimes the whole of this enlightened side is 
turned toward the earth, u^hen she appears a round luminous orb ; 
but this happens only at one point of her orbit, namely, at full moon. 
At all other parts of her course only a portion of her enlightened side 
is turned toward the earth ; and in one particular part of her orbit, 
just before new moon, her enlightened side is altogether invisible. 



THE MOON. 



341 



At this part of her course she is invisible, both because she is in the 
same part of the heavens as the sun, and because the whole of her dark 
hemisphere is then turned toward the earth. After this it is generally 
two days or more before any of her enlightened surface is visible. 
About the tliird day after the change^ that is, new moon, she is seen 
in the western sky at no great distance from the point at which the 
sun set, and then appears in the form of a slender crescent, having 
the horns pointed towards the east. The figure annexed will render 
this more clear. Here the sun must be considered as situated con- 




Fig. 110. 
siderably to the right of the figure ; consequently the illuminated 
part of the moon will always face that way. E represents the earth, 
and the moon is represented in eight different points of its orbit, the 
outer row of discs showing the appearance the moon presents to us 
when in each of these positions. When at A, her enlightened hemi- 
sphere being wholly turned toward the sun, the dark hemisphere is 
wholly turned toward the earth, and the moon is consequently wholly 
invisible. As it travels onwards in its orbit towards B, a small por- 
tion of its illuminated hemisphere comes into view, presenting the 
appearance of a slender crescent, having its horns pointed eastward, 
the sun being now to the west of her. At this time the greatest part 
of the moon may sometimes be faintly discerned by the naked eye. 
This is caused by the light which is reflected from the earth on the 
moon, or Earth-shine^ as it is termed. A little consideration of the 
relative positions of the three bodies will show that at the time when 
tlie moon is new to us, the earth must appear full to the inhabitants 
of the luoon ; and it apjiears of a size thirteen times as large as the 
full moon does to us ; for the hemisphere of our globe is thirteen 
times larger than that of the moon, and thus at this period the most 
powerful light will be reflected from the earth upon the moon. When 



342 CEEATOK AND COSMOS. 

the moon has arrived at B, she presents exactly one-half her illumi- 
nated hemisphere to the earth, and this is called her first quarter. 
Still continuing her course, she at length arrives at C, where the 
sun and the earth are on the same side of her, and accordingly the 
illuminated hemisphere is turned towards the earth, presenting the 
entire disc of the full moon. When now, the moon being at C, it is 
full moon to us, the dark side of the earth is wholly turned toward 
the moon, and the earth is consequently invisible to the inhabitants 
of the moon. When the moon is in the increase to us, the earth is 
decreasing in its illuminated surface to the moon ; and conversely, 
when the moon is in its decrease to us, the earth is in its increase to 
the lunar inhabitants ; so that the phases of the earth, as seen from 
the moon, are exactly opposite to the phases of the moon as seen 
from the earth. After passing C, the moon goes through the same 
series of changes, but in a reverse order ; thus she presents, as first 
shown, a gibbous phase ; at D, half her enlightened hemisphere is 
turned toward us, and it is called her last quarter ; she then presents 
a slender crescent, having its horns pointed toward the west, the sun 
being now rather to the eastward of her; and she finally ariives at 
A, to go through the same series of changes again. 

There is one remarkable circumstance in connection with the 
moon, which we shall see by and by is not peculiar to her alone 
among the secondary planets ; and that is, that the moon always 
presents the same side to the earth, so that we never see her opposite, 
hemisphere. This proves that she turns round her circumference 
just once during her complete revolution round the earth. A great 
deal of fruitless controversy has frequently arisen upon the question 
as to whether the moon has an actual rotation or not. The fact 
that she always presents the one side to the earth is admitted by all. 
The only question is as to whether or not this motion can be called 
a rotation. A very little consideration will, however, make it clear 
that the moon does rotate ; * for if the moon had no rotator}" motion 
round her axis, we should see both her hemispheres in the course of 
every revolution she makes round the earth. This, we are aware, does 
not at first view appear obvious to those who have never directed their 
attention to the subject. Any one, however, may convince himself 
of this fact by standing in the centre of a circle, and causing another 
person to carry round a terrestrial globe without. turning it on its 

* Still it is renarded ns a very strange oircuiiistaiipe that the moon's axis is invariably turned 
towards the earth and that the figures on its face always maintain the same position towards 
the observer on the earth ; although if there were a real rotation it is thought the position of 
these figures should be inverted in the period between new and full moon or during lialf the 
rotation. It will be observed that although the common or Newtonian Theory of Astronomy 
accounts well for the phenomena, it is open to many objections. 



THE MOON. 343 

axis, when he will see every part of the surface of the globe in suc- 
cession ; and in order that one hemisphere only sliould be presented 
to his view, he will find that the globe will require to be gradually 
turned round its axis, so as to make a complete rotation in the time 
it is carried round the circle. The earth may iu tliis case be con- 
sidered a fixed station for observation, inasmuch as it turns round 
its circumference twenty-nine times during one rotation of the 
moon ; and, therefore, the moon (its one hemisphere) is constantly 
seen by the inhabitants of the earth. Owing to the fact that the 
moon's axis is inclined 1° 31' to the plane of its orljit (the orbit it- 
self being inclined to the ecliptic 5° 9'), Ave occasionally see a little 
beyond its north pole, and then a similar distance beyond its south 
pole. Also we sometimes observe the spots on her eastern margin 
which were formerly visiVjle on the western margin again withdsaw 
themselves behind the limb, Avhile the spots which became concealed 
behind the eastern margin again appear. These phenomena of the 
change of spots on the east and west limbs of the moon, as well as 
toward the north and south poles, sometimes occur for the space of 
about 3' on the moon's disc, or about the eleA^enth part of her 
diameter. This is termed the libration of the moon; the one, north 
and south, her libration in latitude ; the other, her libration in lon- 
gitude. 

The moon's orbit is, as we have stated, inclined to the ecliptic at 
an angle of 5° 9' ; so that in one part of her course that luminary is 
above, and iu another below the level of the earth's orbit. It is 
owing to this circumstance that our satellite is not eclipsed at every 
full moon, and the sun at every new moon, which would regularly 
occur did the moon move in an orbit exactly coincident with the 
plane of the ecliptic. The moon's orbit, of course, crosses the orbit 
of the earth in two opposite points called her nodes ; and it is only 
when the new or fvdl moon happens at or near these nodes that an 
eclii^se of tlie sun or moon can take place ; for it is only when she is 
in such a position that the sun, the moon, and the earth, are nearly 
in a straight line, and that the shadow of the one can fall upon the 
other. Tlie shadow of the moon falling upon any part of the earth 
causes an eclipse of the sun ; and the shadow of tlie earth falling 
upon the moon causes an eclipse of the moon. An eclipse of the 
moon can only take, place at full moon, when the earth is between 
the sun and the moon; and an ecli})se of the sun can only occur at 
new moon, when tlie moon comes between the sun and the earth. 
Lunar eclij^ses are visible at all places of the earth whicli have the 
moon above their horizon, and are everywhere of the same niagnitudo 
and duration ; but a solar eclipse is never seen throughout the whole 



344 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

hemisphere of the earth Avhere the sun is visible ; as the moon s disc 
is too small to hide the whole or any part of the sun from the whole 
disc or hemisphere of the earth. Nor does an eclipse of the sun ap- 
pear the same in all parts of the earth where it is visible, but Avhen 
at one place it is total at another it is only partial. 

The moon's orbit, like those of the planets, is an ellipse whose 
eccentricity is 12,960 miles, or the l-37th part of its major axis. 
The moon is therefore at different distances from the earth in differ- 
ent parts of her orbit. When at her greatest distance from the earth 
she is said to be in her apogee ; when at her least distance in her 
perigee. The nearer the moon is to the periods of full or change, 
the greater is her velocity ; and the nearer to the quadratures or the 
periods of half-moon, the slower slie moves. When the earth is in 
hevt perihelion, or nearest the sun, the moon's periodical time is the 
greatest. The earth is at its perihelion in winter, and consequently 
at this time the moon will describe the largest circles about the 
earth, and her periodical time will be the longest ; but when the 
earth is in its aphelion, or farthest from the sun, which happens in 
summer, she Avill describe a smaller circle, and her periodical time 
will be the least ; all which circumstances are found to agree with 
observation. These and man}" other circumstances which our space 
does not allow us to particularize, arise from the attractive influence 
of the sun upon the moon in different circumstances and in different 
parts of its course, so as to produce different degrees of accelerated 
and retarded motion. 

The peculiarities of the moon's motions have much and frequent- 
ly puzzled astronomers and mathematicians, and thej" render the cal- 
culation of her true place in the heavens a considerably difficult 
task. No less than thirty equations require to be applied to the 
mean longitude in order to obtain the true, and about twenty-four 
equations for the obtainment of her latitude and parallax. These 
problems have, however, been solved, and the moon's motions are 
now fully understood. 

The moon's principal motion is, as has been explained, one of rev- 
olution round the earth ; but the earth is at the same time pursu- 
ing her journey round the sun ; and thus tlie combination of these 
two motions causes it to describe a path, which is in reality a suc- 
cession of curves. If a pencil were attached to one of the spokes of 
a wheel, and made to trace a line on a piece of paper, as the wheel 
travelled onwards we should obtain a rough but somewhat true re- 
presentation of this path. In her motion round the earth every 
month the moon pursues her course at the rate of 2,300 miles an 
hour, but she moves at the same time with the earth in her course 



THE MOON. 345 

round the sun, so that her real motion in space is much more rapid 
than what has now been stated — perhaps not less than 70,000 miles 
an hour — for while she accompanies the earth in her annual motion, 
which is at an average rate of ()8,000 miles an liour, she also moves 
thirteen times round the earth in the same period, which is equal to 
a course of nearly twenty millions of miles 



Fig. 111. 

By means of a good telescope a considerably distinct view may 
be obtained of the moon. A power of 1,000 brings us, as it were, 
within 239 miles of its surface, and on very favorable occasions a 
power even higher than this has been applied ; but though a power 
of 2000 times could be used with distinctness it would make the 
moon appear no nearer to us than 120 miles, at which distance a 
living being, though a hundred feet high, could not be seen ; for 
with such a power a space on the moon's surface of 183 feet in di- 
ameter could., only be perceived as the smallest visible point. This 
perhaps is the reason why no trace of lunar inhabitants has as yet 
been discovered. Beside, we ought to consider that when we view 
objects on the moon's surface, we do not view them in perspective, 
as we do objects on the surface of the earth, but only obtain a bird's- 
eye view of them, as we do of objects on the earth's surface, Avhich 
we view from a balloon elevated in the atmosphere ; in which case, 
when we look down upon groups of human beings we see only the 
tops of their heads and their shoulders. 

Dr. Olbers, a celebrated German astronomer, was full}-- of opin- 
ion from observations he had made '• that the moon is inhabited by 
rational creatures, and that its surface is more or less covered with 
a vegetation not very dissimilar to that of our earth." Even to the 
naked eye the moon presents the appearance of an uneven and rug- 
ged surface ; and telescopic observations confirm this impression. 
On many parts of its surface liigh mountains are seen to exist, and 



346 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the altitudes of many of these have been approximately measured by 
observing the shadows cast by them Avhen the sun shines obliquel}^ 
One peak, named Newton, is found to have an elevation of nearly 
24,000 feet, and several others are very lofty. The elevated sum- 
mits of these lunar mountains catch and reflect the rays of the sun 
long before the plains around them, and shine out brilliantly against 
the dark ground. The most remarkable characteristic feature, how- 
ever, of the lunar surface, is the number of ring craters which exist 
on its surface. These resemble huge volcanic craters. In some 
a spacious plain somewhat circular in shape is surrounded by a lofty 



^^-:r: 




Fis. 112. Fi?. 113. 



and rugged mountain-ridge, which almost or quite encloses it. Not 
unfrequently a solitary peak stands erect in the middle of this en- 
closed plain, attaining nearlj' the same height as the surrounding 
mountain-ridge ; in other cases the interior is so extensive that 
mountain chains run across it. The number of these cavities, es- 
pecially in the southern hemisphere of the moon, is very great ; and 
some of them are of such a size as to be aptly designated " walled- 
plains." Even with the most powerful telescope the more minute 
features of these mountain ranges are unable to be distinguished 
thus far ; the appearance of many of them, however, seems to indicate 
most strongly the violent action of volcanic forces ; and shows that 
in past time great convulsions of nature have taken place there. 

Fig. Ill is a telescopic view of the moon. Fig. 112 is a view of 
the brilliant spot called Aristarchus, Avhich is situated in the north- 
east quadrant of the moon's surface, where the shadows of some of 
the circular cavities, and also the shadows of the mountains may be 
perceived. Fig. 113 is the spot called Hevelius, which contains an 
annular cavity and a broken elevation, somewhat resembling an egg. 
Fig. 114 represents a cavity surrounded by a circular range of moun- 
tains, with two central mountains in the middle of the plain, in 
which the shadoAvs of one side of the circular range and of the cen- 
tral mountains may be seen. Fig. 115 shows another magnified por- 
tion of the moon's disc, exhibiting several circular plains, cavities, 
and other varieties of the lunar surface. 



THE MOON. 



347 



The telescope also brings to view many level plains on the 
moon's surface, which were formerly thought to be lunar seas, and 
which still retain the names that were then given to them, though 
it now appears evident that they are merely dry plains. The 
Ocean of Storms, the Sea of Clouds, and the Bay of Rainbows are 
some of these spots. Some astronomers now express the opinion that 
no water exists on the side of the moon that is turned towards the 




Fig 114 Fig. 115. 

earth, however it may be as to its existence on the other hemisphere. 
Some indeed have supposed that its centre of gravity is nearer to the 
other side, and that hence all the air and water are accumulated • 
there ; but this is merely conjecture. 

The best time for making observations on the moon is at the time 
of the quadratures, as at the time of full moon the shadows of the 
mountains and peaks, which are hitherto conspicuous, disappear, the 
sun shining upon them vertically. Accurate maps have ere now been 
drawn of the moon's surface on a large scale, and the principal moun- 
tains have received names, usually names of celebrated astronomers. 

The following additional particulars respecting the moon may be 
stated. 1. The length of a lunar day is equal to nearly fifteen of 
our days, and the length of the night the same, so that a day and 
night in the moon equal twenty-nine and a half of our days and 
nights, or one lunar month. On the hemisphere facing the earth 
there is moonlight, earthshitie, nearly all the time the sun is absent ; 
but in the other hemisphere in the absence of the sun there is no 
light but what proceeds from the stars and planets. Were a lunarian 
to keep travelling at tlie rate of ten miles an hour, in a direction at 
right angles to the moon's axis, he might keep pace with the moon's 
rotation, and be enabled to live in perpetual sunshine. 2. The light 
of the moon has been computed to be 300,000 times less intense than 
that of the sun when shining in an unclouded sky ; yet its utility is 
considerable ; and when the full moon shines in its splendor it sheds 
a cheerful though mild radiance over the surrounding landscape. 



348 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

3. The moon is, according to the opinion of most astronomers, sur- 
rounded by an atmosphere, but it is a very limited one, and of great 
tenuity, and no clouds or vapors appear to exist in it. It is stated as 
having been distinctly perceived during the annular eclipse of 1836, 
when just before the edges of the two bodies met, the light of the 
sun was seen to shoot through the moon's atmosphere, mollified into 
twilight. Schroter calculated its height at 5742 feet. They also 
gave it as their opinion that the moon is replenished with inhabitants ; 
for although seas, and rivers, and a dense atmosphere are not found 
connected with the lunar orb, and some other of its peculiarities are 
different from those of the earth, yet these circumstances form no 
valid objection to its being inhabited with a race of sentient and in- 
telligent beings peculiar to itself, and adapted to their habitation. 
If telescopes of sufficient powers were in use to disclose to us the 
particulars as to the surface of the moon, there would, doubtless, be 
found water existing there, and a race of beings perhaps not very 
dissimilar to mankind, whose thoughts may sometimes be directed to 
the glorious orb of the earth in the way of adoration. 

Appearance of the Heavens as viewed from the Moon. 

Although the moon is the nearest body to the earth, and its con. 
stant companion, yet its celestial scenery is in a variety of aspects 
different from ours. The earth appears the most splendid orb in its 
nocturnal sky, and its various phases and relative positions form, 
doubtless, an interesting subject of enquiry and contemplation to its 
inhabitants. It appears in the lunar sky thirteen times larger than the 
moon does to us,, and sheds nearly a corresponding jjortion of light on 
the mountains and vales of the lunar surface. As the moon always 
presents nearly the same side to our view, so the earth is visible from 
only one-lialf of the lunar surface. The inhabitants of the oppo- 
site side of the moon, which is never turned toward the earth, Avill 
never see the earth in the sky unless they perform a journey to the 
opposite hemisphere ; and those who dwell near the central parts of 
that hemisphere, which is turned from our globe, will require to 
travel more than 1500 miles before they can behold the large globe 
of the earth in the sky. To all those to whom the earth is visible it 
appears fixed and immovable in the same relative point of the sky ; 
or, at least, does not appear to have any circular motion round the 
heavens. To a spectator situated in the middle of the moon's hemi- 
sphere visible from the earth, the earth appears directlj^ in the zenith, 
or overhead, and always appears fixed very nearl}^ in the same posi- 
tion. To a spectator placed in the extreme parts of that hemisphere, 



THE MOON. 349 

or what seem to us to be the margins of the moon, the earth appears 
always nearly in the horizon ; and to spectators in intermediate posi- 
tions the earth appears at a higher or lower elevation above the hori- 
zon, according to their distance from the extreme or central parts of 
that hemisj)here. But though the earth appears fixed nearly in the 
same part of the sky the slight variation of the moon, called the libra- 
tion, causes the earth now and then to appear to shift its position a 
little by a kind of vibratory motion, so that those at the margins of 
the hemisphere who see the earth in the horizon sometimes see it dip 
a little below, and at other times rise a little above their horizon. 
This vibratory motion they are probably disposed at first view to at- 
tribute to the earth, which they will naturally consider as a body 
nearly at rest, but subject to a slight vibratory motion ; whereas this 
apparent vibration proceeds from the actual vibration of the moon 
itself. 

Although the earth seems fixed in nearly the same position, its 
rotation round its axis is distinctly percej)tible, and presents a variety 
of different aj^pearances. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America present 
themselves one after another in different shapes nearly as they are 
represented on our terrestrial globes ; and our polar regions, which 
we have never yet been able to explore, are distinctly seen by the 
lunarians, who will be enabled to determine whether they chiefly 
consist of land or water. When the Pacific ocean, which occupies 
nearly half the globe, is presented to view, the great body of the 
earth assumes a dusky or sombre aspect, except toward the north, 
north-east, and north-west ; and the islands dispersed through this 
ocean will exhibit the appearance of small lucid spots on a darkish 
ground. But when the eastern continent turns round to view, espe- 
cially its northern regions, the earth appears to shine with a greater 
degree of lustre. These appearances are diversified by the numerous 
strata of clouds, which are continually wafted by the winds over the 
different regions of the earth ; and must occasionally intercept their 
view of certain parts of the continents and seas, or render their 
appearance more obscure at one time than at another. 

The apparent diurnal motions of the sun, the planets, and the stars 
appear much slower and somewhat different in several respects from 
what they do to us. When the sun rises in their eastern horizon, 
his progress is so slow that it requires more than seven of our da^'s to 
come to the meridian, and the same time before he has descended 
to the western horizon ; for the days and nights on the moon, as 
before remarked, are nearly fifteen days each, and they are nearly of 
an equal length on all parts of its surface, as its axis is nearl}" per- 
pendicular to the ecliptic, and consequently the sun never removes to 



350 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

any great distance from the equator. During the day the earth appears 
like a faint cloudy orb, always in the same position ; and during the 
night the stars and planets are visible without interruption for fifteen 
days, and are seen moving gradually during that time from the east 
to the western horizon. Though the earth Avill always be seen in 
the same point of the sky both by day and night, yet it will appear 
to be constantly shifting its position with respect to the planets and 
the stars, which will appear to be regularly moving from the east to 
the west of it ; and some of them will occasionally be hidden or suf- 
fer an occultation for three or four hours behind its body. The sun, 
planets and fixed stars will appear of the same apparent magnitude 
as they do from the earth ; but as the poles of the moon are directed 
to points of the heavens different from those to which the poles of 
the earth are directed, the pole-stars in the lunar firmanent, and the 
stars which mark its equator and parallels, are all different from ours ; 
so that the stars in their apparent diurnal revolutions will appear to 
describe circles different from those which they appear to describe 
in our sky. The inferior planets, Mercury, and Venus, will generally 
be seen in the vicinit}' of the sun as they are seen from the earth ; 
but they will be more distinctlj" perceived, and are visible for a much 
longer time, after sunset, than they are from our globe. This is 
owing, first, to the transparency of the lunar atmosphere, and to the 
absence of dense vapor near the horizon, which in our case prevent 
any distinct observations of the heavenly bodies, when at a low alti- 
tude ; and, secondly, to the slow apparent diurnal revolution of 
Mercury and Venus. The superior planets, which we are about to 
consider, will, as with us, be seen in different parts of the heavens,- 
and occasionally in opjDosition to the sun ; but they appear to be 
continually shifting their positions in relation to the earth, and. in 
the course of fifteen days are seen in the very opposite quarter of 
the heavens, and in other fifteen days are again seen in conjunction 
Avith the eartli ; and nearly the same appearances are observed in 
reference to the inferior planets, but the periodic times of their con- 
junctions with the earth, and their oppositions to it, are somewhat 
different, owing to the difference of their velocities in their annual 
revolutions. 

The eclipses of the sun which happen to the lunar people are more 
striking, and total darkness is of much longer continuance than Avith 
us. When a total eclipse of tlie moon happens to us there is a total 
eclipse of the sun to the lunarians. At that time the dark side of 
the earth is completely turned toAvard the moon, and the sun is seen 
to pass graduallj' behind the earth until it entirely disappears. The 
time of the continuance of total darkness in central eclipses is nearly 



THE MOON. 351 

two hours ; and, of course, a total eclipse of the sun must be a far 
more striking and impressive phenomenon to the inhabitants of the 
moon than to us. A complete darkness ensues immediately after the 
body of the sun is hidden, and the stars and planets appear as at 
midnight. When a partial eclipse of the moon happens to us, all 
that portion of the moon's surface, over which the earth's shadow 
passes, suffers a total eclipse of the sun during the time of its contin- 
uance. On the other pai'ts of the moon's surface there is a partial 
eclipse of the sun : and to those who are beyond the range of the 
earth's shadow no eclipse appears. When an eclipse of the sun happens 
to us the lunarians see a dark spot, with a penumbra or fainter shades 
around it, moving across the disc of the earth, which then appears a full 
enlightened hemisphere, excepting the part that is obscured by the pro- 
gress of the shadow. The inhabitants of the other hemisphere of the 
moon can never experience a solar eclipse, as the earth can never inter- 
pose between the sun and any part of that hemisphere ; so that they 
will only know of such phenomena by report, unless they perform a 
journed for the purpose of observing. The length of the lunar year 
is about the same as ours, but different as to the number of days, the 
lunar year having only 12. sew days, each day and night being as long as 
29^ of ours ; the length of their year, however, will be considerably 
difficult for the lunarians to determine. The study of the heavens 
in tlie moon is more difficult and complex than with us on the earth. 
The phenomena exhibited by the earth is doiibtless the most difficult 
for the lunar people to understand. They will be apt to imagine 
at first view, that the earth is a quiescent body in their linnan>t;nt, 
because it appears continually in tlie same point of the sky, and that 
the other heavenly orbs all revolve around it. On the other hand 
they enjoy some advantages in making celestial observations which 
we do not possess. Those living on the side next the earth, will be 
enabled to determine the longitude of places on the lunar surface 
with as great facility as we find the latitude of places on our globe. 
For as the earth keeps constantly over one meridian of tlie moon, or 
very nearly so, the east and west distances of places from that merid- 
ian may be readily found, by taking the altitude of the earth above 
their horizon, or its distance from the zenith, on the same principle 
as we obtain the latitude of a place by taking the altitude of the 
pole-star, or the height of the equator above the horizon, The lunar 
astronomers likewise possess a singular advantage over our terrestrial 
astronomers in the length of their nights, which gives them an oppor- 
tunity of contemplating the heavenly bodies, especially Mercury and 
Venus, and tracing their motions and aspects for a longtime without 
intermission. Such are some of the celestial phenomena as seen from 



362 CREATOR AND COSlvrOS. 

the moon. However different these phenomena may appear from 
those which Ave are accustomed to behold in our terrestrial firmament 
they are all 0A-\-ing to the following circumstances ; that the moon 
moves round the earth as the more immediate centre of its motions ; 
that it always turns the same side to the earth. These slight 
differences in the motions and ]-elative positions of the earth and moon 
are the principal causes of all the peculiar aspects of the lunar firma- 
ment. But we shall see, as we proceed, that there is an indefinite 
variety of celestial scenery throughout the universe, so that no one 
Avorld, or system of worlds, presents the same scenery and phe- 
noiuena as another. 

The Planet Mars. 

We now pass on to notice the superior planets, that is, those 
whose orbits lie without that of the earth, concerning the nearer of 
Avhich our information is more complete than it is about the inferior 
planets, as the latter are usually too much hidden by the brightness 
of the sun's rays to be distinctly observed. But the superior planets, 
since their orbits are outside that of the earth, are at times in oppo- 
sition to the sun ; at this period, too, they are in perigee, that is, at 
their least distance from the earth, and are, therefore, in all respects 
most favorably situated for observation. The nearest of these bodies 
to us is Mars, a name Avhich was given by the ancients to this planet, 
and signifj'ing the " God of War," which appellation appears to have 
been given on account of its ruddy or fiery appearance, and because 
the astrologers believed it to be a promoter of war and bloodshed. 
The diameter of this planet is 4,920 miles ; its circumference 15,456 
miles; and consequently its superficial area about 76,043,520 square 
miles, so that it ranks as one of the smaller planets of our system, its 
bulk beino- about one-eiR-hth that of the earth. It revolves round the 
sun at a mean distance of 139,312,000 miles in au orbit of considerable 
eccentricity, the difference between its greatest and least distance 
being about 26,000,000 miles. When the planet is in opposition, 
both it and the earth are on the same side of the sun, and the dis- 
tance between them then is about 48,000,000 miles. At this time 
the planet shines with a brilliancy almost rivalling that of Jupiter or 
Venus ; this happens once in two years and fifty days, its synodic 
period being 780 days. When it happens to be in its perihelion at 
the same time, its brilliancy is still greater, and consequently this is 
the most favorable opportunity for telescopic observations upon it. 
It accomplishes its periodical revolution round the sun in 687 days, 
or about one year and ten months, which is at the rate of about 



MAES. 353 

54,000 miles an hour ; but as the Martian day is a little longer than 
ours, there will not be quite this number of days in his year. But, 
before it can return to the same relative position in regard to the 
earth and sun, or, in other words, from one opposition to another, it 
occupies a period of 780 days, that is, two years and fifty days, as 
above stated. 




Figs. 116, 117 and 118. 

When examined at this period with a powerful telescope, Mars is 

found to exhibit an appearance similar to that which the earth would 

probably present to the inhabitants of that planet. The surface is 

diversified with dark, portions which represent Avater, and lighter 

parts which are the continents. These mai-kings are found to vary a 

23 



354 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

little at times, probably owing to the presence of large masses of clouds 
in the planet's atmosphere; the main features are, however, sufficiently 
prominent to enable maps to be constructed showing the configura- 
tion of its surface. The above figures give a general idea of tlie 
appearance of the 2:)lanet when seen through a large telescope. When 
its atmosphere is clear the land appears to be of a ruddy hue, while 
the water is somewhat greenish. Figure 116 represents the southern 
and northern hemispheres as drawn by jNIessrs. Beer and Madler, who 
devoted many years to the examination of Mars ; Figure 117 is taken 
from the observations of Secchi, the eminent Roman observer, at the 
opposition of 1858. The following are the results of Sir John Her- 
schel's observations on this planet, made with a powerful reflecting 
telescope. He states that on account of the clearness of its atmos- 
phere he has been enabled to observe with perfect distinctness the 
outlines of continents and oceans ; that the land on its surface is 
distinguished by a red hue, which imparts to the planet the ruddy 
appearance it has when viewed with ordinary telescojDes, and which 
its light exhibits to the naked eye. This redness he ascribes to a 
quality in the prevailing soil like that which our red-sandstone dis- 
tricts would exhibit to an observer contemplating the earth from the 
surface of ]\Iars. The seas of this planet, he observes, have a green- 
ish hue, altogether resembling the color of our own. These spots, 
however, are not always to be seen equally distinct, because of the 
varying transparency of the atmosphere; but when they are distinctly 
seen they always present the same appearance. Astronomers con- 
clude that this planet is surrounded with an atmosphere of consider- 
able extent, in which clouds at times exist ; that the darker spots 
are water or seas which reflect a much less proportion of the solar 
light than land, and probably cover about one-third of its surface; 
that a variety of seasons somewbat similar to ours are experienced 
on this planet, but of a much longer duration ; and that it bears a 
more striking resemblance to the world in which we dwell than any 
other planet in the solar system. It was owing to observations taken 
on this planet by Tycho Brahe having fallen into the hands of 
Kepler, that the three great laws of planetary motion, commonly 
termed " Kepler's laws," were discovered. These laws we shall 
have occasion to notice hereafter. The period of this planet's rota- 
tion round its axis has been ascertained to be 24 hours, 37 minutes, 
23 seconds. The inclination of its axis to the plane of its orbit is 
28° 51', or a little greater than that of the earth. This is a reason 
"why its seasons should resemble ours to a considerable extent. No 
moon has yet been discovered accompanying Mars. 



MARS. 355 

The Scenery of the Heavens^ as Viewed from Mars. 

From this planet the earth will at certain periods be distinctly- 
seen, but it presents a different aspect, both in its general appearance 
and its apparent motions, from what it does to the inhabitants of 
Mercury or Venus. To Mars the earth is an inferior planet, whose 
orbit is within the orbit of Mars. It will, therefore, be seen only as 
a morning and an evening star, as Venus appears to us ; but with a 
less degree of magnitude and brilliancy, since Mars is at a greater 
distance from the earth than the latter is from Venus. It will pre- 
sent to Mars successively the form of a crescent, a half-moon, and a 
gibbous phase, but will seldom or never be seen as a full enlightened 
hemisphere, on account of its proximity to the sun, when its enlight- 
ened surface is fully turned toward the planet; nor does it ever 
appear further removed from the sun, either in the mornings or even- 
ings, than 48°, which is the greatest elongation also of Venus as she 
appears to the earth, so that the earth never appears in the firmament 
of Mars about midnight. The earth will likewise be sometimes seen 
to pass across the sun's disc like a round black spot, as Mercury and 
Venus at certain periods appear to us ; but the planet Mercury will 
never be seen from Mars, on account of its smallness and nearness to 
the sun ; for at its greatest elongation it can appear onlj^ a few de- 
grees from the sun's margin, and is consequently immersed in his 
rays. The only time when it might happen to be detected is when 
it makes a transit across the sun's disc. Venus will be as seldom 
seen by the inhabitants of Mars as Mercury is by us. Our moon 
may likewise be seen from Mars as a small star accompanying the 
earth, but never at a greater distance from each other than fifteen 
minutes of a degree, or about half the apparent breadth of the moon ; 
and with telescopes such as we have, all its phases and eclipses may 
be distinctly perceived. The planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear 
to Mars nearly as tliey do to us. At the time of Jupiter's opposition 
to the sun that planet will appear a slight degree larger, as Mars is 
then 50,000,000 miles nearer it than we are ; but Saturn will not 
appear sensibly larger than to us ; and it is likely that the largest of 
the minor planets and the planet Uranus are not more distinguishable 
thaji they are from our globe. The point Aries on the ecliptic of 
Mars, one of the j)oints where its ecliptic and equator intersect each 
other, corresponds to 19° 28' of our sign Sagittarius. In consequence 
of this the poles of Mars are directed to points of the heavens con- 
siderably different from our polar points, and its equator passes 
through a different series of stars from that which marks our equator, 
which will cause the different stars and constellations, in their 



356 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

apparent diurnal revolutions, to present a different aspect from what 
they do in their apparent movements round our globe. The sun to 
Mars appears somewliat over half the size he does to us. 

The oMinor Planets or Asteroids. 

In the year 1778, Pi'ofessor Bode, of Berlin, published a very 
remarkable law, relating to the distances of the planets from the sun, 
Avhich, though it is said to have been discovered by Titus, is known 
as " Bode's Law." It was at first merely a bold conjecture, but has 
since attracted much attention, as it partly led to the discover}^ of 
the first of the minor planets or asteroids. Since, however, the dis- 
covery of the last planet, Neptune, it has again fallen to the level of 
a conjecture. He observes that if we take the numbers 3 6 12 24 
48 96, each of which, after the second, is double that which precedes 
it, and add the number 4 to each of them, we obtain the following 
list, which represents approximately the proportional distance of the 

4 7 10 16 28 

planets named under them: — ^lercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, , 

52 100 

Jupiter, Saturn. Thus, if we take 10 to represent the distance of the 
eai'th, we shall find that 4 represents that of Mercury, 7 that of 
Venus, and so on. No planet was, however, known to occupy the 
space intervening between Mars and Jupiter, corresponding to the 
number 28. There was thus a gap left in the system, and Bode 
stated his conviction that, as the sk}^ was more carefully Avatched, 
and better telescopes were employed, such a body would be discov- 
ered. Nor was his prediction long unfulfilled, for in the year 1800 
six astronomers agreed to establish an association, of twenty-four 
observers, who should divide the zodiac between them, each taking- 
fifteen degrees, and should search for the supposed-planet. This 
plan soon succeeded, for on January 1st, 1801, Piazzi, an Italian 
astronomer, discovered a moving body wdiich he at first supposed to 
be a comet, but which soon proved to be a planet afterward named 
Ceres, whose position corresponded A^ery nearly Avith that pointed out 
by Bode's law. When this fact became generally known, the search 
Avas discontinued, as the system appeared now to be complete. In 
the course of the following year, however. Dr. Olbers discoA^ered a 
second planet revolving almost in the same period, and at almost the 
same distance as Ceres. This planet was named Pallas, and its dis- 
covery excited great attention among astronomers, such a thing hav- 
ing hitherto been quite unsuspected, as that there should be two 
planets revolving at almost the same distance from the sun. After 
some time Olbers A^entured a conjecture that these tAvo planets might 



THE MINOR PLANETS. 357 

be the remains of a single one that had by some means become shat- 
tered, and suggested that in this case other fragments might probably 
be discovered. The search was accordingly renewed, and two planets, 
which they respectively called Juno and Vesta, were discovered in 
1804 and 1807. For many years no more were found ; accordingly 
it was believed that all had been discovered, and that these four, 
Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta, were the four fragments of a large 
planet, which had once revolved in an orbit nearly resembling theirs. 

At the end of the year 1845, the discovery of a new asteroid was 
announced by Hencke, and again drew the attention of astronomers 
to the subject. Many more observers now undertook the task of 
trying to discover some more of those small bodies ; and since that 
time few years have passed without some fresh names of planets being 
added to the list, which at present contains more than 100, all of 
whose orbits are situated in the space between Mars and Jupiter. 
These generally do not present a well-defined disc in the telescope 
as the largest planets do, but appear like minute stars of about the 
twelfth magnitude, so that the only way of observing them is by 
accurately noting down all the stars visible in a given small portion 
of the heavens, and then carefully watching, on successive evenings, 
to ascertain if any of these appear to have changed their positions, or 
if any fresh points appear among them. Three only of these planets, 
it is said, have been seen by the naked eye, namely, Vesta, Ceres, 
and Pallas, and it is only under very favorable circumstances that 
they can be seen. Nothing definite is yet given us as to the dimen- 
sions of these small planets, those mentioned as seen by the naked 
eye being accounted the largest. Their distances from the sun vary 
considerably, Flora, the nearest of them, being estimated to have a 
mean distance of 200,000,000 miles, while the farthest is reckoned as 
distant above 313,000,000 miles. Their times of revolution are also 
found to be very different, the two planets just named taking respect- 
ively 3-266 and 6'413 years to complete their revolutions. 

Owing to their small size and great distances, very little is known 
as to the nature or character of these small planets ; traces of an 
atmosphere have, however, been discovered round some of them, that 
surrounding Pallas appearing to have great density. 

The theory of Gibers, as to these small planets being fragments 
of a large planet which had been shattered b}' the action of some 
internal force, was adopted by some ; while others held that they 
might have resulted from a planet having been shattered by a collision 
with a comet ; both of which theories to account for the existence of 
planets which are found to be so widely separated from each other, 
and to revolve round the sun in such widely different periods in 



358 CREATOR AJTD COSMOS. 

their respective orbits, seem as unreasonable as tbey are groundless. 
The discovery of so many should, however, be sufficient to incite 
astronomers to continue their researches for many others which yet 
remain imdiscovered in our system. 

The Heavens, as seen from the Minor Planets. 

To some of these planets, revolving as they do at nearly the same 
mean distance from the sun, the appearance of the heavens will be 
very similar. The planet Jupiter will be the most conspicuous object 
in the firmament of them all, and will appear to most of them at least 
of three or four times the size and splendor he does to us, so as to 
exhibit the appearance of a small brilliant moon. Saturn will appear 
somewhat larger and brighter than to us, but the diffei*ence in his 
appearance will be inconsiderable ; nor will Uranus be more distinctly 
visible than from the earth. At otlier times, as when near their con- 
junction with the sun, these planets will appear smaller than to us. 
Mars will sometimes appear as a morning and an evening star, but 
he will always appear in the immediate neighborhood of the sun, and 
will present a surface much less in apparent size than he does to the 
earth. The earth Avill rarely be seen on account of its proximity to 
the sun; and Venus and Mercury will be altogether invisible in all 
of them unless they may happen to be seen when transiting the 
solar disc. It is likely that at certain times most or all of these 
planets Avill exhibit an uncommon, and occasionally a brilliant, ap- 
pearance in the firmament of each other. In their revolutions round 
the sun they may, in parts of their orbits, approach each other so as 
to be many times nearer each other in one part of their orbits than 
in another. These different positions in which they may be placed 
in relation to each other will doubtless produce a great variet}' in 
the appearances the}- present in their respective firmaments ; so that 
at one time they may present in the visible firmament a surface a 
hundred or even two hundred times greater than they do in other 
parts of their orbits. It is probable, therefore, that the diversified 
aspects of these planets in respect to each other will form the most 
striking phenomena which diversify their nocturnal heavens. In 
consequence of the great eccentricity of the orbit of some of them, 
as Pallas, the sun will appear much larger to them in one part of 
their course than it does in another. 

The Planet Jupiter. 

Beyond this group of small planets, which we have been consid- 
ering, lies the planet Jupiter, the largest known body connected with 



JUPITER. 359 

our system, the sun only excepted. The dimensions of the diameter 
of this planet are given variously, but, taking the smallest amount 
we find for his equatorial diameter, this is 85,390 miles, or more than 
ten times as great as that of the earth. Its circumference, therefore, 
is 268,261 miles, and its superficial area 22,906,806,790 square miles, 
about 117 times that of the earth. And as globes are to each other 
as the cubes of their diameters, and the cube of Jupiter's diameter 
is 622,617,094,819,000 miles; and the cube of the earth's diameter is 
495,476,997,497, dividing the former by the latter, the quotient is 
1257 nearly, which shows that Jupiter as a solid globe is nearly 
twelve hundred and fifty-seven times larger than the earth.* Con- 
ceive for yourself a superficial area, one hundred and seventeen times 
larger than that of our terraqueous globe ; and of twelve hundred and 
fifty -seven globes of the size of the earth having to be rolled into 
one in order to make one of the size of Jupiter ; its mass, as compared 
with the sun's, is estimated as 1 to 160,709. The mean distance of 
this planet from the sun is 475,693,000 miles ; consequently from the 
earth 380,693,000 miles ; and it performs its orbitual journey round 
the sun in 4332.58 days, or a few weeks less than twelve of our 
years. It moves in its orbit at the rate of 29,000 miles an hour, a 
rate of speed considerably less than half that of the earth. We 
always find, however, that the farther the planets are removed from 
the sun, the less is the rate of speed at which they move, and con- 
versely. The axis of this planet being nearly perpendicular to the 
plane of its orbit, it cannot have the same variety of seasons as the 
earth and Mars. Its inclination is, however, 3° 5', which will pro- 
duce a slight change of seasons both in the polar and equatorial 
regions. Had the axis been as much inclined to the orbit as the 
earth's axis is, the polar regions would respectively have been deprived 
of the light of the sun for nearly six years without interruption, or 
one-half of the year of Jupiter. The plane of Jupiter's orbit is inclined 
very slightly to the plane of the ecliptic, or earth's orbit, and hence it is 
difficult to determine that exact point at which they intersect, and to 
ascertain in the usual way the length of its year. This, however, is 



* The proportion of tlie circumference of a circle to the diameter is nearly as 22 to 7, — more 
accnrately as 3.141(j to 1. Therefore if we multiply tlie circumference by 7 and divide the 
product by 22, we obtain the diameter nearly. And by multiplying the diameter by 22, and 
dividins the product by 7, we obtain the circumference. But we obtain the result more 
accurately by multiplying the diameter by 3.1410 in order to obtain the circumference; and 
by dividing the circumference by .3.1410 in order to obtain the diameter. The superficial area 
is obtained by multiplying the square of the diameter by 3.1410 ; and the solid contents by the 

formula D ^ X — 
6 



360 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



readily overcome by ascertaining its s3aiodic period, or the time which 
intervenes from one opposition of the planet to another, and calcu- 
lating from this its siderial period. 

When Jupiter is examined by means of a good telescope the most 
remarkable feature which strikes the observer is a number of almost 
parallel belts which characterize its surface, which may be slightly 
perceived in the accompanying view of the planet. Sometimes fre- 
quent and rapid changes take jDlace in the number and ajopearance of 
these belts; at other periods, the}' remain long ahnost unchanged. 
It has been a subject of much speculation among astronomers as to 
the views which should be entertained respecting the nature of these 
belts, and the causes which operate in producing the changes which 
frequently take place among them. Whatever opinion ma}' be en- 
tertained on this point, it is pretty evident that the dark stripes, or 
belts, are the real body of the planet, and the bright spaces between 
them, or scattered among them, are clouds on its atmosphere, or 
cloudy zones, liable to variation, which surround the body of the 
planet at a certain distance from its surface. Distinct markings or 
spots are sometimes visible on these belts, and remain constant suf- 
ficiently long to enable the 
time which the planet takes 
in rotation on its axis to be 
ascertained, which, as a re- 
sult of many observations, 
has been determined to be 
9 hours 55^ minutes. This 
is, as will be observed, less 
than half the time occupied 
by the earth, or any other of 
the planets we have yet con- 
sidered in their diurnal ro- 
tation, and is the more re- 
markable when we consid- 
er tlie vast size of Jupiter. 
The equatorial regions of the surface of this planet must thus move 
about 460 miles a minute, wliile the speed of the corresponding portions 
of the earth is only about 17 miles in the same time. 

By observing the attractive influence of the planets on each other 
astronomers are enabled to calculate approximately their respective 
densities ; and thus the}' find the density of Jupiter to be less than 
a quarter that of the earth, or in other words that Jupiter, taken 
bulk for bulk, weighs less than a quarter as much as the earth does. 
The density of the earth is estimated at 5^ times that of water. 




JUPITER. 861 

Jupiter, therefore, has a density a little greater than water. Future 
observations may, however, give somewhat different results as to the 
time of axial rotation and the density of this planet. The intensity 
of the solar light on Jupiter is 27 times less than on the earth ; this 
however, will produce a large degree of illumination, if that planet 
has an atmosphere and surface anything like ours, to reflect the light. 
An observer situated on Jupiter would have no suspicion that such a 
globe as the earth has an existence in the universe; all its fancied 
grandeur and its proud inhabitants are as much unnoticed and un- 
known there, as is the smallest animalcule in the drop of water by 
the unaided eye. 

The telescope also discloses to us the fact that Jupiter is accom- 
panied by. four satellites, or moons. Three of these were discovered 
by Galileo on January 7th, 1610, when he first directed his newly 
invented telescope toward tlie planet ; and the fourth a few evenings 
later. A comparatively low power, such as that of a good opera-glass 
suffices to show them all distinctly ; the telescope Galileo used mag- 
nified only 33 times. Three of these satellites revolve round Jupiter 
in orbits which are almost circular, and very slightly inclined to the 
plane of the planet's equator. Owing to this circumstance the three 
nearer ones to the planet are eclipsed every revolution, so that the 
phenomena of eclipses are far from rare to the inhabitants of Jupiter 
there being about 4,500 lunar eclipses in one Jovian year, about 
twelve of our years. It has been deduced from the observations of 
Sir W. Herschel and others that the moons of Jupiter always pre- 
sent the same side toward the planet, and make one rotation on their 
axis during one revolution round their primary, which corresponds 
with Avhat Ave find in the case of our moon, which, as before shown, 
always presents the same hemisphere toward the earth, and makes 
one rotation on its axis while making one revolution round the earth. 
The eclipses and transits of these bodies are very interesting phenom- 
ena, and may easily be observed with an ordinary telescope. A full 
list of these is given in the " Nautical Almanac" for each year, and 
scarcely a day passes without some of them being observed. They 
are frequently used in determining the longitude of any station of ob- 
servation at sea. When any of the satellites passes between the earth 
and the planet, it is seen in transit as a bright spot on its face ; its 
shadow'is also seen as a dark spot a little distance from it, presenting 
the appearance of two satellites in transit. The annexed table gives 
in a concise manner the most important facts concerning the satellites. 



N:mit'. 



Moan Distnnce from Planet 



Siderial Period 



Diameter. 



lo 

Europa . . 
Ganymede 
Callislo . . 



2(i7,380 miles. 
425.1 GO " 
678.390 " 
1,192,820 " 



1 (lav, 18 hours, 27 minutes. 
3 "■ 13 " 14 

7 " 3 " 43 
U '■ 16 " 32 



2.252 miles. 
2,099 " 
3,436 " 
2,929 " 



362 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

The first of these satellites is considerabl_y larger than our moon ; 
the second very nearly of the same size ; the third is nearly seven times 
the bulk of our moon ; the fourth is about three times that bulk, so 
that the whole of Jupiter's satellites are equal to about a dozen of 
our moon. The circumference of the first satellite is 7,074 miles ; of 
the second 6,294 miles; of the third 10,794; and of the fourth 9,201 
mules; the superficial contents of the first satellites would consequent- 
ly be 15,930,648 square miles; that of the second 13,840,806 square 
miles that of the third 37,088,184 square miles ; and that of the fourth 
26,949,924 square miles. The number of square miles, therefore, on 
Jupiter's four satellites would be nearly 93,809,562 square miles, or 
nearly ninety-four millions of square miles, which is about double 
the extent of surface on all the habitable parts of our globe. Doubt- 
less they are replenished with a large number of inhabitants for 
which they possess such ample capacity. The first satellite, it is seen, 
revolves at a little farther distance from the planet than the moon 
does from the earth; the second at nearly double that distance; the 
third at nearly treble that distance, the fourth at nearly six times that 
distance. 

The Heavens as vieioed from the Satellites and from Jupiter, 

From his satellites Jupiter will appear as a large and resplendent 
moon in their firmament; sometimes appearing in the zenith; some- 
times in the horizon; and in other positions according to the position 
the spectators occupy on the surface of the satellites. From the first 
satellite the globe of Jupiter will appear 1459 times larger than the 
moon does to us, and will exhibit in the course of 21 hours all the 
diversified phases of the moon, a crescent, a gibbous phase, a half-moon, 
and a full enlightened hemisphere. Besides, the appearance of the 
other three moons in its firmament Avill be highly interesting and sub- 
lime. At certain times one of these moons will come so near the 
first satellite as to appear three times larger than our moon does to 
us; and at other times it will appear six times smaller than in itsformer 
position and a variety of other phenomena will be presented to it from 
the complex motions of this system of bodies which it would be 
too tedious here to describe, all of which will present to view objects of 
surpassing grandeur and sublimity, incomparably superior to Avhat 
we are accustomed to beliold in our nocturnal sky. What has been 
now stated with reference to the first satellite Avill also apply in gen- 
eral to the other three satellites, with this difference, that Jupiter 
Avill appear of a different magnitude from each satellite; and the 
magnitudes, motions and aspects of the other satellites will likewise 



JTJPITER AND HIS SATELLITES. 363 

be somewhat different. In each satelHte the great globe of Jupiter, 
appearing motionless in the sky, will be the most conspicuous object 
in their firmament. To the second this globe will appear 566 times 
larger than our moon does to lis; to the third 216 times; and to the 
fourth 70 times the apparent size of the full moon. Each satellite, 
too, will have a variety of other phenomena peculiar to itself. To 
each of them the occultations of the other satellites by the body of 
Jupiter; their eclipses by falling into his shadow; the varieties of 
the surface of Jupiter, caused by his diurnal rotation; the shadows 
of the satellites passing like dark spots across his disc ; the transits 
of the satellites themselves like full moons crossing the orb of Jupi- 
ter; the diversified phenomena of eclipses, some of them happening 
when the satellite is like a crescent, or half-moon, and some of them 
when it appears as a full enlightened hemisphere ; and scarcely a sin- 
gle day will pass without some of these phenomena, and many 
others being observed. The length of the day as has been shown, is 
different in each satellite. 

The only planet which will be conspicuous in the firmament of Ju- 
piter is the planet Saturn, which will appear larger than either Jupiter 
or Venus does to us, especially at the time of its opposition to the sun. 
The planet Uranus which is scarcel}' distinguishable to our unassist- 
ed sight, will not be more distinguishable at Jupiter than with us, even 
at the time of its opposition. Mars will not be seen from Jupiter, 
both on account of its smallness, and of its proximity to the sun. 
The earth will be invisible from Jupiter both on account of its small 
size, its distance, and its being in the immediate vicinity of the sun, 
immersed in his rays. But although so few of the primary planets 
are seen in the nocturnal sky of this planet, yet his firmament will 
present a remarkable appearance by the number of his own satellites, 
especially as they all perform their journeys round the planet in 
such short periods of time, and hence their changes occur in rapid 
succession. These four moons will exhibit many curious and sublime 
phenomena to the inhabitants of Jupiter, as they run their nocturnal 
courses through his sky : sometimes they will be seen eclipsing each 
other ; sometimes eclipsing the sun, and at other times the stars ; some- 
times two, three, and even the whole four will be seen shining in the 
heavens in one bright galaxy ; one perhaps in the form of a crescent, 
one with a gibbous phase, one like a half moon, and the other with a 
full enlightened hemisphere. One will be seen moving comparatively 
slow, and another moving rapidly through the sky, and leaving all the 
rest behind it. One will be seen under an eclipse, another entering 
into it, and another emerging from it. One of the satellites will cast 
the shadows of objects toward the north, another toward the south, 



364 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

another toward the east, another toward the west, and in all direc- 
tions upon the surface of Jupiter. These and many other celestial 
phenomena must be highly interesting to the astronomers and all 
others connected with this far distant world. On the whole, the 
planet Jupiter, accompanied by his satellites, presents lo our view 
an object of inexpressible grandeur and sublimity, when we contem- 
plate the vast magnitude of this magnificent globe and the velocity 
Avith which it moves, accompanied by its moons, through the regions 
of space. 

The Planet Saturn. 

The intervals between the planets are now becoming wider and 
wider, and we have to pass nearly 400 millions of miles beyond the 
orbit of Jupiter before we reach that of Saturn. This planet may 
justly be considered as in almost every respect the most magnificent 
and interesting body within the limits of the planetary system, so far 
as yet discovered. Viewed in connection with its satellites and 
rings, it comprehends a greater extent of surface than even the sys- 
tem of Jupiter ; and its majestic rings constitute the most singular 
and wonderful phenomena that have yet been discovered. The 
mean distance of this planet from the sun is 872,135,000 miles ; 
but owing to the eccentricity of his orbit, the real distance may be 
greater or less than this by nearly 50,000,000 miles. His mean dis- 
tance from the earth is 780,705,000 miles, an interval which a cannon 
ball, flying with its utmost velocity without intermission, could not 
travel in less than 178 years, and a steam carriage, moving at the 
rate of twenty miles an hour, could not traverse in less than 4,448 
years. Saturn accomplishes his orbital journey round 'the sun in 
10,729.2 days, or nearly 29i of our years, its motion being over 20,000 
miles an hour, or less than one-third that of the earth. In point of 
size it is next to Jupiter in our system, having an equatorial diameter 
of 71,904 miles. Here we may observe that astronomers detei-mine 
the polar diameter of this planet, as well as that of Jupiter, the 
earth and others, to be somewhat shorter than the equatorial diam- 
eter. The difference, however, in any of these cases is very slight, 
in some of them scarcely at all noticeable. And even these differ- 
ences are determined variously by different astronomers, and continued 
observations with more perfect instruments may eventually show all 
these bodies to be perfect spheres, or that their diameters are equal, 
excepting so far as they ma}- differ on account of the natural eleva- 
tions and depressions of the surfaces of the planets. The circum- 
ference of Saturn measures 225,893 miles, and its superficial area 



SATURN AND HIS SATELLITES. 365 

16,242,610,272, or over sixteen thousand millions of square miles, an 
extent of surface over 82^ times that of our terraqueous globe. 

The motion of this planet being slow as cpmpared with that of the 
other planets, if it be once recognized in the heavens near any large 
fixed star it will be found from year to year making a slow progress 
to the eastwards of that point. Its apparent motion in that direction 
in the course of a year is little more than twelve degrees, or less 
than the moon moves in twenty-four hours. Hence if we perceive 
this planet in any particular point of the heavens this year, at the 
same time next year it will appear only about 12° farther to the 
east. 

Notwithstanding the dull appearance Saturn presents to the naked 
eye, when viewed through a powerful telescope it presents a more 
regular and magnificent appearance than any other body connected 
with our system ; and were it as near us as Mars, or' even Jupiter, it 
would present a splendid appearance even to the naked eye. The 
ancients who first traced the motions of the planet could form no 
adequate idea of the grandeur of Saturn, and of the sj'stem of which 
it is the centre ; and their astrologers, on account of his pale leaden 
hue, accounted him a cheerless unpropitious planet, and as shedding 
a malign influence upon the inhabitants of the earth. But after ages 
of darkness and superstition had rolled away the telescope was in- 
vented, and by the aid of this noble instrument, which has unfolded 
,to us the wonders of the heavens, a system of revolving bodies were 
discovered connected with this planet, more wonderful and magnifi- 
cent than any other object with which we are acquainted. With 
powerful telescopes four or five belts have been discovered on his 
surface, which seem broader and less strongly marked than those of 
Jupiter, and do not appear subject to the variations which are seen 
in Jupiter's belts, and, therefore, they are thought most probably to 
form permanent portions of the globe of Saturn, indicating that 
there is a divei'sity of surface on this planet, but whether land or 
water, or any other particular substance, is not yet clearly deter- 
mined. The quantity of light this planet receives from the sun is 
only the ^th part of what we receive; for Saturn is about 9-| times 
the distance from the sun that the earth is, the square of which is 
90J, and the quantity of light the planets receive is in inverse pro- 
portion to the squares of their distances from the sun. But that 
quantity of light is estimated as equal in effect to the light which 
would be reflected by a thousand full moons such as that connected 
with our earth. As we have remarked before, hoAvever, upon the 
nature of the atmosphere which surrounds a planet, as well as upon 
the nature and character of its surface, much depends as to the 



366 



CKEATOE AND COSMOS. 



degree of illumination which will be enjoyed on it. If the atmos- 
phere of Saturn be as dense and its surface as rough as those of the 
earth that planet will erjjoy a good degree of light. The density of 
this planet is estimated as less than that of any other planet in our 
system. The true period of Saturn's rotation on its axis has been 
difficult to determine ; it is, however, set down at a few seconds 




Fig. 120. 

short of lOi hours. It is remarkable that La Place, from physical 
considerations, had calculated the time of rotation of Saturn to be 
nearly that stated, before Sir W. Herschel had determined it by 
direct observation. Future observations with improved instruments 
may probably disclose something different as to the time of its axial 
rotation and density. The eccentricity of Saturn's orbit is 49,000,- 
000 miles, Avhich is about the ^ih part of the diameter of its orbit. 
Its inclination to the ecliptic is 2° 29^'. 

Saturn is attended with a more numerous train of satellites than 
any other planet in the solar system that has yet been discovered. 
Eight moons have been discovered moving around it in solemn grand- 
eur, diffusing light over its surface in the absence of the sun, and 
greatly diversifying the scenery of its firmament. Two of these, the 
second and seventh, can only be seen Avith the most powerful tele- 
scopes, and several of the others require a good instrument in order 
to show them Avell. Owing to their great distance and small sizes, 
our information concerning them is quite limited. The annexed 
table exhibits in a concise form the most important facts known con- 
cerning them. The diameters, however, Avith the exception of that 
of the sixth, are doubtful : 





Mean Distance from Planet. 


Siderial Period. 


Diameter. 


1st 


120,800 miles. 


day, 27 hours, 37 minutes. 


1,000 miles. 


2(1 


155,000 " 


1 " 8 " 53 


? " 


3(1 


191,000 " 


1 " 21 " 18 


500 •' 


4th 


246.000 " 


2 " 17 " 41 


500 " 


5tli 


343,000 " 


4 " 12 " 25 


1,200 " 


6th 


796,000 " 


15 " 22 " 41 


3,300 " 


7th 


1,007,000 " 


21 " 7 " 8 


? " 


8tli 


2,314,000 " 


79 " 7 " 55 " 


1,800 " 



satubn's kings, thetb magnitude, etc. 367 

Astronomers differ considerably as to the diameters of these satel- 
lites ; and we incline to think them in general much larger bodies 
than the diameters given would indicate them to be. The orbits of 
the three first mentioned of these are much nearer to the planet than 
that of the moon is to the earth ; that of the fourth is a little over that 
distance; that of the fifth nearly li times that distance; that of 
the sixth somewhat over 3^ times that distance ; that of the seventh 
over four times, and of the eighth over nine times that distance. 
The orbits of the seven interior satellites are found to be nearly 
circular-, and very nearly in the plane of the planet's ring, which 
we shall soon consider ; that of the eighth approaches nearer in co- 
incidence with the ecliptic. 

Some phenomena of the Satellites as viewed from the surface of Saturn. 
Description of the rings and scenery of the heaveris as viewed from 
Saturn, his satellites and rings. 

These satellites, like those of Jupiter, undergo frequent eclipses ; 
but on account of their great distance from the earth these eclipses are 
not often observed. It is evident that such a numerous assemblage 
of moons revolving round this planet at different distances, and in 
different periods of time, will present a most beautiful, diversified, 
and sublime appearance in the heavens of Saturn, especially when 
all the eight satellites appear at the same time above the horizon. 
Then one will appear as a full moon, another as a crescent, another 
as a half-moon or with a gibbous phase ; one entering into an eclipse, 
another emerging from it ; the inner satellites, on account of tlieir 
proximity to the planet, presenting the largest discs and the most 
splendid appearance, and moving with great velocity in their orbits, 
rapidly passing the other satellites at different rates of motion, and 
leaving them Ijehind in their course. 

On the surface of Saturn a curious effect will be produced, and a 
diversified scene presented. The shadows of all objects will be pro- 
jected in different directions by the different satellites, according to 
their varying positions in the heavens. One satellite will project 
the shadow of an elevated object towards the east, another towards 
the west, a third will cast it towards the north, a fourth toward the 
south, and the shadows will be cast in a variety of directions accord- 
ing to the number of satellites above the horizon, and the positions 
they occupy in the firmament ; and the swift motions of the first 
three satellites will cause the direction of their shadows rapidly to 
change. In addition to all this diversity of sublime scenery, there 
is the grand spectacle produced by the magnificent rings encircling 
the planet which we shall now endeavor to describe. 



368 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

This ring surrounding the planet being compound, that is, made 
up of two or more concentric rings, is the most remarkable peculi- 
arity of Saturn, and, as before remarked, appears to be quite unique 
in the whole system. To the early observers it caused considerable 
of curiosity and wonder. Galileo, when he first directed his tele- 
scope to the planet, observed that it was somewhat elongated, as if 
it were oval in shape instead of round, the power of the early tel- 
escope not being sufficient, nor their definitions good enough, to 
show the real cause of tlie appearance. After some time he advanced 
an opinion that the planet was really triple, having a small satellite 
on each side of it. This theory obtained for some time, till gradually 
the ring began to be presented edgewise to the earth, and then disap- 
peared altogether. This the astronomers of that time were unable to 
explain, and were, on that.account, very much perplexed; but, after 
the lapse of about half a century, Huygens discovered the real cause 
of these appearances, and announced that Saturn was surrounded 
with a slender flat ring, nowhere touching it. He also predicted the 
period when it would again become invisible, and proved to be very 
near correct in his dates. After a short time it was discovered that 
instead of one ring, there were two concentric ones ; and numerous 
recent observations go to show that these again are divided, so that 
we look upon the whole as a compound or multiple ring, made up 
of several distinct and separate ones. Three of these are well 
marked, the innermost of which is commonly knoAvn as the dusky 
ring^ and seems partially transparent, probably from an accumulation 
of water near its edge. (See figure 120.) From several phenom- 
ena which have been observed, there is thought to be ground for 
supposing that one or more of these rings may be fluid rather than 
solid ; and most probably they are partiall}" fluid. The diameter of 
the outer bright ring is estimated at nearly 170,000 miles, and its 
breadth at upwards of 10,000. The interval between this and the 
inner bright ring is given by Sir W. Herschel at 2839 miles, which 
is 700 miles more than the diameter of our moon ; so that a body as 
large as our moon would have place to move between the rings. 
The breadth of the inner bright ring is 17,000 miles, and that of the 
dusky ring about half that amount, so that the united breadth of 
the whole would be about 35,000 miles. Their thickness is, how- 
ever, small, being variously estimated at from 40 to 250 miles. As- 
tronomers differ somewhat as to the dimensions of these rings, some 
having them larger than is here given. The superficial contents of 
these rings, reckoning both their sides and edges, are computed at 
over 120« times the area of the whole earth ; so that the}'' possess 
ample space for the accommodation of vast numbers of inhabitants, 



Saturn's rings, their magnitude, etc. 369 

with which, doubiless, they are abundantly replenished. From the 
observations of Sir W. Herschel, and others, it has been concluded 
that there are irre^-ularities on the surface of the rin"s analoaous 
perliaps to mountains and vales of vast extent ; and that the occa- 
sional disappearance of the ayisae may possibly arise from a cui'vature 
in their surfaces. Herschel was also of tlie opinion that the edge 
of the exterior ring (or that edge which he could observe best with 
his telescc'pe,) is not flat but curved. This would lead us reasonably 
to infer that tlie rings may be inhabited on all their sides and 
edges, just as our globe is inhabited on all its opposite sides. This 
astronomer considered, too, that the rings are not less solid than the 
body of the planet, which consideration was doubtless in the main 
correct, and which bespeaks a solid uneven surface, at least in part, 
for the rings. By means of several protuberant points connected 
with the rings, Sir W. Herschel discovered that it has a swift rota- 
tion round the globe of Saturn, which it accomplishes in 10 hours, 
32J minutes. Secchi, however, sets it down at 14 hours, 23 j minutes. 
The ring is everywhere distant from the surface of the planet over 
20,000 miles ; so that two or three globes of the size of the earth 
might be interposed between them. This magnificent appendage 
keeps always the same position with respect to the planet ; is inces- 
santly revolving round it ; and at the same time moving along with 
the planet in its revolution round the sun. When viewed through 
a good telescope the appearance of the system of Saturn is very 
beautiful. At times the ring is presented with its edge toward us, 
and is then almost invisible, being just discernible as a thread of 
light along Avhich some of the satellites appear to be moving. As 
the earth moves out of the plane of the planet's equator the ring 
opens out wider and wider, the projecting sides having the appear- 
ance of handles, whence their technical name ansae. The opening 
of the ring attained its maximum in August, 1869 ; its edge will 
therefore be directed toward the earth again about the close of the 
7ear 1876. The phenomenon of the disappearance of the rings 
takes place at intervals of fourteen years and nine months, and 
happens when the planet is in 170° and 350° of longitude, or in 
the 20th degree of Virgo, and the 20th degree of Pisces. Some- 
times the sun is on one side of the plane of the rings, and the earth 
on the other. The dark side is then turned towards us, and the ring- 
is invisible. In Figure 120 is a good view of the rings as seen in 
1852 by Mr. Dawes. 

Saturn and his rings would present a more splendid and interest- 
ing appearance through our telescopes could we view the rings not 
obliquely, but as at right angles to our line of vision ; but as we 

24 



370 CKEATOR AJfD COSMOS. 

view them our eye is never more elevated than 30° above the plane 
of the rings. The sun shines on one side of this compound ring dur- 
ing a period of fifteen years, and the regions of Saturn which lie 
under the dark side suffer a solar eclij^se under its shadow during 
this period. But doubtless this loss of light is amply compensated 
by the light of the satellites. 

Recent observations reveal the fact that the planet is not situated 
exactly in the centre of the rings, one of the ansae being longer than 
the other ; another fact is that the dimensions of the rings appear to 
vary from day to day in a way that is explained by supposing the 
rings to be elliptical, and that they would thus present this appear- 
ance in their rotation round the planet. This oscillation of the rings 
about the planet is believed to be necessary to the maintenance of 
permanent equilibrium in the system of Saturn ; for astronomers 
demonstrate from physical considerations that were they mathemati- 
cally perfect as to their circular form, and exactly concentric with the 
planet, " they would form a sj'stem in a state of unstable equilibrium, 
Avhich the slightest external power," (such as the attraction of the 
satellites,) " might completely subvert by precipitating them un- 
broken on the body of the planet." " The observed oscillation," says 
Sir J. Herschel, " of the centre of the rings about that of the planet 
is in itself the evidence of a perpetual contest between conservative 
and destructive powers, both extremely feeble, but so antagonizing 
one another as to prevent the latter from ever gaining an uncon- 
trollable ascendanc}', and rushing to a catastrophe." It appears, too, 
that the ring rotates on its axis in exact!}- the same time that the 
planet does, which would go to show the time of rotation determined 
by the elder Herschel as more correct than that stated by Secchi, 
for he goes on to say : " The smallest difference of velocity between 
the bodv and rings must infallibly precipitate the latter on the 
former, never more to separate ; consequently, either their motion in 
their common orbit round the sun must have been adjusted to each 
other by an external power with the minutest precision, or the rings 
must have been formed about the planet while subject to their com- 
mon orbitual motion, and tmder the full, free influence of all the act- 
ing forces." At the rate of axial motion given to the jjlanet and 
rings by the Herschels, the parts about the planet's equator must 
move 22,476 miles an hour, and the. exterior circumference of the 
.outer ring 53,176 miles an hour, 886 miles a minute, or fifteen miles 
a second. We cannot therefore, possibly conceive of any external 
power as adjusting their motion to each other in their common orbit 
round the sun " with the minutest pi'ecision," nor of the rings being 
formed about the planet " while subject to their common orbitual 



POSITIOK AND MOTION OF THE RINGS. 371 

motion" with such a velocity, "and under the full, free influence of 
all tlie acting forces," such as the centripetal and centrifugal forces 
of gravitj'', and the various forces of attraction from different direc- 
tions in full operation. Such a thing, as we have had occasion to re- 
mark before, in a former part of this book, is altogether unreasonable, 
and inconceivable to us to have taken jilace. That system is doubt- 
less as permanent as the system of the earth. 

In consequence of the vast dimensions of these rings, and the 
large space they occup}^ in the firmament of the planet, they will 
present a magnificent spectacle from the regions of Saturn which lie 
under their enlightened sides, especially those places which are 
situated not far from the planet's equator. They will appear as vast 
shining arches spanning the heavens from one side of the horizon to 
the other, and holding an invariable position among the stars. To- 
ward the jDoles of the planet the rings will be quite invisible on ac- 
count of the convexity of the globe of Saturn interposing between 
them and tlie observer ; but near the polar regions a segment of the 
rings will appear, presenting a brilliant apj^earance in the horizon. 
Advancing from those regions toward the equator they will appear 
to span the heavens like brilliant arches of different degrees of 
magnitude, until at the equator they will appear a complete semi- 
circle. During the space of fourteen years and nine months, Avhich 
is half of the year of this planet, the sun shines on one side of these 
rings without intermission, and during alike period he shines on the 
other side. During nearly fifteen years, therefore, the dwellers on 
one side of the equator will be enlightened by the sun in the day- 
time and tlie rings by night, while those on the other hemisphere, 
who live under the dark side of the ring, suffer a total eclipse of 
fifteen years continuance, during Avhich they never see the sun. As 
the sun ceases to shine upon oue side of the ring and is about to 
shine on the other, the rings will be invisible for a few days or weeks 
to all the inhabitants of Saturn. 

The prominent parts of the celestial scenery of Saturn maj- be 
considered as belonging to his own system of rings and satellites, 
and the views which will occasionally be opened of the fiimament 
of the fixed stars, for but few of the other planets will appear in its 
sky. Jupiter will ajjpear alternately as a morning and an evening star 
with about the same degree of brilliancy it exhibits to us, but it will 
never be conspicuous except near the period of its greatest elong- 
ation, and it will never appear removed from the sun further than 
fort3'-one degrees, and consequently will not appear so conspicuous 
or fo]- such a length of time, as Venus does to us. Uranus is 
the only other planet which will be visible from Saturn, and it 



372 CKEATOK AND COSMOS. 

will be distinctly perceptible as a star of the third magnitude 
when near the time of its opposition to the sun. All the other 
planets, such as Mars, the Earth, Venus, Mercury, and our Moon, 
will be far removed from the view of the inhabitants of Saturn, 
being all in the immediate vicinity of the sun, and immersed in his 
rays. 

But notwithstanding all this the sky of Saturn will present a 
most diversified and interesting appearance. No pictorial represent- 
ation, however ample the scale, can convey even an apjiroximate 
idea of the august and splendid objects Avhich adorn his nocturnal 
firmament ; for besides the rings, which form the most striking and 
magnificent spectacle, there are the eight moons, three or four of 
which generally diversify his celestial hemisphere, appearing in dif- 
ferent positions and with different phases, and sometimes the whole 
eight satellites in one bright galaxy may be seen pursuing their dif- 
ferent courses among the stars, and rapidly shifting their positions 
and aspects. Let us picture to ourselves one moon four times as 
large in apparent size as ours shining in the canop}^ of heaven ; an- 
other three times the apparent size of ours in another quarter of the 
sky ; a third apparently twice as large ; a fourth about the apparent 
size of our moon ; and a fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, of different ap- 
parent magnitudes ; some of them appearing as a crescent, some with 
a gibbous phase, and others with a full enlightened hemisphere ; some 
rising, some setting, one entering into an eclipse, and another emerg- 
ing from it ; let us conceive such scenes as these, and Ave may ac- 
quire some general idea of the phenomena presented in the heavens 
of Saturn. 

Also, each of the satellites of Saturn will have celestial scenery 
peculiar to itself. To each of them the globe of Saturn, surrounded 
by the immense rings, will appear the most conspicuous object in the 
firmament. From the first satellite, the globe of Saturn Avill appear 
5400 times larger than the moon does to us. The moon occupies 
onl}^ the -go-.V-oo*^^^ P^^'*^' '^^ ^^^' fii'niament, but the globe of Saturn will 
fill the -jVth of the firmament of his first satellite, and the rings will 
occupy an extent two or three times greater ; so that the planet with 
his rings will appear the most grand and magnificent object in the 
sky. In some positions on this satellite it will appear in their zenith, 
or above their heads ; in others in the horizon, and in other positions 
in the sky, according to the position which the spectator occuj^ies 
upon the satellite. It is not likely that more than half of the globe 
of Saturn will be visible from this satellite, on account of the inter- 
position of the rings, and as its orbit is very nearly parallel with the 
plane of the rings, the surfaces of these rings will be seen in a very 



CELESTIAL SCENEKY OF SATURN. 373 

oblique direction, but still they will exhibit a veiy resplendent ap- 
pearance. When the edge of the outer ring is opposite to the satel- 
lite, and enlightened by the sun, it will present a large arch of light 
in the heavens on each side of the planet, above which will appear 
half the hemisphere of Saturn. If the satellite turn round its axis 
in the same time it takes to revolve around its primary, as is most 
probable, Saturi^ and his rings will appear stationar}- in the heavens, 
for the parallelism of the ring's axis is maintained throughout the 
whole revolution, and the planet Avill present to the inhabitants of 
the satellite a variety of phases, as a crescent, a half-moon, a gibbous 
phase, and a full enlightened hemisphere. The rings will likewise 
appear to vary their aspect during every revolution, beside the 
variety of scenery they will present during their rotation. At one 
time, they will exhibit large and broad luminous arches ; at another 
time they will appear as narrow streaks of light ; and at another 
like dark belts across the disc of Saturn. And as this satellite moves 
round the planet in the course of 27i hours these appearances will 
be changing almost every hour. The appearances of the seven other 
satellites, continually varying their phases, their apparent mag- 
nitudes, and relative aspects ; their positions in respect to the body 
of Saturn and its rings ; their occultations by the interposition both 
of the rings, and the planet, and the eclipses to which they are often 
subjected, will produce a diversity of phenomena, and a grandeur 
unexampled in the case of any other moving bodies in our system. 
The second satellite when in opposition, or in its nearest position to 
the first, will be only 35,000 miles distant ; and although it is not be- 
lieved to be larger than our moon, will present a surface sixty times 
larger than the full moon does in our sky. It Avill present all the 
jjhases of the moon in the coui-se of 33 hours, and will be continual- 
ly changing its apparent magnitude, on account of its removing 
farther from or being nearer to the first satellite. The third satellite 
Avill appear nearly half as large, and Avill present nearly the same 
variety of phases as the other. All the other satellites will appear 
smaller in proportion to their distances from the orbit of the first; 
but they will probably all appear larger than or as large as our moon, 
except the seventh and eighth, which will appear much smaller. 

The eighth satellite, which is reckoned among the largest, will 
have a scenery in its firmament somewhat different from that of the 
first. As its orbit is considerabl_y inclined to the plane of the rings, 
its inhabitants will have a more extensive prospect of the rings than 
those of the seven interior satellites whose orbits are in the plane of 
the rings, althougJTi these objects are beheld at a greater distance, and 
consequently do not fill so large a portion of its sk}-. Their appear- 



374 CREATOK A2^D COSMOS. 

ance, however, will not be without splendor; for although the orbit 
of this planet is nine and seven-tenths times the distance between 
the earth and the moon, yet the body of Saturn will appear fourteen 
times as large as the moon does to us, and the rings will occupy a 
space proportionately more exj^ansive. The phases of Saturn and 
his rings, and the various changes of aspect which they assume, will 
be distinctl}' seen, though on a smaller scale, than from the inner 
satellites ; for the Avhole body of the jjlanet as well as the rings will 
in most cases appear full in view. The intermediate six satellites 
will appear in all the different phases and aspects above described, 
and they will never appear to remove to any great distances from 
the globe of Saturn ; but will appear first on one side, then on an- 
other, and sometimes either above or below the planet, as the in- 
ferior planets appear to us in relation to the sun ; and consequently 
that part of the firmament in which Saturn appears will present a 
most splendid aspect. In this respect the relative positions of the 
satellites as seen from the outermost, Avill be different from their 
positions as seen from the innermost satellite, Avhen they will some- 
times be seen in regions of the sky directly opjoosite to Saturn. All 
the other satellites of this planet will have phenomena peculiar to 
themselves in their respective firmaments, and to each the globe and 
rings of Saturn will appear of a size in jDroportion to the distance at 
which it is from it ; to the second satellite Saturn appears 3456 times 
the size of our full moon ; to the third 2160 times ; to the fourth 
1350 times; to the fifth 683 times: to the sixth 125 times; and to 
the seventh nearly 15 times ; and in all of them a similar variety of 
phenomena, as in the case of the first, are exhibited on a scale of 
grandeur and magnificence. 

Conceive, then, a firmament in which is shining a globe five 
thousand times larger than the apparent size of our moon ; conceive 
luminous arches still more expansive surrounding this globe ; con- 
ceive eight moons of different apparent magnitudes, some of them 
sixty times lai'ger in apparent size than our moon ; conceive, 
further, all these bodies sometimes appearing in one part of the 
heavens, sometimes in another, changing their phases and apparent 
magnitudes, and distance from each other, every hour; appearing 
sometimes like a large crescent, sometimes like a small one ; some- 
times shining Avith a full enlightened face, and sometimes undergo- 
ing a total eclipse ; sometimes hidden behind the large body of the 
planet, and sometimes crossing its disc with a rapid motion, like a 
circular shadow. Suppose these and many other diversified pheno- 
mena presenting themselves with increasing variety in the canopy of 



PHEKOMENA FROM SATELLITES AND RINGS. 375 

heaven, and you will have some slight idea of the grandeur of the 
firmament as seen from some of the satellites of Saturn. 

On the rings there will be a greater diversitj^ of celestial scen- 
er}^ than any we have yet described. There will be at least ten 
varieties of celestial scenery, according as the spectator is situ- 
ated on different parts of the rings. Two opposite varieties of 
scenery will be exhibited from what appear to us the upper and 
lower sides of the rings ; one variety of scenery will be exliibited 
from the exterior edge of the outer ring ; another from its in- 
terior edge ; one variety from the exterior edge of the second ring ; 
another from its interior edge; one variety of scenery will appear 
from the exterior edge of the interior bright ring, another from its 
interior edge ; one from the exterior edge of the dusky ring, another 
from its interior edge. By referring to the figure, the reader will 
perceive there are four lings distinctly marked. To describe all these 
varieties in minute detail would fill a volume. We shall have to con- 
fine ourself to a brief description of one of these celestial views. 
Those who dwell on the sides of the rings will behold the one-half 
of the hemisphere of Saturn, which will fill perhaps the one-fifth or 
the one-sixth of their celestial hemisphere, while the other portions 
of the planet will be hidden by the interposition of the rings. Those 
who are near the interior and dusky rings are only some 20,000 miles 
from the surface of Saturn, and consequently the varieties on its sur- 
face Avill be perceived. Those near the outer edge of the exterior 
ring are about 60,000 miles from the surface of the planet, which will 
consequently appear to them four times less in size than the former. 
But being only 18,000 miles from the first satellite at the time of its 
opposition to Saturn that satellite Avill appear more than 350 times 
larger than our moon, will rapidly assume different phases, and will 
be continually var3-ing in its apparent magnitude; and at its greatest 
distance beyond the ojjposite side of the rings it Avill appear at least 
170 times less than when in the nearest point of its orbit; and will 
exhibit all the intermediate varieties of aspect within a little over a 
day ; so that this satellite will be continually varying its apparent 
size from an object two or three times the apparent dimensions of 
our moon to one 350 times greater. The same may be said with 
respect to the other seven satellites, with this exception, that they 
will appear of smaller magnitudes, and the periodic times of their 
phases and their changes in apparent magnitude will be different. 

Another object which will diversify the finnanent of those who 
are ou one of tlie sides of the rings is the opposite portions of the 
rings themselves. These will appear rising up from each side of the 
planet like broad luminous arches, each of them somewhat less than 



376 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

;a quadrant, and will fill a very large portion of the sky, so that the 
inhabitants of the rings will behold a portion of their own habitation 
forming a very conspicuous part of their firmament, and, at first view 
^lay imagine that it forms a celestial object with' which they have no 
^immediate connection. Were they to journey to the opposite side of 
the ring they would see the habitation they had left suspended 
in the firmament without being aware that the place they had 
left forms part of the phenomena they behold. As the rings 
rotate round the planet, and the planet rotates round its axis, the 
different parts of the surface of the planet will present a different 
aspect, and its variety of scenery will be successively presented to 
the view. The eclipses of the sun and of the satellites by the inter- 
position of the body of Saturn, and of the opposite sides of the rings, 
will produce a variety of striking phenomena, which will be diversi- 
fied almost every hour. 

From the dark sides of the rings which are turned away from the 
sun for fifteen years a great variety of interesting phenomena will 
likewise be presented; and during this period the aspect of the firma- 
ment will most probably be very varied and striking. This half of 
the rings will not be in total darkness during the absence of the sun, 
for some of the eight satellites Avill always be shining upon it; some- 
times three, sometimes four, and sometimes all the eicht in one bright 
assemblage. It is probable too that Saturn, like a large, slender 
crescent, will occasionally diffuse a mild light, and in tlie occasional 
absence of these, the fixed stars will display their radiance in the 
heavens, which will be the principal opportunity afforded the astroii- 
omers of the rings for studying and contemplating those remote 
luminaries. Those who occupy the exterior rings will behold the 
inteiior rings and the opposite segments of their own like vast arches 
in the heavens; and although only 2,£00 miks intervene between 
the two bright rings, that space is doubtless as impassable as the 
space Avhich intervenes between us and the moon. The celestial 
scenery as viewed from these rings will afford a grand and diversi- 
fied field for telescopic observations, surpassing in variety and sub- 
limity whatever is beheld in any other region of the solar system, by 
Avhich some of the objects could be contemplated, as if they were 
placed within the distance of forty or fifty miles. 

Thus the planet itself, with all the moving bodies connected with 
it, presents to the mind a scene of surpassing grandeur and sublimity. 
Let us suppose ourselves stationed within a few thousand miles of 
this system ; from such a position the globe of Saturn, the rings 
and moon would appear to fill the greater portion of the visible 
heavens. Let us conceive this planet nearly a thousand times larger 



UKANUS. 377 

than the earth, moving through space at the rate of over 20,000 miles 
an hour, accompanied by his stupendous rings 500,000 miles in 
circumference; and these rings revolving round the planet, with a 
velocity of nine hundred miles every minute, and eight other spacious 
globes, while in their rapid courses at different distances round the 
planet and his rings ; let us endeavor to stretch our imagination to 
the utmost to represent to ourselves this scene as near as possible to 
the reality. Supposing ourselves spectators, how grand and terrific 
and almost overwhelming would be the amazing spectacle ! Amidst 
the emotions which such a sight would excite in us we would ex- 
claim : "Who can understand the operations of the Lord? Great is 
the Lord ; great in his power ; and his wisdom is infinite ! His power 
is irresistible ; his wisdom is unsearchable ; and his agency, as his 
presence, pervades immensity ! 

The Planet Uranus. 

Of the planets which have been discovered beyond the orbit of 
Saturn, comparatively little is known, owing to their great distance 
from us. The nearest of these, Uranus, is only faintly visible to the 
naked eye. It was discovered on March 13th, 1781, by Sir W. Her- 
schel, though it was some few months afterwards before its planetary 
nature was recognized. While engaged in examining some small 
stars, he was struck with the appearance of one in particular, and on 
applying higher powers he found that it seemed to increase in size 
and presented a faint disc ; it also exhibited a proper motion. Her- 
schel accordingly considered it to be a comet, and announced its 
discovery as such, but it Avas soon found to be impossible to assign 
to the wanderer a parabolic orbit, which would account for its move- 
ments, and it was then ascertained to be a j^lanet moving in an ellip- 
tical orbit at a mean distance from the sun of 1,753,851,000 miles. 
Some time was spent in deciding on a name for the stranger. The 
name of the discoverer was suggested. He himself, however, pro- 
posed to call it Georrjium Sidiis, the Georgian Star, out of respect to 
his patron, George HI. ; but as the names of other planets were derived 
from the Heathen Mythology, it was finally decided to select a name 
from this source for it, and Uranus was at length fixed upon. The 
other names will, however, be occasionally met with in astronomical 
writings. The diameter of Uranus is a trifle more than 33,000 miles; 
consequently its circumference is over 103,672 miles ; and its super- 
ficial area more than 3,421,176,000 square miles, or about 17^ times 
the land and water area of our globe. Its mass of matter is estimated 
at about twenty times greater as to bulk than what is contained in 



378 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Mercury, Venus, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Juno, Vesta, Ceres, and 
Pallas ; and, if the mass of its system of satellites were counted in, it 
Avould be much greater. Its distance from the sun is about double 
that of Saturn ; and to reach the nearest point of its orbit, a cannon 
ball flj'ing from the earth thitherward with a velocity of 500 miles an 
hour would ]-equire a period of 389 years; and a steam carriage 
travelling at the rate of 20 miles an hour without intermission would 
require more than 9,730 years before it could reach the planet Ura- 
nus. The period of this jjlanet's rotation on its axis is as yet un- 
known ; its great distance from the earth preventing us from observ- 
ing any spots or changes on its surface by which this might be deter- 
mined. La Place concludes from physical considerations that it 
rotates about an axis very little inclined to the ecliptic ; and that the 
time of its diurnal rotation cannot be much less than that of Jupiter 
and Saturn. It moves in its orbit round the sun in a little more 
than 84 of our years, its period being 30,686.82 days, at the rate of 
15,000 miles an hour. 

One remarkable feature in connection with this member of our 
system is the great inclination of its equator to the plane of its orbit, 
the poles being very nearl}^ in the plane. As a result of this the sun 
is at different times vertical to nearly all parts of the planet's surface. 
Its orbit is inclined to the eclipticatanangleof 46'26"sothat itisnever 
much more than |ths of a degree from the ecliptic. This inclination is 
less than that of any of the other planetary orbits. The eccentricity of 
its orbit is 85,000,000 of miles, which is about the ^ignd part of its diam- 
eter. Its mean apparent diameter as seen from the earth is about 4". 
The quantity of light this planet receives from the sun is 360 times 
less than what the earth receives ; for the quantity of light received 
on any planet is inversely proportional to the square of its distance 
from the sun. Uranus is about 19 times the distance of the earth 
from the sun, and the square of 19 is 361, which is the number of 
times the quantity of light which he receives will be less than what 
Ave receive. But this quantity of light is estimated as equal to what 
we should have were 248 full moons all continually shining on our 
globe. If the atmosphere of that planet be as dense as ours, and its 
surface considerably rough, it will enjoy a good share of illumination. 
The sensible heat may not entirely depend upon the distance of a 
planetary body from the sun, but partly upon the nature of its at- 
mosphere and the substances on its surface on which the rays of light 
and heat fall. Light and heat seem only to be required where there 
are sensitive and intelligent beings existing, and Ave may rest assured 
that in all the regions of the universe the nature and constitution of 
the inhabitants are adapted to their respective habitations. This 



URANUS AND HIS SATELLITES. 



379 



immense globe is doubtless replenished with large numbers of sensi- 
tive and intelligent creatures. 

Several satellites have been discovered revolving round Uranus ; 
but the number that accompany that planet do not appear to be defi- 
nitely ascertained. Sir W. Herschel states that he discovered six, 
and two within these have been discovered by Lassell and Struve, so 
that the number is by many astronomers set down at eight, and their 
periods of rotation vary from 2^ to lOJ days. Lassell, however, ex- 
presses his belief that the total number yet discovered is only four. 
They all, instead of revolving, as the other planets do, from west to 
east, have their orbits nearly at right angles to the ecliptic, and move 
in a direction from east to west. It is reasonable to suppose, how- 
ever, considering the immense distance and the probable small size 
(their diameters are not yet ascertained) of these bodies, that the 
acutest astronomers may possibly make mistakes in their observations 
of them, for they are almost all faint objects, difficult to be observed 
even with our best telescopes, and therefore future observations may 
possibly reveal something different as to the motions of these satellites. 
If it be confirmed that this apparent anomaly do exist, as we may say, 
almost at the confines of the solar system, it will indicate that in 
other systems different states of things exist as to the planets and 
their satellites besides what we experience in the system to which 
we belo7ig. 

We append a list of the satellites of Uranus. Those given here 
are numbered 1, 2, 4, 6, in the fuller list: 



1st 
2cl 
3d 
4th 



Mean Distance from Planet. 



123,000 miles. 
171,000 " 
281,000 " 
376,000 " 



Siderial Period. 



2 days, 12 hours, 28 min. 
4 " 3 " 27 " 
8 " 16 " 25 " 
13 " 11 " 6 " 



Diameter. 



The satellites of Uranus seldom are eclipsed; but as the plane in 
which they move must pass twice in the year through the sun, there 
may be eclipses of them at these times ; but they can be perceived 
only Avhen the planet is nea.r its opposition. Some eclipses were 
seen ia 1799 and 1818, Avhen the satellites appeared to ascend througli 
the shadow of the planet in a direction almost perpendicular to the plane 
of its orbit.^ All these satellites, with perhaps several other that 
revolve about this planet, will not only shed a flood of light on its 
surface, but exhibit a splendid and variegated appearance in its noc- 
turnal firmament. 



380 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

The Heavens as seen from Ura7ius. 

The only one of the planets Avhich -will be distinctly visible from 
Uranus is Saturn, which will appear occasionally as a morning and 
an evening star, and will appear nearly of the same size as to us ; 
but as it will always be seen near the sun, it will only be visible at 
certain periods or intervals of fifteen years, and will appear about as 
near to the sun as Mercury does when seen from the earth. It is not 
probable that Jupiter will be at all visible to this planet on account 
of its proximity to the sun. If ever it be visible it will only be for 
a very short time at intervals of six or eight years. The most splen- 
did and interesting phenomena in the firmament of this planet will 
be produced by the phases, eclipses, revolutions, and various aspects 
of his moons. Four of these are given in our list, but it is highly 
probable that several others are connected with this planet. 

Let us suppose, then, one satellite presenting a surface in the sky 
eight or ten times larger than our moon ; a second six times as large ; 
a third four times as large ; a fourth twice as large ; a fiftli about the 
same size as the moon ; a sixth somewhat smaller ; and, perhaps, two 
or three others of different apparent magnitudes; let us suppose two 
or thi'ee of these, of different phases, moving along the concave of 
the sky ; at one time four or five of them displayed through the fir- 
mament ; one rising aljove the horizon, one setting, one on the merid- 
ian, one toward tlie north, and another toward the south; let us 
suppose them at another time all shining in the firmament with full 
enlightened hemispheres, or Avith different phases; and we shall have 
a faint idea of the beauty, variety, and sublimity of the heavens of 
Uranus. What is deficient in respect to tlie invisibility of the other 
planets is amply comjjensated by iiis assemblage of satellites, which 
diversify and illuminate its nocturnal sky. 

The sun from this planet has a diameter of only 5" 16'"; notwith- 
standing all tliis, the light it receives is considerable, as is evident 
from the brightness it exhibits when viewed with a telescope in the 
night time, and likewise from the well-known phenomena, that wlien 
the sun is eclipsed to us, so as only to have the gijth part of its disc 
left uncovered by the moon, the diminution of light is not very sen- 
sible ; and it has been frequently noticed that at the end of the dark- 
ness in total eclipses, when the sun's western limb begins to be 
visible, and seems no bigger than a thread of silver wire, the increase 
of light is so considerable, and so quickly illuminates all surrounding 
objects, as strikes the spectator with surprise. The solar light to 
Uranus is equal to that of 250 of our full moon. 

The scenery of the heavens from the satellites of Uranus will 



NEPXUNE. 381 

bear a striking analogy to that observed from tbe moons of Jupiter ; 
but if there are six or a greater number of satellites connected wiih 
this planet, the firmament of each of its satellites will be more diver- 
sified than that of any of the satellites of Jupiter. From its first 
satellite the globe of Uranus will appear nine hundred and eighty 
times larger than the moon appears to us, and consequently Avill 
appear a very grand and magnificent object in its sky, while all the 
other moons in different phases will serve both to illuminate its sur- 
face, and to diversify the scenery of its firmament. To the second 
satellite, Uranus will appear five hundred and seven times as large 
as the moon to us ; to the third, one hundred and eighty-seven times, 
and to the fourth one hundred and nine times. Each of these satel- 
lites will have its own peculiar celestial phenomena ; but after what 
has been said in the preceding descriptions, and especially with 
reference to the celestial phenomena from the satellites of Jupiter, it 
is unnecessary to enter into details with respect to these. These sat- 
ellites, however, probably move in contrary directions to those of 
Jupiter and the others ; and, therefore, their celestial phenomena will 
be exhibited differently. 

The Planet Neptune. 

The history oi the discovery of this planet is one of the most 
remarkable pages in the whole history of astronomy. Uranus, as we 
have seen, was discovered by accident, and some time elapsed before 
it was admitted to be a planet. With Neptune the case was very 
different. About half a century ago, M. Bouvard attempted to calcu- 
late accurately the movements of Uranus, but found unexpected 
irregularities, which he could not then account for. If the planet 
alone were revolving round the sun, its place could be easily assigned ; 
but each of the other planets exerts an influence upon it, and these 
influences are continually varying. All these, however Avere allowed 
for, and yet there remained some disturbing cause which drew it out 
of its assigned place. Accordingly, in the beginning of 1843, Mr. 
Adains began to investigate the matter for the purpose of ascertain- 
ing the place which the exterior planet (should there be one) ought 
to occupy, and its elements. After nearly two years of diligent 
enquiry, he announced to the Professor of Astronomy at Greenwich 
Observatory the results of his investigations. Nothing further was 
done at the time; but soon after, Le Verrier, a French astronomer, 
independently applied himself to the same enquiry, and obtained 
results closely resembling those arrived at by Mr. Adams. Upon 
this a search in the locality indicated was resolved upon, but some 



382 CBEATOE AND COSMOS. 

time was occupied in commencing it, as the star maps of that part of 
the zodiac were only imperfect. 

Le Verrier then published a revised computation, and on Septem- 
ber 18th, 1846, M. Galle, of Berlin, directed his telescope to the spot 
thus indicated by Adams and Le Verrier. A small star, not men- 
tioned on the maps, was at once seen, and on careful watching proved 
to be the suspected planet, which had thus by purel}^ theoretical 
computation had its place marked out among the stars. The problem 
thus solved almost simultaneously by two different astronomers in 
England and France was one of the greatest ever solved by the hu- 
man mind, and reflects honor on both astronomers. 

Of the planet itself not much can be said. It revolves round the 
sun at the mean distance of 2,746,271,000 miles, which is considerably 
less than that which would be assigned to it by Bode's law. It com- 
pletes its journey round the sun in 60,126.7 days, or nearly 164| 
years. The eccentricity of its orbit is but small. Its diameter is 
ascertained to be about 36,620 miles ; its circumference is, therefore, 
115,045 miles, and its superficial contents 4,212,947,900 square miles, 
or about 21^ times the area of our terraqueous globe. 

One satellite has been discovered by Lassel revolving round Nep- 
tune in a period of 5 days, 21 hours, 8 minutes, at a distance from 
the primary of 220,000 miles, and, like those of Uranus, in a direc- 
tion from east to west. It is evident this satellite must be a body 
of very considerable size, otherwise it could not be visible at such an 
immense distance. • It is probably much larger that any of the satel- 
lites of Jupiter and Saturn, and may far exceed our globe in magni- 
tude. It is not altogether improbable that some of these far distant 
planets may be surrounded with a ring similar or analogous to that 
of Saturn. 

The discovery of this remote planet constitutes a new era in the 
progress of celestial science, and evinces the certainty and uniformity 
of these physical laws by which the bodies of the planetary system 
are directed. The law enunciated by Newton, that " every particle 
of matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force 
proportional to the quantity of matter in each, and decreasing in- 
versely as the squares of their distances," has obtained here a new 
confirmation. This law is thus shown to be extensive in its influence, 
reaching far beyond what was once considered the boundaries of the 
solar system, and exerting its energies, on every particle of matter 
throughout the boundless universe. 

The first step in the exhibition of that law was the discovery 
made by Newton that the earth attracts the moon. The principle 
was also found to explain the revolutions of the planets round the 



NEPTUNE. 383 

sun ; besides it was found that the revolutions of the secondary- 
planets, or moons, round their primaries, were owing to the same 
cause. The application of this law also explained certain anomalies 
in the motions of the moon and planets which were otherwise diffi- 
cult to account for. A great inequality in the movements of Jupiter 
and Saturn, which was long unaccounted for, was at length traced 
to their reciprocal action on one another by the operation of this 
law. The effects of the attraction of planets that could be observed, 
and whose names were known, were thereby calculated. In respect 
to Neptune, the mean distance and position of the planet, its mass, 
and the form of its orbit, were all unknown. But by its observed 
effects they were all so well determined as to guide the observer 
almost to the very point of the heavens where it was first descried. 
This fact stands almost alone in the records of astronomy ; there has 
been no discovery of the same kind before in its annals, and it may 
lead to other discoveries of a similar kind. Astronomers have now 
no reason to conclude that they have yet explored the utmost b und- 
aries of the solar system, a body of so great magnitude having been 
ascertained to exist, and prosecute its journey round the sun at over 
three times the distance of Saturn. The observation of future years 
may bring to view many other orbs which have hitherto existed con- 
cealed from view in these distant regions, and in other regions also, 
of our system. Thus, the Creator crowns Avith success the exertions 
of human genius in the investigation of His dominions by opening 
up to our view a more expansive prospect of His boundless and 
eternal empire. 

If Ave except the satellites of Uranus and Neptune, all the bodies 
of the solar system, so far as discovered, revolve in the same direc- 
tion round the sun, and all move within a narrow belt. The planets, 
however, cannot strictly be said to revolve round the sun, but the 
sun and the planets revolve about the centre of gravity of the system, 
which, owing to the preponderating bulk of the sun, lies not far from 
his own centre. Some idea of the immense magnitude of the sun, 
may be gathered from the fact that if he were a hollow shell, and the 
earth placed at the centre, there would be sufficient room for the 
moon to revolve as she now does at 240,000 miles from the earth, 
and still there would be some 200,000 miles beyond the moon before 
the shell of the sun could be reached. 

The Heavens as viewed from Neptune. 

The only one of the known planets which will be distinctly visi- 
ble from Neptune is Uranus, which is perceptible occasionally as a 
faintly appearing morning and evening star of rather less splendor 



384 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and magnitude than Mercury appears to us. It is seen most clearly 
at the periods of its greatest elongation, or at intervals of 42 years, 
and for a longer period than Saturn appears to Uranus ; for while 
the greatest elongation of Saturn to Uranus is only a few degrees 
more than that of Mercury to the earth, the greatest distance at 
Avliich Uranus a. ill appear removed from the sun to Neptune will be 
fully that at which Veuus .j seen from the earth at the time of its 
greatest elongation. 

It is very doubtful whether Saturn a\ 111 be at all visible at 
Neptune, for at his greatest elongation he cannot be removed from 
the sun more than 14°, and although of a diameter more than double 
that of Uranus, and only about double the distance of Uranus from 
this planet, which would enable him to be seen if at an ' time his 
elongation were sufficiently great, yet being in such close proximity 
to the sun he is at all times inevitably immersed in his rays. Jupiter 
and all the other planets will never be seen from Neptune unless at 
times as black spots passing across the sun's disc, when perchance 
they may be suspected to be globes in transit or spots which pertain 
to the surface of that luminary. But these phenomena can never be 
observed by the unassisted sight, so small does the sun's disc appear 
to Neptune ; but may often be observed by the help of such instru- 
ments as the best of our telescopes, all the other known planets being 
inferior to this. All these great bodies of our system, therefore, sur- 
rounded by their retinues of moons will be almost as much unknown 
at Neptune as if they did not exist, unless it be that their organs of 
vision there are much superior to ours and their astronomical instru- 
struments equal or superior, which would enable them to explore 
the vicinity of the sun and to closely inspect the planets, especially 
in transit. 

It appears beyond doubt that this planet is attended by several 
moons, and some respectable astronomers have found reason to think 
it surrounded by a ring like or analogous to that of Saturn ; and, 
theref-^-e, the most interesting pnrt of his celestial scenery Avill be 
produced by the members of his own S3'stem. It is not probable that 
the fixed stars will appear different either in lustre or magnitude 
than they do to us ; but being ignorant of the direction of this 
planet''^ axis we cannot tell what are the positions of the different 
constellations from his different latitudes, or what particular stars 
will appear at his poles and his equator. The diameter of this 
planet's orbit, however, being of such immense extent — nearly five 
thousand five hundred millions of miles — will afford an excellent 
base line to the astronomers to discover the parallaxes and distances 
of the stars. 



THE HEAVENS AS VIEWED FROM NEPTUNE. 385 

One or two moons have already been discovered and it appears 
reasonable that only distance prevents others from coming into view. 
These moons in order to be descried from the earth must be of consid- 
erable magnitude. Let us then suppose one moon presenting a sur- 
face in the sky a dozen of times as large as that of our full moon, 
another ten times as large, a third eight times, a fourth seven times 
as large, and a fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, of gradually smaller 
magnitudes. With all these let us imagine a ring like or analogous 
to that of Saturn revolving around the planet, within the orbits of all 
the moons or without those of some of them, and we have a celestial 
picture almost as sublime and grand as any we have yet contemplat- 
ed. From the surface of the planet in its motions let ns contemplate 
the motions of the ring as it revolves around it ; let us conceive six 
or eight of these moons appearing at once in the heavens, of different 
apparent magnitudes and displaying different phases, some appearing 
as a crescent, some with a gibbous phase, some as a half moon and 
others as full moons ; let us conceive one of these as rising above, 
another as descending below the horizon, one on the meridian, another 
approaching to it or departing from it ; one north, another south, an- 
other east and another west ; one entering into an eclipse, another 
emerging from it ; one or two snffering occultations behind the body 
of the ring, and one or two emerging from their obscuration ; let us 
conceive all these as continually varying their aspects, displaying dif- 
ferent phases as in their nocturnal courses they move along the vault 
of heaven ; the ring also varying its aspect during every revolution, 
besides the variety of scenery it displays during its rotation, consider- 
ing it to rotate in like manner to that of Saturn ; at one time and place, 
exhibiting a broad luminous arch, at another a narrow streak of light, 
again appearing as a dark belt encircling a quadrant of the sk}-, and 
at other times and places disappearing altogether ; and all the varieties 
of celestial scenery will be different according to the position of the ob- 
server on planet, ring, or satellites,— to those on the moons and ring the 
great globe of Neptnne being the most conspicuous object in the sky, 
filling a large portion of the firmament, appearing to the first satellite 
398 times the size of our full moon, and graduall}^ varying its phases 
and sui-face scenery, Avliile performing its axial rotations ; and to the 
other moons appearing of gradually decreasing magnitude ; let us 
conceive even this limited representation and we have a picture pre- 
sented to the mind of extraordinary sublimity and grandeur. 

It is true the quantity of light this system receives is but small 
compared with that the earth receives or even the systems of Saturn 
and Uranus. This is only the ^| o^'^ °^ what the earth receives ; for 
Neptune is from the sun about twentj'-nine times the distance of the 

25 



386 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

earth from that luminary and the quantity of light the planets receive 
is in inverse proportion to the s'quares of their distances from the sun. 
But supposing the planet's media, its atmosphere and surface, to be 
as well adapted for reflecting the solar light as the earth's is, and sup- 
posing it to be attended with a good number of satellites and perhaps 
a ring, whose media are equally well fitted for reflecting and refract- 
ing the light, and supposing the organs and instruments of vision of 
the inhabitants to be as good as or better than ours, then there will 
be a sufficient degree of light for their every purpose in that far dis- 
tant world, for the quantity is greatly multiplied by reflection and 
refraction from the media of the planet itself and from those of its 
attendants. There is, also, we may believe, a sufficient degree of 
heat there ; for the habitation doubtless is in each case adapted to 
the species which inhabit it. The sun from Neptune has a diameter 
of only 2"17"', but owing to his self-luminosity he appears as large as 
Venus does to us when that planet appears largest, and affordS'an 
incomparably greater quantity of light, his light to Neptune being 
equal to that of 107 of our full moons were they continually shining 
on that globe. 

We may remark that in the preceding descriptions the apparent 
magnitudes of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, as seen from 
their satellites, and apparent magnitudes of the satellites as seen from 
their primaries, and from each other, are only near approximations to 
the truth, so as to convey a general idea of the scenes presented in 
their nocturnal firmaments; perfect accuracy not being absolutely 
required in such descriptions. The variety of celestial phenomena 
in the firmaments of these bodies is much greater than we have de- 
scribed. Were we to enter into minute details in relation to such 
phenomena it would require a volume of considerable size to contain 
their varieties. And were we to consider all the varieties of scenery 
which characterize the surfaces of all these distant worlds, since the 
colors exhibited on all of them are the same as, or similar to, those 
exhibited on our globe, we should have a voluminous work. 

The satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, of which 
■we have endeavored to give a brief description in the preceding 
pages, form, as it were, so many planetary systems in connection 
with the grand system of the sun. The same laws of motion and grav- 
itation which apply to the primary planets are also applicable to the 
secondary planets or moons. The squares of the periodical times are 
in proportion to the cubes of their mean distances from their pri- 
maries. They are subject to the attraction of the primaries as all the 
primary planets are attracted by the sun ; and as the sun in all prob- 
ability with his whole system moves round some reciprocal centre of 



ATTKACTION OF GRAVITATION EXPLAINED. 387 

gravity, so the satellites move round their respective primaries, partly 
by the attractive influence of these planets, and partly by that of the 
great central luminary. Each of these secondary systems is far 
more grand and extensive than the whole planetary system was con- 
ceived to be in ancient times. Even the system of Saturn, including 
its rings and satellites, contains a mass of matter much more than a 
thousand times larger than the earth and moon. The system of 
Jupiter comprises a mass of matter nearly fifteen hundred times as 
great as these two bodies ; and even that of Uranus or Neptune is 
eighty or a hundred times the dimensions of our terraqueous globe. 

The Attraction of Grravitation explained. 

As the sun is called the centre of light and heat to all the bodies 
revolving around it, so it may also be called the centre of attraction ; 
and the influences of light and heat are invariably distributed to all 
the planets in the same ratio as the power of attraction, which keeps 
them revolving in their orbits, that is, in the inverse ratio of the 
squares of their distances ; or, to express it more clearly, the power 
of the attraction, the light and heat of the sun on one planet is to 
that on another planet as the square of the distance of the latter 
from the sun is to the square of the distance of the former. But as 
some of our readers may not understand this from the bare state- 
ment of the fact, we will endeavor to simplify the law of attraction 
by a familiar illustration. 

Suppose two persons, A and B, sitting at the same distance from 
the fire, both in front of it, at least the one as much as the other; it 
is plain they will both feel the same degree of heat, for whatever 
Teason may be given to show that A receives more heat than B, the 
same reason might be assigned to show that B receives more heat 
than A ; therefore they must both receive the same amount of 
heat each. Now, suppose that B removes to double the distance 
from the fire that he was at when alongside of A, and A remains in 
the same place ; it might then be supposed that B would receive 
only half us much heat as he did before; or that A would now enjoy 
double the heat which B would receive in his new position. Such, 
however, is not the case, for the degree of heat does not diminish at 
the same rate as the distance increases, as one might expect at first 
thought ; but it diminishes at a much greater rate, and the question 
is, how much greater ? Now well conducted and careful experiments 
in Natural Philosophy have proved that the heat received at the 
distance of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc., feet is not i,J,i,|,^,j,i,^, etc., of 
the heat received at one foot, but it is |,^,-=[V-2V'3V'A'6V'5T*^^' ^*^-' 
of the heat received at one foot. Thus B will receive at double the 



388 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

same distance of A only one-fourth of the heat Avhich A receives ; at 
triple the distance only one-ninth; at four times the distance one- 
sixteenth, etc. The law of expansive progression is then as follows : 
Let the heat received at the distance of one foot be denoted by 1, 
then the heat received at the distance of 2 feet will be denoted by 
I, or 1 divided by 2 times 2 ; the heat received at the distance of 
3 feet will be -|, or 1 divided by 3 times 3 ; the heat received at the 
distance of 4 feet Avill be Jg or 1 divided by 4 times 4, and so on. 
Now dividing 1 by any number gives a result which mathematically 
is called the reciprocal or inverse of that number ; and multiplying 
any number by itself gives a result which is likewise called the scj^uare 
of that number. But the numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, etc., 
are the squares of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc., because 
they are obtained by multiplying the latter numbers each by itself, 

and the fractions i^g-iV'^^s'sVil^o'eV'"^!' ^'^*^-' '^■"^'^ called the recip- 
rocals, or inverses of the squares ; and ratio means the rate at Avliich 
anj^thing increases or decreases ; hence the force of the heat or 
amount of heat received from a common fire is in the ratio of the 
inverses of the squares of the distances ; or, more shortly, in the in- 
verse ratio of the squares of the distances. This may be explained 
in still another way. Suppose A to be placed at two feet distance 
from the fire, and B at 3 feet distance ; then B Avill receive less heat 
than A ; not in the ratio of 2 to 3, the number which represents their 
distances, but in the ratio of 2 times 2 to 3 times 3, that is, of 4 to 9 
in other words, as 4 is received 2^ times in 9, so A will receive 2i 
times more heat than B ; and this is what is really meant by the 
phrase the inverse ratio of the squares of the distances 

Thus, having explained the la\^ of the influence of heat on two 
bodies, or on any number of bodies at different distances from the 
source of heat in the case of a common fire, Ave again observe that 
the law is equally true of the influence of light and of the influence 
of attraction, upon bodies at different distances from the source of 
light and of attraction. Thus, Ave ffel and experience that the sun is 
the great source of light and of heat to this Avorld in Avhich Ave live ; 
and astronomy teaches us that it is the great centre of attraction ; 
that power Avhich operates upon the earth and the other planets, and 
causes them to revolve in elliptical orbits around that luminary as 
the centre of their motions. This poAver of the sun arises from his 
great preponderance in Aveight, for, as stated above, every particle of 
matter in the universe attracts CA^ery other particle Avith a force pro- 
portioned to the amount of matter they contain.* This laAv, Avhich 

* The magnetic attractions of the earth, wliich appear to mal<e an exception to this state- 
ment, are donbtless equilibrated within the eartli itself, and by the reciprocal magnetic atti-ac- 
tious of co-existing globes. 



KEPLER AND HIS LAWS. 389 

by long and accurate observation is known to be true, at once con- 
veys to tlie mind the idea of pernifinent equilibrium in the universe. 

KEPLER AND HIS LAWS. 

From the earliest ages of astronomy up to the time of Kepler the 
planets Avere reckoned to be only six in number; and this number 
being mathematically perfect, that is, equal to the sum of all its 
factors 1, 2, 3, it was imagined that no more planets existed, or might 
be expected to be found. Kepler, however, earnestly enquired why 
they sliould be only six in number; and from his long and careful 
observations on the motions of the planets deduced certain laws, 
which are considered as lying at the foundations of astronomical 
science, which have prepared the way for many new discoveries, and 
did away with many old and incorrect theories and ideas. This 
famous astronomer was a pupil of Tycho Brahe, who lived in the 
latter part of the 16th century. He acquired from liis preceptor the 
habit of accurate observation, and was far more successful than he in 
the theories which he formed. He was naturally possessed of a 
quick and livel}^ imagination. He commenced with careful obser- 
vations, and then formed his theories in accordance Avith facts ; and, 
proceeding thus, he soon made many and important discoA^eries. The 
task to Avhich he devoted his time and energies Avas to discover the 
nature of the path described by the planets. Starting Avith the hypo- 
thesis of the sun being in the centre of the system, he began to watch 
attentively their places, and to simplify matters he confined himself 
at first to observing the motions of the planet Mars. He calculated 
the place it should occupy according to the theory of its revolving 
in a circular orbit, and soon found that the place it really occupied 
in the sky differed considerably from that assigned to it. This theory 
Avas thus at once shoAvn to be incorrect, and he had, therefore, to 
form a neAV one by the combination of several circular movements ; 
and again he carefully calculated its position till, just as he seemed 
to be on the \'erge of success, the planet once more Avandered from 
the path Avhich he had assigned to it; and once more he had to com- 
mence his observations anew from the beginning. In this Avay he con- 
tinued to try one hypothesis after another, submitting each to the test of 
most careful observation, till at length no feAver than nineteen differ- 
ent theories had been proposed, and the moA'ements of the planets 
compared Avith those Avhich Avere calculated by those theories ; and 
still the true solution of the problem remained undiscoA'ered. His 
perseverance, hoAA^ever, never failed, and he toiled on, though eight 
long years had been occupied in the task. One important negative 



390 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

result he had, however, arrived at, and this was that whatever was 
the nature of the curve the planets described, it was not a circle or a 
combination of circles. This was one great step toward the solution 
of the problem. From the earliest ages it had been assumed that, as 
the circle seemed the perfection of form, all the heavenly bodies must 
move in circles; but Kepler now untrammelled himself of this theory 
and then applied himself afresh to the task. In looking at the great- 
ness of his work we must remember that the difficulty is much increased 
by the fact that our station of observation is itself in rapid motion. 
Could we view the planets from the sun we should easily see their 
courses, but as we cannot do this allowance has to be made in every 
calculation for the motion of our standpoint ; and this motion was 
not then clearly understood. 

Having discarded the theory of motion in circles, Kepler now pro- 
ceeded to try other forms, testing them as before ; and the first that 
occurred to him was the ellipse. He accordingly went through the 
same series of calculations again, and this time the motion of the 
planet was found to correspond with that assigned to it by the theory. 
The great problem of the heavens was now solved, and the joy with 
which Kepler enunciated the first of the laws which bear his name 
can scarcely be imagined. This law may be stated as follows : 1. 
" That the planets revolve in elliptical orbits, situated in planes pass- 
ing through the centre of the sun ; the sun itself being in one of 
the foci of the ellipse." As to the foci : In ever}"- circle there is a 
point, called the centre, such that all straight lines drawn from it to 
the circumference are equal. No such point is to be found in an 
ellipse ; but in the longest diameter, or the major axis as it is called, 
two points can be found so situated, that if straight lines be drawn 
from one to any point in the circumference, and thence to the other, 
the sum of these lines will always be equal. These points are called 

the foci. Thus, in the figure, A B is the 
longest diameter, major axis, C D the shortest 
diameter, minor axis ; and F and F' are the 
focal points. 

Pig. 121. A second law enunciated by Kepler is : 

2. " That the radius vector drawn from the centre of the planet to 
the centre of the sun passes over equal areas in equal times in every 
part of the orbit ; " that is, whether the planet be in its aphelion or 
farthest from the sun, in its perihelion or nearest the sun, or at its 
mean distance from the sun. Thus, when in the month of December 
the earth is nearest the sun it is moving much faster than it moves 
in summer, when it is farthest from the sun ; for the radius vector 
describes equal areas in equal times ; and hence we find that the 




KEPLER AND HIS LAWS. 391 

farther the planets are removed from the sun the slower they move^ 
although their radii vectores may describe equal areas with those 
of the planets that are situated nearer the sun, and moving faster. 
Another law Kepler enunciated is as follows : 3d. " That the 
squares of the periodic times of the planets, that is, of the times of a 
complete revolution in their orbits, are proportional to the cubes of 
their mean distances from the sun ; " or, in other words, that the 
square of the periodic time of one planet is to the square of the periodic 
time of another planet, as the cube of the mean distance of the former 
from the sun is to the cube of the mean distance of the latter from it. 
Thus, if we know the distance of a planet we can calculate approx- 
imately its time of revolution round the sun ; and on the other hand, 
if we know its periodic time we can ascertain its distance. As an 
illustration, the distances and periods of Venus and the Earth may 
be taken, which may be set down in round numbers as follows : 

Period. Distance from the sun. The proportion between the 
Venus 224 days, 68,000,000 periods here is ||| ;. 

Earth 365 " 95,000,000 And the proportion between 

the distance ||. 
If now we take the square of the former quantity, we shall find 
it to be nearly equal to the cube of the latter.* It will be noticed 
that the numbers here given for the purpose of illustration are merely 
approximations. These laws, deduced and proposed by Kepler, at 
the close of the sixteenth and in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, and afterwards mathematically demonstrated by Sir Isaac 
Newton, are, together with Newton's law of gravitation, accounted 
the fundamental and invariable laws of the science of astronomy. It 
will, of course, be observed in what sense they are to be understood 
as laws; in the common acceptation of the term, law has reference 
to man, and to the moral world ; but neither Kepler nor Newton 
made these laws ; they are simply their deductions, from long obser- 
vation and experiment, as to how nature is and acts universally. 

SIR ISAAC NEWTON AND HIS DISCOVERIES. 

The name of Newton stands before Kepler as the discoverer of the 
law upon which all those of Kepler depend. Kepler seems to have 
suspected that some such law did exist, but failed to discover it. He 
seems likewise to have been aware of the fact that the tides were, in 
some way, influenced by the moon, and that the other heavenly 



* The process is as follows by the " Rule of Three : "^ 

3652 : 2242 ; ; 958 ; Distance cubed of Venus from the Sun. 
133225: 60176 : : 857375 x 50176 ^322909.7. Extracting the cube root we 

133225 
oWain 68 millions with a small fraction. 



392 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

bodies were in some way connected so as to influence each, other ; 
but he did not discover what this mysterious bond of union was, and, 
therefore, it was with him a mere conjecture. But Newton applied 
liimself strenuously to clear up this difficulty, and accomplished liis 
task nobly. This great man was born in 1642, the same year in which 
Galileo died. It is said that his attention was first drawn to the 
subject of gravitation by observing an apple fall from a tree one day 
Avhile sitting in a summer-house in his garden. There was nothing 
remarkable in such a circumstance, for it Avas an event which might 
be seen every day. But it set him thinking, and he began to enquire 
why the apple should fall downwards or towards the ground instead 
of upwards, or to one side. To most men such a question might 
have appeared vain and frivolous ; to him, however, it seemed an 
important event towards very great results ; and such in reality it 
proved to be. After carefid enquiry he found that all bodies are at- 
tracted towards the centre of the earth, and this attraction he called 
gravitation. The question then arose to him, whether this action 
was confined to the surface of the earth, or whether distant bodies 
were attracted in a similar way. The intensit}" of tliis force he also 
believed to diminish with the square of the distance ; but the diffi- 
culty presented itself, how this Avas to be tested. Even if a body 
could have been raised several miles from the earth's surface, this 
distance Avould have been so trifling when compared with the earth's 
radius (4000 miles ) that no apj)reciable difference would have been 
manifested. 

No way, therefore, appeared to him practicable of putting this 
theory to the test, till at last the idea occurred to him, wh}^ he should 
not use the moon as the falling body, and ascertain the distance 
through which it falls in any given time, say, for instance, one minute. 

This idea, at first, appears absurd, but the an- 
nexed figure Avill enable our reader to under- 
stand it. It is known that the moon revolves 
round the earth in an orbit, almost circular, 
as G B D. Now, suppose the moon to be at 
D, its tendency at the moment is to move 
along in the tangent line D C, and in this 
direction it would go on moving did not some 
-^=' ^-^- other force deflect it out of that course : for 

every body tends to continue, in the state in which it is if not 
acted upon by forces external to itself; if it is at I'est it tends to 
remain at rest ; if in motion, to go on continuously, moAnng in a 
straight line. This force, Avhich acted upon the moon so as to draw it 
out of that straight line and make it describe a curve, Newton sup- 




NEWTON AND HIS DISCOVERI]^S. 393 

posed to be the attraction of the earth, and determined to calculate 
whether the amount it deviated from a straight line was such as 
would arise from the earth's attraction. When the moon has moved 
into the position B, it is easily seen that the distance it has deviated 
from its true path is equal to A B. He accordingly calculated what 
this distance would become after the lapse of one minute, that is, 
how far the moon would fall toward the earth in that time. He next 
computed the space through which a body removed to the distance 
of the moon ought to fall in the same period under the action of the 
earth's gravitation, and compared these results together. Though this 
calculation seems simple enough, it really occupied him for many 
years ; and when at length he had completed it, he found a consider- 
able resemblance between the amounts, but not a sufficiently close 
one to satisfy him, and he, therefore, laid the work aside for a time. 
After some time, however, he heard that a more accurate determina- 
tion of the earth's diameter had been effected, and he accordingly 
repeated his calculations, substituting the new figures ; and when at 
length he had completed his bcAvildering task, he found the result 
to agree most accurately. In order to fully satisfy himself of the 
accuracy of his theory, he went through the same calculations again 
in reference to some of the planets, and obtained like results ; he 
then announced his general fundamental law before mentioned, that 
" every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other par- 
ticle with a force proportioned to the quantity of matter in each, and 
decreasing inversely as the squares of their distances." 

The motion of the planets is thus seen to be compounded of two, 
the one the motion which the body has in a straight line contin- 
uously, the other that arises from the attraction of the body around 
which they move. 

Having attained this result, Newton set himself one more task ; 
and that was, to ascertain, on mathematical principles, the curve in 
which the planets ought, in these conditions, to move. This was a 
calculation requiring the greatest amount of mathematical skill. 
Newton, however, possessed this, and set about the work, fully expect- 
ing that the curve must be an ellipse. But he found when the 
work was completed one which represented not only this, but any 
of the " Conic Sections," that is, of the curves which may be obtained 
by cutting a cone. These are, the circle, Avhich is the curve obtained 
when the cone is cut parallel to the base ; tlie ellipse, when it is cut 
a little inclined to this ; the parabola, when the line passes parallel 
to one side of the cone ; and the hyperbola, when it passes parallel 
to the axis. In any one of these curves, then, a planet may move? 
under the influence of these general laws ; the satellites of Saturn 



394 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

move in the first ; the planets generall}'- in the second, while the 
comets pursue their courses in parabolas and hyperbolas. This grand 
discovery of Newton seems to have completed our knowledge of the 
fundamental laws of motion of the worlds around us. By this we 
find that all their motions depend upon the two simple laws of inertia 
and mutual attraction, and that all their variations can be fully ex- 
plained by these. And further, deeper investigations, show us that 
though all the stars are in ceaseless motion, yet their motions run 
through fixed and certain cycles, so that the very fluctuations of the 
heavenly bodies are certain indications of the stability of the universe. 
Great as Newton's work was, he did not live to accomplish all 
his task. He discovered the mutual attraction of the heavenly 
bodies for one another, but left it to succeeding astronomers to 
calculate the effects this attraction would produce on the move- 
ments of each. That this was a work involving some difficulty 
will readily be seen if we consider the case of only a single planet. 
For illustration, let us take Venus ; suppose now for a moment 
that only that planet and the sun existed, we could then easily 
mark out the exact position of the planet for every moment, if we 
knew its mean distance and the eccentricity of its orbit. Now add 
the earth to the system, and we shall find that a disturbing influence 
is at once introduced by its attraction. As Venus comes into that 
part of its orbit nearest the earth, it is attracted by the latter, and 
thus drawn out of its path ; its motion is likewise accelerated as it 
approaches the earth, and retarded as it recedes from it ; and the 
calculation of the amount of this disturbance is rendered more 
difficult by the fact that the earth is itself moving with a velocity 
different from that of Venus. When we have made due allowance 
for this disturbance we have to consider the effects produced by 
each of the other planets in turn, keeping in mind that they too 
are all in motion. We thus get some idea of the complication of 
the problem. It has, however, been completely worked out by 
modern astronomers, the due allowance being made for each of these 
disturbing forces ; and this has been done with such wonderful 
accuracy that when certain minute irregularities were perceived in 
the motions of one of the planets (Uranus), which could not be 
accounted for by the influence of any of the known ones, it was con- 
jectured that another planet must exist beyond it. Two astron- 
omers accordingly, as we have seen, set about the calculation quite 
independently of each other, and determined the spot on which a 
planet should be, if it existed at all ; and on turning a telescope to 
that spot the planet Neptune was discovered, though at no point of 
its orbit could it come within 130,000,000 miles of the planet whose 



THE TIDES. 



395 




course it had been disturbing by its attraction. One fact may be 
particularly noticed as the result of these investigations ; and that is, 
the absolute stability of the universal system, it being so equally 
balanced that all these perturbations exactly compensate for one 
another, and, after a cycle of prodigious length, all return to their 
original places. 

THE TIDES. 

The tides, as most readers know, are the alternate risings and 
fallings of the waters of the seas and oceans, and of bays, friths 
and rivers connected with them. This alternate rising and falling 
of the water is distinguished as the " flow " and " ebb " of the tides. 
They are caused by the attraction of the sun and moon upon the 
waters of the earth, but especially by that of the latter. Let us illus- 
trate this by a figure. Sup- 
pose a p I n to he the earth, ' ~ 
c its centre of gravity ; let 
the dotted circle represent a 

mass of water covering the ...- ^... 

earth ; let m be the moon in 

its orbit, and s the sun. Since the force of gravity diminishes, as 
the squares of the distances increase, it is evident that the waters 
will rise at d by the direct attraction of the moon m, and will rise 
at h by the centre of gravity c being drawn away from it, and leav- 
ing the waters on the opposite regions of the earth from the moon to 
accumulate in like manner in order to maintain equilibrium. Of 
course when the sun is on the side b of the earth its attraction 
tends to elevate it still more. It is evident, the quantity of water 
remaining the same, that a rise cannot take place at b and d without 
the parts at e and / being at the same time depressed. In this 
situation the waters of the earth may be considered in somewhat 
of an oval form. Were the earth and moon without motion, and 
the earth covered all over with water, the attraction of the moon 
would rise it up in a heap in that part of the ocean to which the 
moon would in such a case be vertical ; but by rotation of the earth 
on its axis each part of its surface to which the moon is vertical is 
presented twice in a little more than a day to the attraction of the 
moon; and thus are produced two floods and two ebbs. If the 
moon were stationary, there would be two tides in one day ; but 
because that body is proceeding every day more than 12° in her 
orbit from west to east, the earth must make more then one rotation 
on its axis before the same meridian comes again into conjunction 



396 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

with the moon ; and hence two tides take place in about 24 hours 
and fifty minutes. In the position of the earth and moon, as given 
in the figure, the waters are raised at d by the direct attraction of 
tlie moon, and a tide is accordingly produced ; but when by the 
earth's rotation a comes, in twelve hours afterwards, into the posi- 
tion of Z, another tide is occasioned by the receding of tlie waters 
there from the centre. In those parts of the earth to which the 
moon is vertical the tides rise highest ; in all other parts, the effect 
is less, because the force of the attraction acts in a direction more 
oblique. You will readily understand that the tides are dependent 
upon fixed and determinate laws which are known ; for if you 
refer to an Ephemeris, or an Almanac of a certain kind, you will see 
that the exact time of high water at certain places, say at London 
Bridge, the port of New York, New Orleans, or Canton, or any 
other place that may be mentioned in this connection, on the morn- 
ing and afternoon of every day in the year, is set down. 

Those men who are accustomed to work in the harbors, and along 
the coasts, although they are generally ignorant of the causes which 
produce the tides, yet know by experience that the time of high 
water differs on each day about three quarters of an hour, or a little 
more or less ; and, therefore, if it be high water to-day at six o'clock, 
they will at a guess promptly tell you that to-morrow the water will 
not be up till a quarter to seven. 

The attraction of the sun, owing to the immense distance at which 
he is placed from the earth, produces but a small effect in comparison 
Avith that produced by the attraction of the moon. Sir Isaac Newton 
computed that the attractive force of the moon raised the waters in 
the ocean ten feet, and that of the sun raised it only two feet. When 
the moon is iu her first and last quarters, the attraction of one of 
these bodies raises the water, while that of the other depresses it, 
and in order to learn the height to which the water now rises, the 
attractive force of the sun has to be subtracted from that of the moon; 
these tides consequently are the lowest, and are called Neap-tides. 
The tides which happen at new or full moon, owing to the direct at- 
traction of the sun and moon, are highest, and are called Spring-tides. 
The height of the tides at these times is found by adding together the 
attractions of the sun and moon. It is evident that at new moon the 
sun and moon attract the earth on the same side, and that the attract- 
ive force of the sun has to be added to that of the moon in order to 
find the height to which the waters now rise ; and the waters re- 
ceding from the centre to the side of the earth opposite to the sun 
and moon, has to heap up there ec^ually in order that the equilibrium 
of the earth be maintained. And at full moon the poAverful attrac- 



NEWTON AND HIS DISCOVERIES. 397 

tion of the moon draws the water towards itself on the side next to 
it ; in consequence of which, and to maintain equilibrium, the water 
accumulates equally on the opposite side of the earth. The sun now 
exerting his attraction on this latter side increases the height of the 
water about one-fifth ; and, of course, an equal recession of the waters 
from the central regions of the earth have to take place towards the 
side next the moon, in order to counterbalance and to have the heioht 
of the waters on tlie opposite sides of the earth the same, or, at least 
so that there will be equilibrium. Consequently, at the full moon, 
as well as at tlie new, the height to which the tides rise is found by 
adding together the attractive forces of the sun and moon. 

The tides rise higher at some times than at others, owing to the 
fact that the moon revolves round the earth in an elliptical orbit, or an 
orbit which is slightly elliptical, and, therefore, approaches nearer the 
earth in some parts of her course than in others. When she is nearest, 
the attraction is strongest, and, therefore, the tides rise highest ; and 
when she is farthest from the earth the attraction is the least, and the 
tides are lowest. They rise also to different heights at different i^laces ; 
in the Mediterranean and Black Sea the tides are scarcely perceptible. 
At'the mouth of the Indus the water rises about 30 feet. The tides 
are remarkably high on the coasts of Malay, in the Straits of Sunda, 
in the Red Sea, along the coasts of China, Japan, and in the Bay of 
Fundy, etc. In general the tides rise highest and with greatest force 
in places which are narroAvest. When the sun and moon are both ver- 
tical to our equator, and the moon in perigee^ then the tides are highest. 
Speaking strictly, however, these tides do not happen at the equi- 
noxes, but a little before and after them ; for in this, as in other cases, 
the actions do not produce the greatest effects Avhen they are at the 
strongest, but some time afterwards. Thus the hottest time of the 
day is not when the sun is on the meridian, but usiially between one 
and four o'clock in the afternoon. Another circumstance is to be 
taken into account : the sun being nearer the earth in winter than in 
summer, it is of course nearer to it in October and February than in 
September and March ; and therefore, all these things being con- 
sidered, sufficient cause may be found why the highest tides haj^pen 
a little before vernal and a little after the autumnal equinoxes. The 
moon's attraction having more effect upon the tides than that of the 
sun, their height varies Avith the distance of the moon from the earth ; 
and as they are highest Avhen she is in perigee^ or nearest the earth, 
so they are lowest Avhen she is in apogee^ or farthest from the earth. 
All these effects are, hoAvever, knoAvn, and their causes accounted 
for; and the times of the tides and the heights to Avhich they rise at 



398 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

certain places are calculated long before, so that all may know these 
facts. 

It is plain from what has been said on this subject, that the phe- 
nomena of the tides depend entirely upon two counteracting princi- 
ples, — that of the attraction of the sun and moon disturbing the waters, 
displacing the centre of gravity, and destroying the equilibrium of the 
globe of the earth — and the tendency of the waters themselves to 
maintain equilibrium about their proj^er centre of gravity.* All these 
effects are produced by His agency who is everywhere present, and 
in whom we live and move. 

ON COMETS. 

The planets and their satellites were for some time considered to 
be the only proper members of our system. This view, however, has 
been found to be erroneous, as many bodies called comets have had 
their orbits calculated, and been found to revolve round the sun in 
regular periods. Comets have from the earliest ages of their dis- 
covery attracted a large share of attention from their great size and 
brilliancy, as well as from the suddenness with which they appear 
and the rapidity with which they extend these long tails which usually 
distinguish them. These vast streams of light sometimes extend to 
the distance of eighty and a hundred millions of miles in length. In 
past ages and among most people they have been objects of super- 
stitious dread, their appearance being usually considered as portent- 
ous of war, famine, pestilence, the death of monarchs, the subversion 
of kingdoms, or other great evils. On account of this apprehension 
the periods of their appearances have usually been carefully recorded, 
and in calculating their orbits considerable assistance is at times de- 
rived from these ancient records. The appearance in the year 1066 
of a brilliant comet having three tails was considered by many as a 
a sign of the invasion and conquest of William of Normandy. In some 
of the ancient chronicles it is refei'red to as furnishing a proof of his 
divine right to the kingdom of England. But not only were comets 
considered as harbingers of evil, but fears were often entertained that 
the}^ should in their course come into collision with the earth and 
thereby cause terrible results. This feeling still exists to a limited 
extent, considerable alarm having been manifested by many on the 
appearance of the comet in 1858, which in one part of its course 
passed across the earth's orbit. The utter groundlessness of these 

* It may be reasonably assumed there is enough of fluid element, whether it be water or 
analogous to water, pertaining to every celestial sphere as well as the earth in order to the 
maintenance of its equilibrium in opposition to all the changes which may be wrought in the 
solid parts by intelligent beings as man, which tend to destroy equilibrium. Witness the piling 
up of large cities in certain places, and the trausference of minerals from their native mines to 
other parts of the earth. 



COMETS. 



399 



fears will be seen when people learn something of the physical con- 
stitution of these bodies. In ancient times comets were generally- 
supposed to be meteors, exhalations, generated by inflammable vapors 
in the earth's atmosphere; but now it is ascertained beyond a doubt, 
that comets move in regions far beyond the limits of our atmosphere 
and form a portion of the solar system. But they differ in many re- 
spects from the planetary bodies before described. The planets re- 
volve round the sun in orbits of small eccentricity, which for the 
most part approach nearly to circles. Comets, on the other hand, 
move in extremely elongated ellipses, parabolas or hyperbolas, the 
sun being situated almost at one extremity of their orbits ; so that 
often, at their perihelion, they approach within less than a million ot 
miles of it, and they swiftly dash away for a considerable period from 
his light and heat. It is clearly only those which move in elliptical 
orbits which can be periodical, as the parabola does not return again 




Fig. 123, Comet of 1811. 

upon itself. About 300 comets have already had their orbits calcu- 
lated, and of these more than one half are known to be parabolas ; so 
that no second return of these latter can occur, unless, by the attrac- 
tion of other heavenly bodies, their orbits should be considerably 
altered. Only five or six have been found to move in li3'-perbolic 
orbits. The number of known periodic elliptic comets whose orbits 
and periods have been ascertained, is about 20. Elliptic orbits have 
however, been assigned to many others, but no second returns of 
them have been seen, so as to verify the calculations. In by -gone 



400 



CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 



days, before the invention of the telescope, but few comets were ob- 
served. But now scarcely a year passes without four or five being 
observed ; and frequently the number is greater. For the most part, 
however, they are so small as only to be visible by the aid of a good 
telescope. It is only at rare intervals that those large ones which 
are at once discerned by the naked eye become visible to us. The 
periods of these, likewise, are as a rule very much longer than those 
of the telescopic comets, so that the orbits of onlj- a few of them 
have been determined. The first indication of a comet is Usually a 
faint luminous speck -^dsible with a telescope. This appears grad- 
ually but slow]}' to increase, as the comet approaches the sun ; and 
soon a bright spot, known as the nucleus^ is discerned in it. This is 
usually of a circular form, and situated nearer to the side that is 
directed towards the sun. In telescopic comets this nucleus is not 
always discernible. As the comet approaches the sun it becomes 
larger and brighter ; the coma, or cloudy mass around the nucleus 
also becomes less regular ; and soon a tail begins to be extended on the 
side remote from the sun. It is this which forms the most remarka- 
ble feature in the appearance of a comet. The tail is usually more 
or less curved, and points away from the sun ; so that when receding 
from that body the comet travels with his tail foremost. The preceding 
figure, 123, representing the comet of 1811, gives a good idea of the 
general appearance of these bodies, the nucleus, coma and tail being 
all distinctly marked. A period of 3,065 years was assigned to this 



Fig. 124. 



Kg. 123. 




comet. On their return, after completing their orbits, comets seldom 
present the same appearance as before ; henee they cannot be identi- 
fied by their form, but by the calculation of their orbits. According 
to many old illustrations some comets have presented very remarkable 
shapes, sometimes closely resembling swords or sabres. But allow- 
ance should be made by us in such cases for the imagination of the 
artist, excited by the terror occasioned by the approach of the comet. 
A few comets that have been observed had more than one tail. One 



COMETS. 



401 



that appeared at the end of 1823, had, in addition to the usual tail, a 
second one directed toward the sun. The comet of 1744 is, however, 
the most remarkable, as it is stated that when it approached the sun, 
the tail was divided into six distinct branches, all curved in the same 
direction and extending 30'' or 40° in length. 




Fig. 126. 

That called Halley's comet is one that has attracted a greater 
degree of attention than almost any other, as it was the first whose 
orbit was calculated, and its period is the longest of all those whose 
orbits are fully ascertained, and verified by subsequent returns. On 
its appearance in 1682, just after attention had been excited by the 
appearance, two years before, of a brilliant one whose motions New- 
ton had investigated, Halley carefully examined its movements, so 
as to ascertain whether those of any which had previously been 
noted would in any way accord with them. He soon found that in 
several respects it seemed to resemble those of 1531 and 1607, and 
imagined that all three might be in reality appearances of the same 
body, its period being somewhere about seventy-five and a-half 
years. This conjecture proved to be correct, and Halley's comet is 
now reckoned as one of the members of our system, revolving round 
the sun in a period of seventy-six to seventy-eight years, its greatest 
and least distances from the sun being 3,200 and 56 millions of miles 
respectively.^ The return of this and all other comets is frequently 
retarded or accelerated by the attraction of the planets which hap- 
pen to lie near their course. The period given above is, however, 
the mean period of Halley's comet ; and on its last return, in 1835, 

26 



402 



CKEATOR AKD COSMOS. 



the allowances to be made for the influences of the planets were so 
carefully calculated, that the date of its perihelion passage was 
predicted within four days. The next return of this body is to 
occur in the year 1912. By searching back through the list of 
comets which have been seen, very many appearances of this body 
can be traced ; one as far back as 11 B. C. ; and the comet of 1066, 
already referred to, was, it is believed, an appearance of the same 
body. It made its appearance in 1456 with a very long tail, con- 
siderably curved ; and an eclipse of the moon occurred when the 
comet was in close proximity to it, creating intense alarm. 

The comet known as Donati's, which appeared in 1858, will per- 
haps be remeijibered by some. It was first seen on the 2d of June, 
at Florence, by Dr. Donati, after whom it was named. Its move- 
ments for the next two months were very slow. Towards the end 
of August, faint traces of a tail began to appear, and it soon became 
visible to the naked eye. It accomplished its passage round the sun 
on the 29th of September, its tail vastly increasing in length, being 
on the 10th of October upwards of 50,000,000 miles long. On the 
6th of October the comet passed in front of the star Arcturus, and 
though a portion of the tail, at its densest part, having a thickness 



Fig. 127. 



Fig. 128. 




Fig. 124 is a view of a comet as seen on October 21st, 1807, by Schroeter; figure 125 is a 
view of the same comet as seen on the following evening, October 22. Figure 126 represents 
the tail of the splendid comet of 1744, which was divided into six branches. Fig. 127 repre- 
sents the comet of 1661 as seen byHevelius; the atmosphere or nebulosity surrounding the 
nucleus of this when viewed at dii¥ereut times varied in its extent, as likewise the taU in the 
length and breadth. Fig. 128 represents a class of comets which have their taUs somewhat 
bent, which some suppose to be owing to the resistance of the etherial fluids through which they 
move. 



COMETS. 



403 



of several thousand miles, intervened between the observers and the 
star, its light was not so much enfeebled as it would have been by 
the faintest fog on the earth's surface. While the tail of this comet was 
being thrown out the nucleus Avas watched, and presented the ap- 
pearance of a series of coverings being thrown off, and passing into 
the tail. As many as seven of these envelopes were distinctly ob- 




DoNATi's Comet. 



served. The tail appeared much brighter at the edges, and a 
dark band passed down the middle as if it consisted of a hollow cone. 
The observations on this comet were very numerous, and there is 
little doubt but that it revolves in an elliptic orbit, completing its 
journey in about 2000 years. The comet that appeared in 1861, 
was also a very remarkable one from the suddenness with which it 
came to view. It was discovered in the Southern hemisphere about 
the middle of May ; and in the latter part of June it was seen in the 
Northern hemisphere, only a portion of the tail being above the 
horizon in England, the 20th of this month. Its brightness was very 
remarkable, being greater than that of the one seen in 1858. Its 
tail, when at its greatest length, extended over nearl}^ 80°, and was 
perfectly straight. -It was, however, somewhat fan-like in shape. 
The following figure represents it, and shows the appearance of the 
nucleus when the tail was a throwing off. Mr. Hind states that it is 
probable that on the 30th of June, the earth actually passed through 



404 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the tail of the comet; and it is remarked in connection with this 
that on that day Mr. Lowe, and one or two other observers, noticed 
a peculiar phosphorescent glare in the sky. 




Comet of 1861. 

M. Biela, in 1826, discovered a comet which has since been known 
by his name, and has become remarkable. Observations made at 
different times soon showed that it moved in an elliptical orbit, and 
its period was found to be about 6^ years. Its return, in 1832, took 
place within a few hours of the predicted time. On its next visit 
to the sun it was invisible, owing to the position of the earth with 
respect to it and the sun being such that the comet was lost in the 
sun's light. Towards the close of 1845, when it again returned, a 
strange phenomenon was seen. The comet, which at first appeared 
almost circular, gradually became lengthened out, and at length 
divided into two parts, which continued to travel separately until 
lost sight of. Both parts reappeared in 1852, the distance between 
them having somewhat increased in the mean time. In 1859 it was 
again in an unfavorable position for observation, and so was not 
seen ; and in 1866, from some unknown cause, it could not be found. 
Whether it has been altogether thrown out of its course by the at- 
traction of some planet near which it passed, or what has become of 
it, is a matter that astronomers are at a loss to ascertain. There are 
several other comets which have a strange history ; but we can only 
refer to one, Encke's, which performs its revolution in a period of 



COMETS. 405 

about 3 J years. More appearances of tliis comet have been carefully 
observed than of any other, and by a comparison of these different 
observations Encke found that on each return it accomplished its 
passage round the sun in 2^ or 3 hours earlier than he expected. Its 
period thus appears to be diminishing by this amount, in each rev- 
olution. He conjectured that tliis might be accounted for by sup- 
posing that all space is occupied by an extremely rare medium, but 
yet one sufficiently dense to retard the comet to this extent, and thus 
to cause it gradually to be falling in towards the sun. Other con- 
jectures have been made, but the matter is still a moot point among 
astronomers. 

Of the physical constitution of these bodies comparatively little 
is as }^et known. They are believed to be- self-luminous masses of 
vapor, revolving round the sun. Some have supposed that in a few 
comets a solid nucleus exists ; but the evidence on this point does 
not appear to be very strong, and if one does exist it evidently is 
very small. The general opinion, however, is against its existence 
at all, and the great majority of comets are known to be devoid of 
one. That the mass of these bodies is extremely minute is seen by 
the way in which they are affected by many of the heavenly bodies 
which they apjDroach. Lexell's comet, for instance, when approach- 
ing the sun in 1770, jDassed so near to the planet Jupiter that it was 
entangled for several months among his satellites. Its orbit was 
completely changed by this contact, but no effect whatever could be 
discerned upon the satellites ; whereas, had the comet's mass been 
at all appreciable, their times of revolution might have been slightly 
modified. So also the comets of 1858 and 18G1, though they both 
passed near the earth, did not alter the length of our jeav by a 
single second. The fact that the light of even faint stars is scarce- 
ly at all diminished by passing through the tail of a comet has fre- 
quently been observed. It is known that the whole mass of a comet 
is so small that even though one should come into full collision with 
the earth no injurious effects would follow from the blow. Several 
large comets have at times passed so close to the sun as almost to 
graze his surface. The heat, therefore, to which they were exposed 
must have been extremely great, but they appeared not to be at all 
affected by it. The number of comets connected with our system 
has hitherto been found impossible to enumerate. Some have im- 
agined that it must, indeed, be very great. But this fact is certain, 
that there may be many which from their position are altogether 
hidden from our view. The following is a list of the principal 
comets recognized as belonging to the solar system : 



406 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



Name. 


Period. 


Date of next appearance. 


De Vico's 


5469 years. 

5-541 

6-581 

6-617 

7-44 
67-8 
73-25 

75' " 
76-78 


October, 1872. 


Winnecke's 


February, 1875. 
January, 1874. 
May, 1872. 
June. 1873. 


Brorsen's 


Biela's 


Fare's 


Vestphal's 


1920. 


De Vico's 


1919. 


Brorsen's 

Hallev's 


1922. 
1912. 



There are many others Avhose periods and dates have been cal- 
culated, but some need confirmation. As some of these latter close- 
ly agree in period, it has been conjectured that they have originally 
formed part of one large comet, which divided in a similar way to 
Biela's. 

Shooting Stars : Meteorites. 

We shall on a clear night be almost certain to see falling or 
shooting stars. These are much more common at certain seasons of 
the year than at others, but scarcely a night passes without some 
being visible. For a long period there appears to have been little 
or no notice taken of them by astronomers, it being believed that 
they owed their origin merely to gaseous exhalations from the earth, 
which became ignited in the atmosphere. But it was found that at 
some times the number seen was immensely greater than at others, 
and instances are recorded in which they outnumbered the ordinary 
stars, so that the display was termed a star or meteoric shower. 
Humboldt speaks of one of these which he witnessed on the 13th of 
November, 1799, when travelling in South America, and says : '• To- 
wards morning we witnessed a most extraordinary scene of shooting 
meteors. Thousands of bodies and falling stars succeeded each other 
during four hours. From the beginning of the phenomena there was 
not a space in the. firmament equal in extent to three diameters of 
the moon, which was not filled every instant with bodies of falling 
stars." On the 13th of November, 1831, another grand meteoric shower 
was witnessed which was followed b}^ others on the same date in 1832 
and 1833. The last of these seems to have been the most brilliant 
and splendid that has been recorded. It was observed with peculiar 
effect in some of the cities of the United States. The whole of the 
sky appeared to be on fire, and in many places the utmost terror and 
alarm was caused b)^ the sight. Thus writes one of the papers or 
that date in the Eastern States : " From a point in the heavens 
about 15° south-easterly from our zenith the meteors darted to the 
horizon in every point of the compass. Their paths were described 



SHOOTING STARS : METEORITES. 



40T 




Fig. 129. 



in curve lines similar to those of the circles of longitude on an arti- 
ficial globe. They were generally short in their course, resembling 

much an interrupted line thus. They ceased to appear 

when within 10° of the horizon. I did not see a single meteor pass 
the meteoric pole I have described, nor one pass in a horizontal di- 
rection. Several of them afforded as much light as faint lightning. 
One in the north-east was heard to explode with a sound like that of 
the rush of the distant sky-rocket. Millions of these meteors must 
have been darted in this shower. The singularity of this meteoric 
shower consisted in the countless numbers of the celestial rockets, 
and more especially in their constant uniform divergence from near 
the zenith." 

The annexed cut represents the I 
appearance of these meteors for several 
hours as seen at Boston, New York, ] 
Philadelphia, and other places in the! 
eastern parts of the United States. It 
is copied from one of the periodicals 
published in the Eastern States about 
the time when these phenomena ap- 
peared. 

Another observer wrote : " The scene was truly awful, for never 
did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth." 
Many of the meteors were observed to leave behind them luminous 
trains, which were visible for a greater or less period. These have 
obtained the name of the November meteors, from the fact that at 
this period especially they fell in great numbers on three consecutive 
years. One remarkable fact was observed during the shower, and 
this was, that all the shooting stars appeared to radiate from a single 
point in the constellation Leo. According to the concurrent testi- 
mony of the observers this radiant point was stationary among the 
stars during the whole period of observation, that is, it did not move 
along with the earth in its diurnal revolution eastwai'd — which tends 
to show the elevation of the meteors to have been beyond our atmos- 
phere. Continued observations have shown that in the month of 
November there is always a much greater display of these bodies 
than at other times of the year. By examining likewise the records, 
of these showers it was noticed that the grand displays seem to take 
place about every thirty-three years, sometimes have been seen for two 
or three consecutive j'^ears. It was accordingly suggested that not im- 
probably a brilliant display might be seen in 1866 , and though the 
numbers seen were not nearly so great as in 1833, the display was 
very grand and beautiful, so that those who watched through the 
night felt amply repaid for their trouble. Nearly all, as in previous 



408 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

instances, appeared to radiate from the stars in Leo, and close to 
this spot many faint ones were seen, some seeming just to appear and 
vanish again, witlioiit having changed their position perceptibly. 
These were evidently travelling directly towards the earth, and 
hence their trains were so foreshortened as to be invisible. 

These then are the main facts in connection with the phenomena 
of these meteors ; and our task now is to find what we are to learn 
from them as to the nature and movements of these bodies. As we 
have observed, several facts seem to show that the}' had their origin 
beyond the surface of the earth; and the annual periodicity, it is 
supposed, may indicate that in certain ^larts of its orbit the earth is 
passing through a portion of space which is especially crowded with 
them. By noting the position of the spot whence the}^ appear to 
radiate we learn the direction whence they are coming, and we find 
that the earth seems actually to be in the midst of a stream of them. 
There is an opinion now prevailing that there is a ring of those 
bodies revolving round the sun. This ring is about the dimensions 
of the orbit of the earth; it is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic at 
an angle of about 17^, cutting it just in the part in which the earth 
is situated on the 13th of Xovember, so that at this period the earth 
is just passing through the ring. When the earth then at this time 
meets the stream of meteors they will, of course, seem to radiate 
from one point. Tlieir uneven distril)ution in the stream may ac- 
countfor their constantfluctuation in number, and at any period they 
will only be visible at that part of the earth which is directed toward 
them. This explanation is, however, not deemed sufficient to ac- 
count for the star shower being so much more brilliant one year than 
another, nor for the periodical interval of 33 years. It is thought 
jaoreover that, if we suppose that in one part of the ring they are 
clustered together more thickh' than in the rest of it — that there is, 
in fact, in one part, a rich assemblage of these bodies, and that this 
group revolves in its orbit in about eleven da3-s less than the earth 
does, — the whole will be explained. This assemblage, it is thought, 
extends over some small portion of the ring, so that at times the 
earth ma}' for two or three successive years pass through or near the 
dense portion. It gains about 12" annually, so that for some thirty 
years the earth only passes through the portion where they are less 
crowded. Thus, in the figure, we suppose the dotted lines to repre- 
sent the zone of meteorites distributed unevenly, but still for the 
most part kept within narrow limits. These are moving along' from 
left to right. About the 13th of November the earth is moving along 
the part A B of its orbit in the direction indicated by the small 
arrows. It, therefoi-e, meets the stream of meteors, which will, of 
course, all appear to radiate from one point. Their constant fluctu- 



SHOOTING STARS : METEORITES. -±09 

ations in number will be accounted for by their uneven distribution 
in the ring ; and at any period they will only be visible to that part 
of the earth which is directed towards them. 




Fig. 130. 

Besides ihe 13th of November there are other periods at which 
large numbers of these bodies are seen. The 9th to 11th of August is 
such a period ; and though the numbers then seen are usually less 
than in November, the display is more certain and more uniform. 
There appear to be several of these rings of meteoi-ites through 
which the earth passes at different periods ; and a considerable 
number of radiant centres from which they diverge have been noted. 
Some astronomers suppose that the August and November meteors 
are parts of the same ring, which therefore cuts the earth's orbit in 
two points. The opinion that they are two separate rings is, how- 
ever, more generally received. M. Arago, the French astronomer, 
is of opinion that we cannot account for such extraordinary phe- 
nomena unless we suppose that beside the planetary bodies which 
revolve around the sun there are myriads of smaller bodies, which 
only become visible at the moment when they come within our 
atmosphere, and assume a meteoric appearance ; and that they move 
in groups and also singly ; all of which opinions are in support of 
the " ring theory." Dr. Olmsted, of Yale College, who particularly 
investigated the meteoric showers of 1833, deduces the following 
among other conclusions : that the distance of the body whence they 
emanated was about 2238 miles ; that they entered the earth's 
atmosphere with a velocity of four miles per second ; that some of 
the larger meteors must have been bodies of great size, not less than 
a mile in diameter ; and that they consisted of portions of a nebulous 
body which revolves around the sun in 182 days ; all of which is in 
favor of the " ring theory." 

As to the nature or constitution of these bodies not much yet is 
known. It is believed, however, that they are for the most part 
small solid bodies revolving round the sun as already described. If 



410 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

they are moving in a contrary direction to the earth, the velocity 
with which they enter the earth's atmosphere must be very great. 
The resistance of the air soon checks this motion, but by the friction 
thus produced the body is so intensely heated that it becomes lumi- 
nous, and ultimately is entirely consumed. The average height at 
which they become visible is seventy miles, and their course is about 
thirty miles. The weight of most of them is believed to be very 
small, possibly not more than a few grains. There are, however, a 
few which are much larger, and owing to their size pass unconsumed 
through the atmosphere, and fall to the earth's surface. These are 
usually distinguished as meteorites, and are sometimes divided into 
aerolites or meteoric stones, aerosiderites, or pieces of meteoric iron. 
It is not known whether these bodies, like those already described, 
move in elliptical orbits, though it has been observed that they too 
are somewhat periodical. 

The fall of many of these have been recorded, and in many 
instances the masses themselves are carefully preserved. When the 
body has been seen to fall a loud report has frequently been heard, 
accompanying it, and sometimes fragments have been scattered over 
a large area, indicating that while falling the meteorite exploded. 
Mr. Barham relates that when riding in Jamaica one evening, he be- 
held a ball of fire apparently about the bigness of a bomb swiftly 
falling down with a great blaze. Approaching the place where it 
fell he found the ground strangely broken up, and ploughed, and 
several holes appeared of the bigness of a man's head, and all the 
green herbage burned up near the holes ; at the same time he ex- 
perienced a strong smell of sulphur. 

In the year 1676 a great globe of fire was seen at Bononia, in 
Italy, about forty minutes after sunset. It passed with a rapid 
course, at the rate of not less than 160 miles a minute, and at last 
stood over the Adriatic Sea. It crossed all Italy in its course, and 
on computation it was found that it could not have been less than 
thirty-eight miles above the earth's surface. Wherever it approached, 
the inhabitants below could distinctly hear it with a hissing noise 
resembling that of a firework. It was heard to go off with a violent 
explosion. Its magnitude, when over Bononia, appeared twice as 
long as the moon one way and about as broad the other. It was 
estimated to be a mile long, and about half a mile broad. One of 
the most striking and extraordinary of this kind of meteors made its 
appearance in Britain on the 18th of August, 1783, about nine o'clock 
in the evening. It was seen in all parts of the island, from the 
Shetland Isles to the English Channel, over all France, and a great 
part of Italy, and is supposed to have described ji track of at least 
1000 miles over the surface of the earth. It appeared to have burst 



SHOOTING STARS : METEORITES. 411 

and re-united several times, and the first bursting which was noticed 
was somewhere over Lincolnshire, in England. Its appearance 
created universal wonder and alarm. When it was observed at 
Brussels the moon appeared quite red, and the illumination was so 
gi'eat as totally to obliterate the stars. A report was heard some 
time after it disappeared, which was very loud in the South-eastern 
counties of England. A hissing sound was said also to accompany 
its progress. At Greenwich two bright balls, parallel to one another, 
led the way, and were followed by the expulsion of eight others. Tlie 
balls seemed tinted first with a pure bright light, then followed a 
yellow, mixed with azure, red and green, which, with a coalition of 
bolder tints, and a reflection from the other balls, gave the most 
beautiful rotundity and variation of color with which the eye could 
be charmed The height of this fire-ball was reckoned at from 
seventy to ninety miles ; its diameter was estimated at nearl}^ two 
miles, and its velocity at 1000 miles a minute. The same year, on 
October 4th, at forty-three minutes past six in the evening, another 
meteor appeared nearly of the same description, but much smaller 
and of shorter duration. It was first perceived to the northward, as 
a stream of fire, like the common shooting stars, but large ; and 
presently burst out into that intensely bright bluish flame, which is 
peculiar to such meteors. It was nearly globular, but left behind it 
a dusky red streak of fire. After moving ten degrees in this state it 
became suddenly extinct without any explosion. Its height was 
estimated at between forty and fifty miles. The celebrated Gassendi 
relates that a meteor fell at Vaison, in France, of the size and shape 
of the human head ; it was mainly composed of iron. In April, 1803, 
a brilliant fire-ball was seen in Normandy, travelling very rapidly ; 
shortly after which a loud explosion was heard, and a great number 
of pieces of stone fell to the ground, nearly 3,000 being collected. 
When picked up soon after they have fallen these bodies are usually 
found to be intensely hot. On chemical examination no new 
elements have been discovered in them but such as are known to be 
distributed throughout the earth's crust. These are fifteen in num- 
ber, namely, iron, nickel, cobalt, manganese, chromium, copper, 
arsenic, zinc, potash, soda, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, &c., consti- 
tuting altogether nearly one third of all the known simple bodies. 

Some of these meteors, especially the large fiery ones, doubtless owe 
their origin to gaseous exhalations from the earth, which, assuming 
different forms in the atmosphere, under a variety of combination 
descend to the earth again with the manifestation of light; and, as 
for the rest (the star showers), the theory of small bodies revolving 
round the sun in an orbit which intersects the plane of the earth's 
orbit, whence they would come within the sphere of the earth's 



412 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



attraction, does not appear unreasonable, and may be s iffici int to 
account for tneir i.ppearance. The idea of any of the aeavi;nly bodies-, 
by explosive action of any internal or external foiee, sending any 
of their constituent parts beyond their spheres of attraction, ap- 
pears as unreasonable as it does impossible. 

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. 

For beauty there is none of the luminous meteors that surpass 
the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. This is not unfrequentl}' seen 
in our latitudes, but less frequently and with far less splendor than it 
appears in the polar regions. Its form varies greatly ; when perfect- 
1}^ developed, an arch of light appears to cross the sky a little way 
above the horizon, and from this, quivering streamers dart upward 




Fig. 131. — THE AUKOK.\ BOREALIS UK NOKTHEKN LIGHTS. 

continually towards the zenith, giving rise to the name of " the merry 
dancers," by which this phenomenon is sometimes known. Frequently 
several auroral arches are seen at once, and the effect is then very grand 
and sublime. At other times the streamers appear to shoot up from 
behind distant hill^. It l;as also been known to assume the form of 
a huge curtain suspended in massive folds, which reflect various 
colors. The Aurora in our latitudes appears almost always far less 
distinct and perfect than any of these ; at times its ruddy glow has 
been mistaken for that of a distant fire. 

Various hypotheses have been started to account for these appear- 
ances. The fluctuations of the magnetic needle, which occur during 



THE NORTHERN LIGHTS; MARINER'S LIGTHS. 413 

their continuance, indicate strongly an electrical ori^iu ; and this is 
further confirmed bj^ the fact that telegraphic messages have been 
interrupted and the alarms rung by the auroral currents. Humboldt 
says : " The bold conjecture hazarded, one hundred and twenty- 
eight years since, by Halley, that the Aurora Borealis was a mag- 
netic phenomenon, has acquired empirical certainty from Faraday's 
brilliant discovery of the evolution of light by magnetic forces. The 
northern light is preceded by premonitory signs. Thus, in the morn- 
ing before the occurrence of tlie plienomenon, the irregular horary 
course of the magnetic needle generally indicates a disturbance of 
the equilibrium in the distribution of terrestrial magnetism. When 
this disturbance attains a great degree of intensity the equilibrium 
of the distribution is restored by a dischai-ge attended by a develop- 
ment of light. The Aurora itself is therefore not to be regarded as 
an externally manifested cause of this disturbance, but rather as a 
result of telluric activity, manifested on the one side by the appear- 
ance of the light, and on the other by the vibrations of the magnetic 
needle." "This phenomenon derives the greater part of its impor- 
tance from the fact that the earth becomes self-luminous, and, that as 
a planet, besides the light which it receives from the central body, the 
sun, it shows itself capable in itself of developing light. Occasion- 
ally, as on the 7th of January, 1831, the intensity of the terrestrial 
light is so great that printed characters can be read without diffi- 
culty." Earth currents are much stronger during the continuance of the 
Aurora, and hence this phenomenon is now generally attributed to 
the discharge of electricity into the upper regions of the air, in effecting 
a restoration of a disturbed condition of equilibrium. 

The Mariner's Lights. 

The Mariner's Lights, sometimes called St. Elmo's Fire, is an- 
other of the electrical meteors. A bright flame-like light is seen at 
the top of the masts and sometimes at the ends of the spars. This 
flame often points towards an approaching cloud, increases in length 
as the cloud passes over it ; at times it has been seen as much as two 
or three feet long. The appearance is easily accounted for, and a 
good illustration of the same effect is seen by holding a sharp point 
near the conductor of an electrical machine. The electricity from 
the cloud, instead of passing off in the form of a flash of lightning, is in 
this way silently carried off by induction. In mountainous regions 
travellers have occasionally noticed a somewhat similar appearance 
at the end of their sticks or umbrellas, and a faint hissing sound 
usually accompanies it. The air in this case is highly electrical ; 
and the pointed ends of the sticks have served to attract the fluid 



414 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

and discharge it. Both the Aurora and the Mariner's Lights are 
merely manifestations, as light, of a substance which we may call 
electricity. 

THE FIXED STARS. 

Let us now turn our attention for a little from the solar system to 
the fixed stars which appear in such vast profusion in tlie sky; and 
before we begin to contemplate these remote luminaries it may be 
well for the reader to form some idea of the distances at which they 
are from us, and as to the magnitudes of some of them. Great as the 
sun and his surrounding planets are, they dwindle into a point when 
we wing our way to the regions of the stars. Before we could 
arrive at the nearest star that is visible from our globe, we behooved 
to pass over a space of at least twenty billions of miles in extent, a 
space which a cannon-ball, flying with its utmost velocity, would not 
pass over in less than four millions of years. Here every eye on a 
clear winter's night may behold a thousand shining orbs, most of 
them emitting their splendor from spaces immeasurably distant ; and 
bodies visible to us at such distances must necessarily be of immense 
magnitudes. There is reason to believe that the least twinkling 
stars which our eyes can discern is not less than the sun in magni- 
tude and splendor; and that many of them are a hundred or even a 
thousand times superior in magnitude to that stupendous luminary. 
Sir W. Herschel, when speaking in reference to Dr. WoUaston's 
photometrical experiments on the light of Sirius (the brightest star), 
says, " Dr. WoUaston's assuming, as we think he was perfectly justi- 
fied in doing, a much lower limit of possible parallax in Sirius than 
we adopted in the text, has concluded the intrinsic light of Sirius to 
be nearly that of fourteen suns."" Sir W. Herschel informs us that 
with a magnifying power of 6450, and by means of his new microm- 
eter, he found the apparent diameter of Vega or a Lyrceto be 0'.355; 
this will give the real diameter of the star about 38 times that 
of the sun, or 33,440,000 miles, supposing its parallax to be one 
second. Were this its true estimate its solid contents would be 
19,579,357,857,382,400,000,000, or above nineteen thousand, five 
hundred and seven tj'-nine trillions of cubic miles; which is fifty- 
four thousand, eight hundred and seventj'-two times larger than the 
solid contents of the sun. 

It is very difficult from mere inspection to form any estimate of 
the number of these bodies ; it appears, however', from catalogues which 
have been compiled, that the total number of stars visible to the 
naked eye is about 6000. One half of the sky only can be seen at 
one time, and the number visible on a clear night may therefore be 
set down approximately at 3,000. These stars vary greatly in bril 



THE FIXED STARS. 415 

liancy and apparent size, and have accordingly been divided into six 
classes, the brightest being classed as of the first magnitude, while 
the faintest visible to the naked eye are set down as of the sixth ; 
the rest being divided into the intermediate four magnitudes. As a 
general rule it is computed that stars of the fix-st magnitude are about 
100 times as brilliant as those of the sixth. The light of Sirius is 
estimated, however, to be equal to that of 324 of the latter. Though 
the number of stars seen by the naked eye is thus limited, it must 
not be supposed that these are all that exist. If we direct a telescope 
to any part of the sky we shall at once perceive that the field of view 
is covered with points of light, and the number of these telescopic 
stars is found to be infinitely greater than that of those visible to the 
naked eye. These telescopic stars are classed into magnitudes down 
to the fifteenth and sixteenth, or even lower, according to the power 
of the telescope employed for bringing them into view. The stars 
are especially numerous in the regions of the Milky Way, that starry 
belt that encircles the sky, with which every common observer is 
familiar. The ancients seem to have believed that the brightness of 
this zone was owing to a confluence of stars, for Ovid writes : " Its 
groundwork is of stars." 

Soon after the invention of the telescope, when astronomers were 
enabled to penetrate the stellar regions, they were astonished at the 
number of stars that appeared in this shining zone of the heavens ; 
and their numbers appeared to increase in proportion to the magnify- 
ing powers of their telescopes. It was not, however, till Sir W. 
Herschel applied his powerful instruments to this region of the 
heavens that its profundities were explored, and all its minute 
nebulous parts shown to consist of countless myriads of stars of every 
apparent magnitude stretching on to infinity, until they appeared to 
be lost to the eye, even when it was assisted by the largest telescopes. 
In several fields of view of this zone, occupying a space not much 
more than twice the breadth of the moon, one perceives through a 
good telescope more of those twinkling luminaries than all the stars 
visible to the naked eye throughout the whole canopy of heaven. 
In certain places in it, every slight motion of the telescope presents 
new groups and new configurations ; and the diversified and wondrous 
scene is continued over many degrees in succession. The variety 
and the beautiful configurations of the stars strikes the observer with 
amazement, and makes him feel as if he were lost in penetrating the 
immensity of the universe. Sir W. Herschel explored this region of 
the heavens with a Newtonian reflecting telescope of twenty feet 
focal length, and an aperture of eighteen inches. He found that this 
telescope completely resolved all the -whitish appearances into stars, 
which the telescopes he formerly used had not light enough to do. 



416 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

The portion he first observed v/as that about the hand and chib of 
Orion ; and he found in this place an astonishing number of stars, the 
number of which he endeavored to estimate by counting many fields ; 
that is, the apparent spaces in the heavens he could see at once 
through his telescope, without moving it, and computing from a mean 
of these the number that may be contained in a given portion of the 
Milky Way. In the most vacant space to be met with in that re"'ion 
he found 63 stars ; other six fields contained 100, 60, 70, 90, 70, and 
74 stars ; a mean of all which give 79 for the number of stars in each 
field ; and then he found that by allowing 15' for the diameter of his 
field of view, a belt of 15° long and 2° broad, which he had often seen 
pass through his telescope in an hour's time, could not contain less 
than 50,000 stars, large enough to be distinctly enumerated ; beside 
which he susj)ected twice as many more which he could see only now 
and then by faint glimpses for want of sufficient light. The reader 
may remember that these stars extended onwards to infinity, that is, 
that there is no end to them in that one or in any direction,* and 
the small place occupied by those now mentioned is only the ^-gLTrth 
part of the visible canopy of the heavens ; so that if every part of the 
firmament were equally rich in stars, there would be within the reach 
of such a telescope as Herschel's no less than sixty-eight millions 
seven hundred and fifty thousand stars. And it may be further con- 
sidered that it was only in the comparatively " vacant spaces " of 
this zone that the number of stars stated above were perceived. 

In exploring some other parts of the zone. Sir W. Herschel in- 
forms us that he descried a much greater number of these luminaries 
in a similar extent of space. " In the most crowded parts of the 
" Milky Way," he says, " I have had fields of view that contained 
no fewer than 588 stars, and these were continued for many minutes, 
so that in one quarter of an hour's time there passed no less than 
116,000 stars through the field of view of my telescope." In order 
to understand this description, we are to understand the telescope to 
have been fixed in one position at the time of observation ; and that, 
by the diiirnal motion of the earth, or the apparent motion of the 
heavens, the first field of stars gradually passed out of view, and 
other fields appeared in succession ; until, in the space of fifteen 
minutes of time, one hundred and sixteen thousand stars passed over 
the field of vision. Now the field of view taken in by the telescope 
was only 15' of a degree, less than the one-half of the apparent size 
of the moon. In this narrow field were seen about as many stars as 



* Some theologians appear to understand the material universe as limited; but there is no 
reason to conclude that what we understand as matter in its various forms is not infinite. It is 
quite as easy to conceive of matter infinite as to conceive of pure space devoid of all matter 
existing infinitely outside of and beyond all matter. 



THE FIXED STARS. 417 

observers generally behold throughout the whole firmament by the 
naked eye in a clear winter's night. At another time, this inde- 
fatigable astronomer perceived no less than 258,000 stars pass before 
his view in the course of forty-one minutes. In the space between 
i? (Beta) and j (Gamma) of the Swan the stars are found clustering 
with a kind of division between them, so that they may be con- 
sidered as clustering towards two different regions. In this space, 
taking an average breadth of about 5°, he found from observation 
that it contains more than 331,000 stars, which gives above one 
hundred and sixty-five thousand for each clustering collection. I 
we suppose every part of this starrj^ belt equally full of stars as this 
space now referred to, it will contain no less than 20,191,000 stars ; 
for, supposing the Milky Way to be, on an average, 12° broad, the 
whole of it will contain an area of 4320=12°x360°, for this belt ex- 
tends clear round the heavens. Now if the space examined by 
Herschel between Beta and Gamma of the Swan be about 1-4° in 
length, and h° in breadth, it will contain an area of 70*^, which is 
somewhat less than the g\st part of the space occupied by the 
Milky Way. The whole visible heavens considered as a concave 
spherical plane contains an area of 41,253°. Now, could we sup- 
pose every portion of the firmament to be equally well rej^lenished 
with stars as the Milky Way, there would be more than 195,000,000, 
or more than one hundred and ninetj'-five millions of stars in the 
heavens discernible by such a telescope as that of Herschel ; but as 
there are comparatively few other regions of the heavens which are 
open to our view so densely crowded with stars as the Milky Zone, 
we must make a certain reduction from this estimate of discernihie 
stars, though it is most probable there are more than one hundred 
millions of stars within the reach of our best telescopes, were all the 
spaces of our firmament moderately well explored ; and future 
generations with more perfect instruments will probably add in- 
definitely to the number. Had we taken the most crowded field of 
stars which Herschel perceived through his telescope, namely, 588, 
as our standard for estimating their number, the number of stars on 
the Milky Way would have been forty millions, and in the whole 
firmament three hundred and eighty-eight millions. In short, to use 
the words of Sir John Herschel : " This remarkable belt when exam- 
ined through powerful telescopes, is found (wonderful to relate !) 
to consist entirely of stars scattered by millions like glittering dust 
on the black ground of the general heavens.'''' Now in regard to the 
distances of some of these discernible stars, we may easily conceive 
that they are immense, and far beyond our distinct comprehension. 
Sir W. Herschel, in endeavoring to determine a " sounding line," as 
he terms it, to fathom the depth of the stratum of stars in the Milky 

27 



418 CE.EATOE AND COSMOS. 

Way, undertakes to prove by pretty conclusive reasoning, that his 
twenty-feet telescope penetrated to distances not less than 497 times 
the distance of Sirius ; so that a stratum of stars amounting to 497 
in thickness, each of them as far distant from each other in a direct 
line beyond Sirius as the star Sirius is distant from our sun, was 
"within the reach of his vision, when looking through that telescope. 
Now, the least distance at which we can conceive Sirius to be dis- 
tant from the earth or sun is 20,000,000,000,000 or twenty billions 
of miles, and consequently the most distant stars visible in his 
telescope must be four hundred and ninetj^-seven times this distance, 
that is, 9,940,000,000,000,000, or nearly ten thousand billions of 
miles. Such immense distances are already infinitely beyond the 
power of our conception ; a cannon-ball moving at the rate of 500 
miles an hour would occupy more than 2,267,855,068, or two thou- 
sand two hundred and sixty-seven millions, eight hundred and fifty- 
five thousand years in traversing that amazing interval. 

On our first excursion into the celestial regions we are almost 
terrified at the idea of the distance of Saturn, which a cannon-ball 
projected from the earth and flying with its utmost velocity, would 
not reach in 180 years. We are astonished at the size of such a 
globe as Jupiter, which could contain within its circumference over 
thirteen hundred globes of the size of the earth. We are justly 
amazed at the stupendous magnitude of the sun, which is more than 
a thousand times the size of Jupiter, and which illuminates with its 
splendor a sphere of more than five thousand millions of miles in cir- 
cumference. But what are all such distances and dimensions, vast 
and amazing as they are, when compared with the astounding gran- 
deur of the scene before us? They sink into comparative insig- 
nificance, and are almost lost sight of amidst the myriads of splendid 
suns which occupy the profundities of the Milky Way. What is one 
sun and one planetary system in the presence of ten millions of 
suns, perhaps immensely more resplendent, and vastly more magnifi 
cent; and of hundreds of times this number of spacious worlds, 
which beyond all doubt revolve around them ! Yet this scene, 
stupendous as it is, is not the universe. It is indeed only a com- 
paratively small corner of it, which beings at an immensely greater 
distance will behold as an obscure and scarcely discernible spot on 
the outskirts of their firmament, and infinite numbers will not be 
able to behold at all, being situated at infinite distances from it. So 
that amidst this vast assemblage of material existence we may say 
in the language of the prophet, when speaking of the Almighty: 
" Even here is but the hiding of His power." Now what is man and 
the globe on which he dwells, amidst this sublime scene of immensity 
and magnificence ! An atom in the infinite space, an infinitely small 



DOUBLE STABS; COLORED STARS. 419 

particle of vapor compared to the ocean, a being who in respect to 
the magnificence of the universe and the grandeur of his Creator, is 
as nothing, and is counted to Him as less than nothing, and vanity. 

Double Stars. 

When we observe the heavens on a clear night we see here and 
there two stars in very close proximity ; the telescope further reveals 
to us the fact that very many of those which appear to the naked eye 
as single stars consist in reality of two or more so close together that 
they appear as one. Sir W. Herschel was the first to direct special 
attention to these, of which he compiled a list. He hoped that by 
accurate measurements of the apparent distance between them, he 
might be able in some instance to detect a variation, and thus ascer- 
tain their parallax, and by this their distances. The idea, then, was 
that these stars merely appeared close together because they hap- 
pened to be in a straight line directed almost towards the earth ; that 
they were in fact merely optical couples, one being at an immense 
distance behind the other. After long-continued observation, Her- 
schel found that their distances and relative positions did vary, but 
instead of it being as he expected, an annual fluctuation caused by 
the earth's motion, it was a progressive change. He thus found that 
in some cases the stars were revolving round one another in elliptic 
orbits, and they were physical couples, the two forming one system. 
These he called binary stars, or couples, to distinguish them from 
optical pairs. Other observers have followed up these investigations, 
. and there are now upwards of 600 binary stars known and noted, and 
in many cases their times of revolution are thought to have been cal- 
culated. Of course these results will have to remain subject to future 
modifications, for Ave know that, considering the immense distances 
of the stars, accuracy in these respects can only be approximated to. 

One of the best examples of double stars is afforded by c Lyrae, 
which is sometimes called the double star. To the naked eye it ap- 
pears a somewhat faint star, but a telescope of very moderate power 
will show it to be double. But when a more powerful instrument is 
employed, each of these components is in turn found to consist of 
two smaller ones. The lower pair, it is said, revolves in about 2000 
years and the upper in about half that time, while the two couples 
take a very long period to revolve around their 
common centre of gravity. See the annexed 1 
figure. It is but lately that the attention of 
astronomers has been directed to such observa- 
tions ; and on account of the very minute dis- 
tances of the revolving stars from each other, 
and the slight variations in the angle of po- 




420 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

sition which can be traced for a series of years, an age or two is re- 
quisite in order to determine with precision the degree of progress 
of their revolutionary movements. In the course of time, and by 
means of improvement in optical instruments, we may believe many 
important discoveries will be made in reference to the bodies in ques- 
tion, and that what is at present doubtful and obscure will be ren- 
dered definite and precise. But as the most powerful instruments 
which can be invented can carry our view only a very small dis- 
tance comparatively beyond the outward boundaries of those mighty 
visible heavens Avhich surround us, millions of those systems may 
still exist in those remote regions which will forever remain inex- 
plorable by the inhabitants of earth. 

Colored Stars. 

One remarkable feature in connection with those binary stars is 
the fact that in some instances the component stars are of different 
colors. In p Leporis, for example, one is white, while the other is 
deep red. In /? Cygni, again, the colors are yellow and blue. And 
in r Andromedse they are orange and green. "Many of the double 
stars," Sir John Herschel remarks, " exhibit the beautiful and 
curious phenomena of contrasted or complementary colors. In such 
instances the larger one is usually of a ruddy or orange hue, while 
the smaller one appears blue or green ; probably in virtue of that 
general law of optics which provides that when the retina is under 
the influence of excitement b}^ any bright-colored light, feebler 
lights, which seen alone would produce no sensation but of white- 
ness, shall for the time appear colored with the tint complementary 
to that of the brighter. Thus a yellow color predominating in the 
light of the brighter star, that of the less bright one in the same 
field of view will appear blue ; while, if the tint of the brighter 
star verge to crimson, that of the other will exhibit a tendency to 
green, or even appear as a vivid green under favorable circum- 
stances. The former contrast is beautifully exhibited by Iota Cancri, 
the latter by Gramma Andromedce, both fine double stars. If, how- 
ever, the colored star be much the less bright of the two it will not 
materially affect the other. Thus, for instance. Eta Cassiopeiae ex- 
hibits the beautiful combination of a large white star and a small 
one of a rich ruddy purple. It is by no means, however, intended 
to say that in all such cases one of the colors is a mere effect of 
contrast; and it may be easier suggested in words than conceived in 
imagination what variety of illumination two suns, a red and a green, 
or a yellow and a blue one, must afford a planet circulating about 
either, and what charming contrasts and grateful vicissitudes, a red 
and green day, for instance, alternating with a white one and with 



DOUBLE STARS ; COLORED STARS. 421 

darknesss, might arise from the presence or absence of one or other 
or both above the horizon. Insulated stars of a red color almost as 
deep as that of blood, occur in many parts of the heavens, but no 
green or blue star of any decided hue has we believe ever been 
noticed unassociated with a companion brighter than itself." This 
variety of colors in the double stars arises doubtless for the most 
part, if not altogether, from complementary colors ; and as to the 
stars that appear insulated, and exhibit a rare color, we know there 
are different degrees of whiteness in light; the light of a candle, for 
example, or that which arises from the incandescence of some of the 
elementary substances is not as clear a white as the solar light ; 
and, further, when we come to note the color of different stars, and 
compare it with former records, we find that in a few instances a 
change has taken place. Thus, Sirius, which now shines with a 
pure bright light, is spoken of by old observers as a ruddy star. 
There are also many others which exhibit changes in brilliancy; 
and these changes seem in most cases to be periodical. The star on 
which this discovery was made is Omicron Ceti, called also Mira, or 
the wonderful star, a name that is very appropriately given to it. 
At the time of its greatest brightness it is usually of the first or 
second magnitude, it then decreases for two or three months till it 
becomes invisible, and remains so for about five months, its mini- 
mum brightness being about equal to that of a star of the twelfth 
magnitude. It then again appears, and the whole period occupied 
in these changes is about 331. days. Algol or Beta Persei is another 
variable star, remarkable for its short period and rapid changes. It 
ordinarily appears a star of the second magnitude, but in a period 
of three and a-half hours it diminishes in brightness to the fourth 
magnitude, and after a few minutes begins again to increase, and 
attains its former brilliancy in another period of three and a-half 
hours. At this it remains two days, thirteen hours, and then the 
same series of changes recurs. 

As to the mode of classification of the stars into magnitudes, ^c. 

We have mentioned that the telescopic stars are classed into 
magnitudes, according to their apparent brightness through the tele- 
scope. The question naturally suggests itself whether these differ- 
ent degrees of brightness result from differences in the size of the 
stars, or in their distances. To this it cannot be answered with 
certainty, as there are only a few stars whose distances have been 
approximately measured. There appears, however, to be little doubt 
that the diiference is chiefly in their distances. The distances of 
the stars are ascertained in the same manner as those of the sun 



422 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

and planets, that is, by parallax. Instead, however, of taking twc 
stations at different parts of the earth's surface, and having the dis- 
tance of the earth's diameter or semi-diaraeter as a base line between 
them, the diameter of the earth's orbit is taken as a base line, which 
is 183,000,000 miles, the observations being taken at intervals of six 
months, or when the earth is in the two opposite points of her orbit. 
But even with this immense line the parallax is so small, that it can 
only be detected "bj- the most careful observations, and accurate 
instruments. In no case has it been found to be greater than I", 
and if this be its value the distance of the star must be 206,000 
times as great as that of the sun. The parallax of about a dozen 
of stars is now believed to be ascertained, and is found to vary 
between 0-919'' and 0-016". The star Alpha Centauri is the nearest 
to the earth, and its distance is estimated at 20,196,000,000,000 or 
twenty billions four hundred and ninety-six thousand millions of 
miles ; while the average distance of stars of the first magnitude is 
probabl}" three or four times as great as this. These figures, how- 
ever, fail to convey to the mind any definite idea as to the real 
distances. 

The heavens were divided by the ancients into twelve constella- 
tions or assemblages of stars, which they designated by different 
names, as before mentioned ; and many new ones, have been added 
to this number in modern times, so as to make in all 109. Several 
of these are, however, but small and unimportant, and hence are 
rejected by some astronomers. Special names, too, have been as- 
signed to many of the most brilliant stars, but these have a ten- 
dency to confuse. In 1604 a German astronomer, named Bayer, 
published a celestial atlas, in which he designated the stars in each 
constellation by the letters of the Greek alphabet, the brightest 
being called «, the next ^5, and so on. This plan was found to answer 
so well that it has been continued to the present time. In some 
constellations, however, the numbei' of stars now catalogued is so 
great that more letters are required to denote them; the English 
alphabet, therefore, follows the Greek ; and if both prove insuffieient 
the remaining stars are denoted by numbers. In a few instances in 
Bayer's catalogue the stars are not arranged quite in their order of 
brightness, either from want of accuracy in Bayer's observations, or 
from a change in the light of the star since his time ; but it is con- 
sidered better not to attempt to amend this, as it would only produce 
confusion. The best plan for one to follow Avho wishes to become 
acquainted with the different constellations is to study the sky 
itself with the aid of some maps, or of a celestial globe. Several 
of the constellations, as the Pleiades, the V-shaped H}' ades ; and 
Orion, with the three stars in the belt, commonly known as the 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE STAKS INTO MAGNITUDES. 423 

Yard Measure, also the great and the Little Bear and the Pole Star, 
are familiar to almost every one : these will serve as a guide in 
determinating others. 

As to the motions and position in space of the Sun and the solar 

system. 

The stars are all of them bright, self-luminous bodies, like our 
sun, which, indeed, appears to other worlds to be one of the stars. 
Delicate observations show that they have proper motions, but it is 
very difficult and requires long-continued observations to determine 
them. We can, however, ascertain the motion of the sun by observ- 
ing the relative distances of the stars. The stars in one part of the 
sky are seen gradually opening out, and getting further apart, while 
in the opposite quarter they are as gradually closing rip ; evidently 
showing that we are moving towards the former part of the heavens, 
just as when we are travelling in a forest the trees in. front seem 
opening out, while those we have passed appear to be getting closer 
together. Now Sir W. Herschel found that the apparent proper 
motion of 44 stars out of 56 are very nearly in the direction which 
should result from a motion of the sun toward the constellation 
Hercules, or to a point of the heavens whose right ascension is 250° 
25^', and north declination 49° 38'. "No one," says Sir J. Her- 
schel, " who reflects with due attention on the subject, Avill be 
inclined to deny the high probability, nay certainty^ that the sun has 
a proper motion in some direction." . If the sun then have a proper 
motion in space, as it appears probable it has, all the planets with 
their satellites, along with the comets, must partake of it ; so that 
beside their own proper motions around this luminary, the}' likewise 
move along with the sun through the depths of infinite space with 
a velocity perhaps approaching to that with which they move around 
in their orbits. The earth will, therefore, partake of three motions, 
one around her circumference, one around the sun, and another in 
the direction in which the sun is moving ; and consequentlj^ it 
appears probable we shall never again occupy that position in infi- 
nite space through which we are now passing. 

The sun, with his system of j^lanets, (tc, is found to occupy a 
position in a nebulaD or cluster of stars, of which the Milky Way 
forms the main part. This Milky Way, in one part of its course 
around the celestial sphere, divides into two branches, which after 
separating a little way, and passing about a third around the sky, 
again unite into one. This may be illustrated by taking a flat cir- 
cular body, as, for example, a cheese, and splitting it in the centre 
of the circumference, by passing a knife one-third of the way through, 



424 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 




the two parts being 
made to diverge a lit« 
tie, as shown at a, b 
in the figure. The 
sun s is situated some- 
where near the cen- 
tre, and the split side 
stcTjoN oi- Kii, inLKY wai. causcs the divided 

appearance of the Milky Way. Of course if the sun is moving 
through the regions of space, as it apparently is, though at a slow 
rate of motion compared with the orbitual motions of the planets, 
all the other stars of this nebular cluster are also moving relatively; 




MINIATURE MAP OF THE HEAVENS ON MERCATOR S PROJECTION, SHOWING THE COURSE 

OF THE MILKY WAT. 

for the fixed stars always maintain the same relative positions to 
each other. The sun with his system, doubtless, revolves in a cycle 
to which thousands of years are as nothing, in an elliptical or circu- 
lar orbit, around some reciprocal centre of gravity. 



Temporary Stars. 

Closely allied to the variable stars are the new or temporary 
stars which have at times attracted much attention. Several ap- 
pearances of such stars have been recorded ; one of the most re- 



MOTIONS OP THE SUN. 425 

markable is that observed by Tycho Brahe, in November, 1572. 
This star seems to have burst forth very suddenly, as it is said the 
constellation Cassiopeia, in which it appeai-ed, had been carefully 
observed by an astronomer only two days before the star was seen, 
and that then no trace of it was observed. Also Tycho Brahe him- 
self did not see it at half-past five when going from his house to his 
laboratory ; but returning to his house about ten, he came to a 
crowd of country people who were staring at something behind him. 
Looking round he saw this wonderful object. It was so bright that 
his staff cast a shadow ; it was of a dazzling white, with a little of a 
bluish tinge. It had no hair or tail around it, similar to comets, but 
shone with the same kind of lustre as the other fixed stars. It was 
even seen, by those who had good eyes, at noonday. Its phenomena, 
it is said, were so striking as to determine the celebrated Tycho 
Brahe to become an astronomer. This star continued visible for 
about sixteen months, gradually becoming fainter till it disappeared. 
In 945 and 1264 stars had appeared in the same constellation in a 
somewhat similar manner, and as the intervals between the thi;ee 
dates are almost equal, it has been conjectured that they might be 
three appearances of the same object. If this be the case, this star 
in the course of a few years (in 1891 or 1892, as thus its period 
would be about 319 years) may make its appearance again, and thus 
we might have an opportunity of gazing upon this object, which in 
former times attracted so much attention. Another temporary star 
of considerable brilliancy appeared in the year 1604, and was also 
carefully observed by Brahe. Modern times, however, have fur- 
nished us with several instances of this kind. In 1848 Mr. Hind 
observed a new star in Ophiuncus. It increased in brilliancy to the 
fourth magnitude, but subsequently decreased to the 11th or 12th, 
at which it now remains. In 1866 a new star appeared in the Nor- 
thern crown, and was very minutely examined. It had been pre- 
viously noted as of the sixth magnitude, but it suddenly shone out 
as a star of the second magnitude ; its light, however, diminished 
very rapidly for some time. Attention was at once directed to it, 
the spectroscope being now available for observation. This instru- 
ment exhibited, in addition to the ordinary spectrum of the star, a 
second spectrum of bright lines, prominent among which were those 
indicative of burning hydrogen ; so that it appears as if in this in- 
stance a sudden blaze was produced by incandescent hydiM •"). and 
other substances. 

When old star catalogues are compared with those of the present 
day, it is found that, in addition to many changes of magnitude, 
several stars, whose places are there recorded, are now no longer to 



426 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

be seen ; and, on the other hand, that some of those now known are 
not recorded in the old lists, although their brilliancy is consider- 
able, and would probably have insured their insertion had they been 
visible. In many other cases doubtless the discrepancy may have 
arisen from errors in observation ; but there is no doubt that many 
stars have altogether disappeared, and it is not improbable that 
some of these may be variable stars, which, after a more or less pro- 
longed absence, may again become visible. Different explanations 
have been oifered to account for these phenomena. Some imagine 
the star to revolve in an immense orbit, and that when it is visible 
it is in the part of that orbit nearest the earth, gradually increasing 
in brilliancy as it approaches to its nearest point, and gradually 
diminishing as it departs from it, which is not at all a reasonable 
supposition in the case of the stars. Some imagine the star to ro- 
tate, and one part of its surface to be more luminous than another, 
which appears a reasonable supposition ; others suppose that a 
planet of large dimensions may revolve around the star and thus 
eclipse its light, which may or not be a reasonable supposition ; but 
there is no known instance to us of a larger body revolving round a 
smaller one. If the telescope had been in use in the time of Brahe, 
he might have learned more about the star which he saw. Astron- 
omers now are o\\\j waiting, in the hope that future researches, 
aided by the spectroscope and by more powerful and refined instru- 
ments, may throw fresh light on the whole subject. All the variable 
stars are being closely watched with this object in view. 

CLUSTERS AND NEBULA. 

Besides the stars and planets, we easily distinguish in the sky 
various groups called clusters or nebulae. These are usually di- 
vided into Irregular Groups, more or less visible to the naked eye ; 
Clusters, resolvable by good telescopes ; and Nebulee, many of 
which on account of their immense distance are irresolvable with 
the most poAverful telescopes yet made. There are many examples 
of the first class, among which may be mentioned Prassepe or the 
Beehive, and the sword handle in Perseus, both of which are very 
beautiful telescopic objects. Very many objects of the second class 
have also been noted. In ordinary telescopes they appear for the 
most part as faint, cloudy masses ; but as more powerful instru- 
ments are directed to them they begin to resolve into stars, appa- 
rently placed very close together. Every increase yet made in the 
power of the telescope has had the effect of resolving more of these 
clusters. As to shape and appearance these objects vary greatly, 



CLUSTERS AKD NEBULA. 427 

some being globular or elliptical masses, while others present very 
strange forms. The great nebula in Orion, and the Dumb-bell 
nebula in Vulpecula, are examples of this. See an illustration ol 




Fig. 132. The Great Nebula in Okion. 

the nebula in Orion in Figure 132; and of Dumb-bell Nebulae 
Figures 133 and 134. Many, however, can only be partially re- 
solved, parts of misty matter gradually fading away in the distance 
being distinguishable apart from the stars. No definite line can 
indeed be drawn to distinguish between clusters and nebulae. So 




Fig. l;;;j. 



great is the number of these objects that a catalogue of them com- 
piled by Sir J. Herschel contains no less than 5,079. As to their 
character and distance we may derive some information from the 



428 CREATOR AND COSMOSv 

observations of Sir W. Herscliel. Most of the nebulae yielded to 
the Newtonian reflector of twenty feet focal distance, and twelve 
inches aperture, which plainly discovered them to be composed of 




Fig. 134. 

stars, or at least to contain stars, and show every other indication of 
their consisting of them entirely. " The nebulae," says he, " are 
arranged into strata, and run on to a great length; and some of 
them I have been able to pursue, and to guess prett}* well at their 
form and direction. It is probable enough that they may surround 
the whole starry sjahere of the heavens, not unlike the Milky Way, 
which, undoubtedly, is nothing but a stratum of iixed stars. And 
as this latter immense starry bed is not of equal breadth or lustre in 
ever}'- part, nor runs on in one straight direction, but is curved and 
even divided into two streams along a very considerable portion of 
it, we may likewise expect the greatest variety in the strata of the 
clusters of the stars and nebulae. One of these nebulous beds is so 
rich that in passing through a section of it in the time of only 
thirty-six minutes, I have detected no less than thirty-one nebulae, 
all distinctly visible upon a fine blue sky. Their situation and 
shape, as well as condition, seem to denote the greatest variety 
imaginal)le. In another stratum, or perhaps a different branch of 
the former, I have seen double aud treble nebulcS variously arranged; 
large ones with small seeming attendants ; narrow but much ex- 
tended lucid nebulee, or bright dashes; some of the shape of a fan, 
resembling an electric brush issuing fi-om a lucid point ; others of 
the cometic shape, with a seeming nucleus in the centre, or like 
cloudy stars surrounded with a nebulous atmosphere. A different 
sort again contains a nebulosity of the milky kind, like that won- 
derful, inexplicable phenomenon about Theta Orionis ; while others 



■ CLUSTERS AND NEBULJB. 429 

shine with fainter mottled kind of light which denotes their being 
resolvable into stars." " In my late observations on nebulae," says 
Sir W. Herschel, on another occasion, " I have found that I gener- 
ally detected them in certain directions rather than in others ; that 
the spaces preceding them were generally quite deprived of their 
stars, so as often to afford many fields without a single star in it; 
that the nebulae generally appeared some time after among stars ot 
a considerable size, and but seldom among very small stars; and 
when I came to one nebula I generally found several more in the 
neighborhood ; that afterward a considerable time passed before 1 
came to another parcel. These events being often repeated in 
different altitudes of my instrument, and some of them at consider- 
able distances from each other, it occurred to me that the inter- 
mediate spaces between the sweeps might also contain nebulae, and 
finding this to hold good more than once, I ventured to give notice 
to my assistant at the clock that I found myself on nebulous 
ground." The discoveries of the Herschels support the view that 
all the stars in the universe, so far at least as discernible by the 
telescope, are arranged into systems, which revolve round their 
respective centres ; and that the stars are not dispersed at random 
in a kind of magnificent confusion through boundless space; and 
may likewise exist systematically in immense clusters throughout 
the regions of infinitude. Of course, we may certainly believe that 
each of these "stars that appear in space or in the far distant nebulae 
by the telescope, is itself, as our sun, the centre of a planetary 
system. The very object of a sun is to give light and heat to sur- 
rounding worlds, as well as to be their bond of attraction. All 
space is replenished at certain intervals with opaque globes, although 
they may never appear to our naked eye, nor yet happen within the 
view of our telescopes; the very idea of stable equilibrium in the 
universe teaches this ; there is not a globe too many in one region 
of space, nor a globe less than enough in another region ; nor does 
the law of gravitation allow us to suppose that even the smallest 
amount of matter can be in excess or in deficiency in the systems 
of the universe without having the universal order disarranged and 
the balance of equilibrium destroyed. If gravitation means any- 
thing it means this. Astronomers have descried the self-luminous 
globes, because they are of immense size and great brilliancy ; but 
the investigation of opaque globes which exist in infinite numbers 
and of various sizes throughout space, and on which the sensitive 
and rational creatures of God exist, presents a noble field of labor 
for their eternal employment. 

The nebulae have great variety of forms ; some are comparatively 



430 



CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 



bright, and others so obscure as to render it difficult to detect them 
in the field of view of the telescope, or to ascertain their shape. Some 
of them appear round, some oval, and others of a long elliptic shape; 




Fig. 135. 

some exhibit an annular form like luminous rings, and others appear 
like an ellipsis vs^ith a dark space in the centre ; but the greater 
number approximate to a roundish form. Of the 103 nebulae insert- 
ed in Messer's catalogue eighteen were known at the time to consist 
of small stars ; but Sir W. Herschel afterward found twentj'-six 
more of them to consist purely of clusters of stars, eighteen of small 
stars, accompanied with nebulosity, and the remainder not resolvable 
into stars by the highest powers of his telescope. But it is evident 
these objects, though apparently small and obscure, must be systems 
of immense magnitude, when we take into consideration the vast dis- 
tances at which they must be situated from our globe. As to this 
point. Sir W. Herschel speaks as follows : " My opinion of their 
size is grounded on the following observations: There are many 
round nebulse of about five or six minutes in diameter, the stars of 
which I can see very distinctly ; and on comparing them with the 
visual ray calculated from some of my long gauges, I suppose by the 
appearances of the small stars in these gauges that the centres of 
these round nebulae may be 600 times the distance of Sirius from us." 
He then goes on to show that the stars in such nebulas are probably 
twice as much condensed as those of the cluster in which we are 
placed : otherwise the centre of it would not be less than 6000 times 



CLUSTERS AND NEBULA. 431 

the distance of Sirius ; and that it is possibly much underrated by 
supposing it only 600 times the distance of that star. "Some of 
these round nebulae have others near them perfectly similar in form, 




Fig. 136. 

These in figures 135 and 136 are Specimens of Nebulse of I'arions descriptions : Dumb-bell 
nebulse; nebuloe representing the cluster to which our system belongs; diffused nebulse; and 
nebulous stars. 

color, and the distribution of stars, but of only half the diameter ; and 
the stars in them seem to be doubly crowded, and only at about 
half the distance from each other. They are indeed so small as not 
to be visible without the utmost attention. I suppose these miniature 
nebulae to be at double the distance from the first. An instance 
equally remarkable and instructive, is a case where, in the neighbor- 
hood of two such nebulae as have been mentioned, I met with a third 



-!o"J CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

similar resolvable, but much smaller and fainter, nebula. The stars 
of it are no longer to be perceived ; but a resemblance of color to the 
former two and its diminished size and light, may well permit us 
to place it at full twice the distance of the second, or about four or 
five times the distance of the first ; and yet the nebulosity is not of 
the milky kind, nor is it so much as difficultly resolvable or colorless. 
Now, in a few of the extended nebulae the light changes gradually, 
so as from the resolvable to approach the milky kind, which ap- 
pears to me an indication that the milky light of nebulae is owing to 
their much greater distance. A nebula, therefore, whose light is 
perfectly milky, cannot well be supposed to be at less than six or 
eight thousand times the distance of Sirius ; and though the numbers 
here assumed are not to be taken otherwise than as very coarse esti- 
mates, yet an extended nebula which, in an oblique situation where 
it is possibly foreshortened by one-half, two-thirds, or three-fourths 
of its length, subtends a degree or more in diameter, cannot be other- 
wise than of wonderful magnitude, and may well outvie our Milky Way 
in grandeur.'''' It seems to be a very natural conclusion that the 
nebulae which are perfectly similar in form, color, and the distribu- 
tion of stars, but of only half the diameter of the other, and the stars 
doubly crowded, are about double the distance from the first. And 
if the distance of the larger nebulae, whose stars are distinctly seen, be 
at least 600 times that of Sirius, as there seems reason to believe, 
then the distance of those which are only half the diameter must be 
1200 times the distance of that star, that is, at the very least, 24,000,- 
000,000,000,000, or twenty-four thousand billions of miles. But 
the nebulae whose light is " perfectly milky," or so far removed from 
us that the stars of which they are composed cannot be separately 
distinguished, may be reasonably considered as at seven thousand 
times the distance of Sirius, or in number 140,000,000,000,000,000, 
or one hundred and forty thousand billions of miles ; a distance 
indeed of which we cannot by any means form a distinct conception. 
A cannon-ball flying with its utmost velocity would require more 
than thirty-two thousand millions of years before it could move over 
an equal space. Since the distances of these nebulae are so immensely 
great, and since those that are nearest us are found by actual obser- 
vation to be composed of countless numbers of stars, leaving us no room 
to doubt that the most distant are also immense systems of the same 
character, how vast must be the magnitude, and how inexpressible 
the grandeur, of the numerous luminaries of which they are made 
up ; and how immensely great the number of planetary bodies which 
revolve around them through boundless space ! ! From all the 
observations of Sir W. Herschel, he is of opinion that our Nebula, 



THE NEBULA AND THE MILKY WAY. 433 

or the Milky Way, as it may be termed, is not the most considerable 
within the range of vision ; and he points out some very remarkable 
nebulae, which in his opinion cannot be less, but are probably much 
larger, than that of which our sun and system form a part. 

Some idea of the extreme faintness of some of the distant nebulae 
may be formed from the estimate which has been made that their 
light varies from ^sW^^^ *o 2M0*'' ^^ ^^^^^ °f ^ sperm candle a quar- 
ter of a mile distant. The nebulae, as has been seen, are not distrib- 
uted by any means uniformly over the surface of the sky, the greater 
number of them being situated in a zone crossing at right angles the 
Milky Way. In the constellation Virgo there is the greatest aggrega- 
tion of them, one portion of it being known as the nebulous I'egion 
of Virgo ; and in the southern hemisphere, nor far distant from the 
pole, are two brilliant cloud-like patches, called the Magellanic clouds. 
or Nubeculae. These, when examined by the telescope, are found to 
be composed of stars, clusters, and nebulae, collected together seem- 
ingly, but most probably in their order of distance. In appearance 
they somewhat resemble a portion of the Milky Way ; but they are 
quite distinct from it. 

One of the most remarkable and extensive nebulae in the heavens 
is that which is found in the constellation of Orion. In looking at 
that constellation, which makes a splendid appearance in the southern 
sky during the winter months, the first object which arrests one's 
attention is the three brilliant stars equidistant from each other in a 
straight line, which is called the belt of Orion. Immediately below 
these, hanging down as it were from the middle of the belt, three 
small stars at nearly equal distances are perceived, which are termed 
the sword of Orion. On directing the naked eye to the middle star 
of these three, the observer perceives something which has the 
appearance of a small star, but not well defined ; this is the great 
nebula of Orion, of which, however, one can form no definite concep- 
tion without the aid of a good telescope. With a common pocket 
achromatic telescope, of a foot in length, the nebulosity may be plainly 
perceived; but the higher the magnifying power, and the larger the 
aperture of the object-glass, the more brilliant and distinct does this 
phenomena appear, along with a number of small stars connected 
with it, which are quite invisible to the unassisted eye. Huygens 
was the first to discover this phenomena, and he gives the following 
description of it in his Systema Saturnium : "Astronomers place 
three stars close to each other in the sword of Orion ; and when I 
viewed the middlemost with a telescope, in the year 1656, there 
appeared in the place of that one twelve other stars among these 
three, that almost touch each other, and four more beside appeared 

28 



434 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

twinkling as through a cloud, so that the space about them seemed 
much brighter that the rest of the heavens, which, appearing wholly 
blackish by reason of the fair weather, was seen as through a certain 
opening, through which one had a free view into another region 
which was more enlightened. I have frequently observed the same 
appearance in the same place without any alteration ; so that it is 
likely that this wonder, whatever it may be in itself, has been there 
from all time ; but I never took notice to anything like it among the 
rest of the fixed stars." The reader will easily recognize the descrip- 
tion in the figure of this nebula here presented which has been 
obtained, however, by means of a more perfect telescope than any 
that were in use in the time of Huygens. The following is Sir J. 
Herschel's description of this phenomenon : " I know not how to 
describe it better than by comparing it with a curdling liquid, or a 
surface strewed over with flocks of wool, or the breaking up of a 
mackerel sky, when the clouds of which it consists begin to assume a 
curious appearance. It is not very unlike tlie mottling of the sun's 
disc, only, if I may so express myself, the grain is much coarser and 
the intervals darker, and the floculi, instead of being generally round, 
are drawn into little wisps. They present, however, an appearance 
of having been composed of stars, and their aspect is altogether 
different from that of resolvable nebulae. In the latter we fancy by, 
glimpses that we see stars, or that could we strain our sight a little 
more we could see them ; but the former suggests no idea of stars, 
but rather something' quite distinct from them." It is calculated 
that this wonderful nebula would fill a space twenty-nine millions of 
times larger than that contained within the orbit of Uranus ; so that? 
compared with it, the whole solar system is but an imperceptible 
point. It is also calculated that there are many nebulae within the 
reach of the telescope whi.ch altogether surpass, in extent, in gi'and- 
eur, and magnificence, the cluster to which our system belongs, or 
the Milkj'- Way. And what of those that extend in every direction 
in endless succession ! ! 

Variable Nehulce. 

Some of the nebulfe, like some of the stars already referred to, 
are found to be variable. In October, 1852, Mr. Hind discovered a 
Tery small one with a star of the tenth magnitude near to it. This 
■was afterwards observed, and its position noted, by other astronomers, 
iDut in 1861 it had entirely disappeared. Another nebula, which had 
frequently been observed as a well-defined compact cluster, was 
found in May, 1860, to be replaced by a seventh magnitude star. 



VARIABLE NEBULA; THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 435 

After a few weeks the stellar appearance had ceased, aud the cluster 
seemed to be resuming its usual form. The question as to the real 
constitution of the nebulee is one which had given rise to much 
speculation. There is now little or no doubt expressed as to many 
of them being starry systems somewhat resembling our own cluster, 
but immensely removed from it. This belief rapidly gained ground 
as one after another of the nebulae was resolved, by the application 
of more powerful telescopes; and it is very generally believed that 
all the telescopic nebulse will ultimately be thus resolved. " It 
appears," says Humboldt, referring to Lord Rosse's Telescope, "from 
all the notices I have been able. to collect from the works of dis- 
tinguished astronomers long accustomed to the observation of nebu- 
lous spots, that out of a large number of nebulse indiscriminately 
taken from among allthe classes contained in the catalogue of 1833, 
and regarded as irresolvable, almost all have been perfectly resolved. 
Sir John Herschel maintains the same view as well in his opening 
address before the British Association at Cambridge in 1845 as in the 
Outlines of Astronomy, 1849, where he expresses himself as follows : 
" The magnificent reflecting telescope constructed by Lord Rosse, six 
feet in aperture, has resolved or rendered resolvable multitudes of 
nebulae which had resisted all inferior powers. Although, therefore, 
nebulse do exist which even in this powerful telescope appear as 
nebulee without any sign of resolution, it may very reasonably be 
doubted whether there be really any essential physical distinction 
between nebulee and clusters of stars." The hypothesis previously 
received was that the nebulae consisted merely of masses of cloudlike 
matter. When the spectroscope was first directed to one of those ob- 
jects, owing perhaps to the faintness of the light, no spectrum could be 
obtained, but merely a short luminous band. A second and third 
fainter bands were afterwards made out,_and these lines were found 
to correspond with those indicative of nitrogen, hydrogen, and 
barium. These facts seem to point to the conclusion that the light 
emanated from incandescent gaseous matter. 

The Nebular RyjMthesis. 

Before the invention of the telescope, and for some time after its 
invention, while it was yet comparatively imperfect, the nebulae 
were supposed to be vast, formless masses of vajDorj matter scattered 
here and there throughout space. Hence arose the "nebular hy- 
pothesis," as it is termed, according to which the sun and our whole 
system of planets originally existed in the form of a mass of nebu- 
lous matter filling a space greatly exceeding that contained within 



436 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the orbit of Uranus. This vast mass the theory supposed was set in 
rotation, and, as it gradually cooled, becanae more and more con- 
densed, until at length some part assumed the liquid form, and 
would then form a ring surroanding the central mass. This ring 
would, of course, be in rotation, and, as it would scarcely be of uni- 
form thickness throughout, would soon break up ; the matter com- 
posing it would then be collected into a ball still rotating round 
the centre, and at the same time revolving on its own axis. In this 
way the hypothesis had it that all the planets were in turn formed, 
and they, by centrifugal force, threw off their satellites and rings, 
till at length the system became complete, and the planets cooled 
down into solid masses. 

Such is the "nebular hypothesis," and in it is seen what absurd 
and groundless theories ignorance gives rise to among men. It dis- 
plays a singular deficiency, which is usually characteristic of myths, 
in that it neglects to account for the origin of comets, a large num- 
ber of which have long been recognized as permanent members of 
our system, moving periodically in well defined orbits. Nor does it 
at all consist with the direction of the motion of the satellites of 
Uranus and Neptune being retrograde to that of all the other 
members of our system, a fact which, in the mind of astronomers, 
is now pretty well established. With all the telescopic nebulae that 
have been resolved into stars, and witli the fact patent that only 
distance prevents any of them from being thus resolved into stars 
and all other revolving bodies, men henceforth will have no need 
of forming such groundless theories with respect to an origin for 
the visible world ; nor, with all the light Avhich is now afforded 
them of its probable permanence, Avill people have an excuse for 
any more believing the groundless theories of hasty speculators 
with respect to it. The question of an origin or destiny of the 
cosmos they should leave to God, who only can know of such things, 
and be content with giving a proper attendance to their known 
duties. 

Sketch of the History of Astronomy. 

We think it proper here, and of interest to our readers, to give 
them a sketch of the history of astronomy. This science was culti- 
vated in very early times. The question, however, as to what 
nations first cultivated this science, cannot be definitely answered. 
But it seems probable that the Chaldaeans were the first who, 
within the range of history, made systematic observations of the 
stars. The path of the sun among the fixed stars was very early 



SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY. 437 

discovered, and these stars were arranged into the twelve constel- 
lations known as the Signs of the Zodiac, long before the histori- 
cal era. Many of the other constellations were also named, but 
some were afterwards altered by the Greeks and Romans ; and even 
in modern times a few additions have been made, as, for instance, 
the S liclfl of Si>l)ieski and the Heart of Charles I. The zodiacal 
signs are sometimes supposed to have been connected with the rural 
occupations of the ancients. Thus, the cluster of stars through 
which the sun seemed to pass in spring was called Aries, or the 
Ram. Leo, the lion, had beeii considered symbolical of the rays of 
the summer sun. Libra, the balance, tells of the period of equal 
day and night. Scorpio, the Scorpion, of unheal thin ess, of autumn ; 
while Aquarius, the waterman, and Pisces, the fishes, betoken the 
rains and floods of winter. The names, with their significations 
given to these zodiacal constellations in the order of the signs, are 
as follows : Aries, the ram; Taurus, the bull; Gemini, the twins; 
Cancer, the crab ; Leo, the lion ; Virgo, the virgin ; Libra, the bal- 
ance ; Scorpio, the scorpion : Sagittarius, the bowman ; Capricornus, 
the goat's-horn ; Aquarius, the waterman ; Pisces, the fishes. It 
must not be supposed that any resemblance can be traced between 
the shape marked out by the stars and the figures they are supposed 
to represent. The oiiginal idea seems to have been to map out the 
sky into convenient portions for examination, and at the same time 
to immortalize certain real or mythical heroes; but as the system 
became adopted universal]}^, it has been retained to the present day, 
and serves as a ready means for distinguishing and registering the 
stars. Among the most noticeable of celestial phenomena are solar 
and lunar eclipses, and these, of course, attracted the attention of 
early astronomers, and at length the true cause of them was dis- 
covered. A careful record appears to have been kept of them, so 
that the Sm-os, or Chaldaean period was discovered. This is a period 
of 18 years and 11 days, or 223 lunar months, at the expiration of 
Avhich the m.oon enters again upon its former track in the heavens, 
and thus the same eclipses are, as it were, repeated. 

The Egyptians seem to have made some progress in astronomy at 
as early a period as the Chaldaeans. Their pyramids indicate their 
skill in practical astronomy, as they are all so situated that their 
several sides point very exactly to the four cardinal points, east, 
west, north, and south. The system adopted b}' the Egyptians Avas 
the following : They conceived that the planets Mercur}^ and Venus 
revolved like satellites round the sun, their orbits being carried 
along with him in his revolution round the earth. They supposed 
the earth immovable, as tlae centre of the s-i^stem, and the other celes- 



438 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

tial bodies to turn round the same centre; first the moon; then the 
sun, about which they supposed Mercury and Venus to revolve ; next 
the planet Mars ; then Jupiter ; next Saturn ; and lastly the sphere 
of the fixed stars. 

The Chinese date their astronomical knowledge from Fohi, who 
they say was the first of their kings ; and supposed by some of the 
Moderns, erroneously enough, to be Noah, who, tradition says, jour- 
nej-ed with his children in the direction of China, about the time of 
the building of Babel's tower. 

The wonder and anxiety with which eclipses were witnessed by 
the Ancients, may be easily imagined, and when an astronomer ven- 
tured to predict an eclipse, and his prediction was verified he must 
have been looked upon as little short of divine. The first instance 
we have on record in which this was actually done, was in the 3'ear 
610 B. C, when Thales, a Milesian, the father of astronomical science 
among the Greeks, foretold an eclipse of the sun. It is probable, 
however, that the same thing had been done repeatedlj^ before by the 
Chaldseans and others. With Thales the true history of astronomy 
begins. But the Greeks were not distinguished for any great pro- 
ficiency in the natural sciences. We find here and there shrewd 
guesses and faint gleams of truth ; but it is generally mixed up with 
fanciful speculations, instead of being supported by careful observa- 
tion and reasoning. They seem, for the most part, to have started 
with certain principles which had no existence but in their imagina- 
tion ; as, for example, that, the earth must be in the centre of the 
universe, _ and that, since the circle was the perfection of shape, all the 
motions of the heavenly bodies must be in circles. Observing the 
phenomena of the sky, and the apparent motions of the sun and stars, 
they formed cumbrous and complicated theoretical systems, endeavor- 
ing to reconcile these appearances with their theories. Hence we 
find all the involved mysteries of transparent wheels, revolving one 
within the other, and carrying with them the planets and stars, of 
cycles and epicycles, and of crystal spheres in ceaseless rotation, 
which Plotemy and his followers were ever planning, and ever 
altering. 

We must, however, glance at a few of the names which stand 
prominently forward in the history of the science. Anaxagoras and 
Pythagoras were two of the Greek philosophers who succeeded 
Thales, and they appear to have had much more accurate views than 
most of their day. They taught that the sun is in the centre of the 
universe ; tliat the earth is globular and moves round the sun; that 
Venus is the morning as well as the evening star ; that the moon re- 
flects the sun's rays and is inhabited ; that the stars are Avorlds, 



SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY. 439 

and that comets are wandering stars. These celebrated philosophers 
flourished about 500 B. C, and their system is nearly the same that 
was adopted or restored by Copernicus in the 15th century A. D., 
or about 2,000 years after them. Their doctrines do not appear to 
have been at all generally received in their time, and were con- 
demned by those in power as being impious. Anaxagoras was sen- 
tenced to death on account of his philosophical views ; but his sentence 
was afterwards, through the influence of a friend, commuted to ban- 
ishment for life. 

Hipparchus, born at Nice in Bj^thinia, in the second century B. C, 
appears to have made considerable advances in the cultivation of 
every branch of astronomy. He gave up all attempts at framing a 
system for the universe, and occupied himself in carefully watching 
and recording the motions of the sun and planets. The movements 
of the sun especially occupied his persevering attention, and in this 
way he made a very close approximation to the true length of the 
year; and the accuracy of his observations is very remarkable when 
we consider the imperfectness of the instruments he had to use. He 
also observed the irregularities of the rate of the sun's motion, and 
determined in what part of its course its speed was greatest, and thus 
ascertained that if the motion of the sun was uniform the earth was 
not situated in the centre of its orbit. 

Another thing for which the name of Hipparchus is memorable, 
is a catalogue of fixed stars which he formed in order that future 
astronomers might be able to detect any alteration in their position 
or number. He appears to have been led to undertake this task by 
the appearance of a new star, and though the work of carefully 
ascertaining and noting each star was a work requiring great labor 
and patience, he persevered and completed a list which contained 
1081 stars. In the progress of this work he made one very import- 
ant discovery. On comparing the place assigned by him to a star 
in the constellation Virgo with that determined by some dis- 
tinguished astronomers nearly two hundred years previously, he 
found a difference of two degrees in its longitude. He then made 
similar comparisons, where it was possible, with respect to other 
stars, and found the same change in their position. It was then 
evident that all the stars must have moved forward, or else that 
the points from which the measurements were taken must have 
moved backwards. This phenomenon is known as the precession 
of the equinoxes ; the reason of it was discovered by Sir Isaao- 
Newton. 

Another idea for which we are indebted to Hippai'chus was that 
of representing the stars on an artificial globe; and of marking tha 



440 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

.positions of places on the terrestrial globe by means of lines of lati- 
tude and longitude. 

Nicias, one of the followers of Hipparchus, is said to have ad- 
vanced further than his preceptor, and started an hypothesis that the 
apparent changes in the sky were caused by a daily revolution of the 
earth. The idea was, however, not supported bj' any arguments, and 
was lost sight of for ages. 

The only other ancient astronomer we shall refer to in this sketch 
-is Ptolemy, who was born in Pelusium, in Egypt, in the year 69, B.C. 
Jle was a very learned scholar for his time, not only in astronomj^ 
"but in mathematics and geography. Having carefully examined the 
observations of Hipparchus and others, he at length promulgated a 
system known as the Ptolemaic, which, though since proved to be 
quite erroneous, accounted so well for all known celestial phenom- 
ena, that its errors could not, with the instruments then in use, be 
detected ; and accordingly it was universally received till the age of 
Copernicus, and even then it was long before it was entirely dis- 
carded. According to this system the earth is immovable in the 
centre of the universe, and the planets move round it, in the follow- 
ing order: first, the Moon, then Mercury and Venus, the Sun, Mars, 
Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond all these the firmament of the fixed 
stars; all of which were represented as moving round the earth every 
twenty-four hours. To account for the appar- 
ent irregularities in their motions he introduced 
what he termed epicycles, which will be under- 
stood by reference to the figure where E repre- 
sents the earth, and ABC the orbit in which 
the planet should move ; but instead of this he 
supposed that there was a point C moving in 
this orbit, and that the planet P moved round this point in a small 
circular orbit or epicycle. The combination of these two motions 
explained the irregularities. This system was afterwards rendered 
much more complicated by the alterations introduced b}^ the succes- 
sors of Ptolemy ; and, notwithstanding its absurdity and its contra- 
riety to the appearances of the universe, it continued in vogue, even 
among the learned, for the space of more than fourteen centuries, 
or, until the beginning of the sixteenth century. During this period 
a few individuals appeared who cultivated astronomy, as Almansor, 
Almanon, and others among the Arabians; Ulugh Beigh, a prince of 
Tartary ; Alhazen, an Arab, in Spain; Alphonso X., King of Castile; 
Roger Bacon, and several others. These all adopted the Ptolemaic 
system. 

About the year 1472 was born Nicholas Copernicus, who, leaving 




SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY. 441 

all the speculations of former observers, studied for himself the 
motions of the celestial bodies. He first examined all the ancient 
observations, and then commenced for himself to closely and system- 
atically examine the heavens. He compared the actual places occu- 
pied by the sun and planets with those which, according to former 
theories, they ought to occupy, and thus obtained a better knowl- 
edge of the irregularities and variations than any astronomers before 
his time. He continued this course for many years, and at length 
arrived at the conclusion that Mercury and Venus revolved around 
the sun instead of round the earth. He gradually extended his 
reasonings further, and at length started his celebrated theory, which 
regarded the sun as the centre of the system, with the earth and all 
the other planets all revolving in regular order around it. By this 
grand idea all the complicated and bewildering scliemes which had 
occupied and puzzled so many observers were at one stroke swept 
away. Instead of the cumbrous machinery of crystal spheres revolv- 
ing one within the other, the utmost simplicity is seen to character- 
ize his system; order and regularity take the place of almost inex- 
tricable confusion ; and as the observer transfers his station of obser- 
vation from the earth to the sun, the planets which had previously 
appeared to wander on in ever-varying directions among the stars, 
now retracing their steps, and then, after an interval of rest, starting 
again, are seen to be steadily moving on in elliptic orbits around the 
central luminary of the system. The movements of the inferior 
planets, Mercury and Venus ; the reason why they were never seen 
very far removed from the sun; the retrograde motions of the plan- 
ets, and their irregular movements were all clearly explained by this 
grand yet simple theory. 

We can with difficulty recognize the prejudice with which such 
a scheme was received ; the earth was by it degraded from its central 
place, and reduced to the rank of a planet ; and that which men had 
'been accustomed to regard as fixed and immovable was now declared 
to be in I'apid motion around the sun, and at the same time to be 
ever whirling round its own axis. He seems to have himself fore- 
seen the effects of this prejudice, and hence he waited long before 
he fiilly accepted the theory, and still longer before he ventured to 
make it public. This system Copernicus understood to have been 
that of Pythagoras, broached 500 years before the Christian era, and 
hence he wrote a treatise in confirmation of it, entitled " Astronomy 
restored, or the Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies." This system 
was at first violently opposed both by the vulgar, the dignitaries of 
the Romish Church, and pretended philosophers, as contrary both to 
sense, reason, and Scripture, and many of its abettors were subjected 



442 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

to violent persecutions. Copernicus himself seems to have had a 
great degree of deference to the Church and consideration for the 
prejudices by which he was encompassed ; and the dedication of his 
work almost takes the form of an apology for venturing to suggest 
such views, and his ideas were put forward rather in the shape of an 
hypothesis than of a definite system. It must not be supposed that 
Copernicus formed a complete system to account for all the motions 
of the planets ; his life was too short for the task. His work was to 
indicate the true theory of the universe, leaving it for others to 
trace out more accurately the exact curves in which the planets 
moved, and to ascertain their various distances, magnitudes, and 
rates of motion. It was afterwards ably supported by the writings 
of Kepler, Galileo, Gi-assendi, Hevelius, Huygens, Cassini, and other 
distinguished astronomers, by whom its principles were demon- 
strated, and established on a firm and stable basis. 

This system was especially demonstrated by Kepler, whom we 
have had occasion to mention before, and who has sometimes been 
called the " legislator of the heavens," as it was he who first discov- 
ered the laws by which the movements of the heavenly bodies are 
governed. 

Almost contemporary with Kepler there lived another great 
philosojoher and astronomer, named Galileo, chiefly memorable now 
as being the first to construct the astronomical telescope, though his 
powers were such as would have ensured his renown, even had this 
great discovery not been made by him. He was born in 1564, and 
became a teacher of philosophy at Pisa. Here he soon rendered 
himself remarkable by his strenuous opposition to some of the teach- 
ings of Aristotle, which he proved by experiment to be incorrect. 
This brought upon him much odium, and even persecution ; but 
though he thus opposed the received views on mechanical subjects, 
he continued for some time a stickler for the Ptolemaic system, and 
even refused to hear any explanations of the views and theories of 
Copernicus. After a while, however, he saw the follj^ of this, and 
commenced a careful enquiry, the result of which was that he became 
an ardent supporter of the new system. 

In the early part of the 17th century, Galileo heard of a discov- 
ery which had been made by an instrument maker in Holland, by 
which distant objects could be made distinctly visible. He there- 
fore made every enquiry, and at last succeeded in making a telescope 
which possessed a magnifying power of 30. This he first directed 
towards the moon, and here he at once detected many points of 
resemblance to the earth ; he jDcrceived rugged mountainous parts, 
and lofty elevations ; level plains likewise, which were at first called 



SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY. 443 

seas. He made a greater discovery, however, when on the 7th of 
January, 1610, he directed his magic tube toward the planet .Jupiter. 
Not only did it present to him a brilliant disc, streaked across with 
dark bands, but close to it he perceived three small stars almost in a 
straight line. These he at first supposed to be merely fixed stars ; 
on the following evening, however, when he again directed the tele- 
scope to the planet, he observed that they had moved along with it, 
and had also changed their positions with relation to each other. 
Here, then, was evidently some new discovery; and Galileo waited 
most anxiously the recurrence of a clear evening to enable him to 
decide the matter. The next view satisfied him that they were in 
reality moons accompanying the planet ; and further, he found that 
there were four of them. 

Intense excitement was created among astronomers by this dis- 
covery, some urging the absurdit}'' of increasing the number of the 
heavenly bodies bej'^ond the sacred number seven, and others angry 
at the man who attempted to depose the earth from its position of 
dignity by asserting that Jupiter had four satellites, while the earth 
had only one. It is said that some even refused to look through the 
instrument which made such unheard-of revelations. But the fol- 
lowers of Copernicus welcomed the discovery as presenting a minia- 
ture model of the solar system, and thus upholding their theory. The 
telescope soon made other discoveries. By its aid Galileo found that 
Venus presented the same phases as the moon, appearing at times as 
a narrow crescent, and then gradually becoming more and more 
illuminated, till at last it shone with an almost circular disc. It 
could not, however, be seen with a complete disc, as at such a time 
the earth must be in the part of its orbit exactly opposite to Venus, 
which would, therefore, appear in conjunction with the sun, and be 
lost in his brightness. This was a very important discovery, as it 
afforded a strong confirmation of the truth of the Copernican system. 
In fact, an objection had been raised against this system on the 
ground that these phases were not seen as they should be if the 
theory were true. The telescope, however, soon settled this diffi- 
culty, and silenced these objections. He made another discovery 
when he examined the planet Saturn. Instead of appearing witli a 
circular disc, like the other heavenly bodies, he found it to be elon- 
gated, as if handles were affixed to each side of it. Owing to the 
imperfections of his telescope, Galileo failed to discover that this 
appearance was caused by a large ring, which completely encircled 
it, and he imagined that the planet was in reality composed of 
three smaller ones. Both these discoveries were, according to the 
practice of scientific men in those days, made known in anagrams, 



444 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

only intelligible to those who possessed the key. It is thus seen 
■what an important instrument the telescope proved to be, for not 
only these, but almost all celestial discoveries since have been made 
by its use; and now nearly all our astronomical instruments consist 
either wholly or in a part of a telescope. It is thus seen also to 
what important results the accident of a child playing with two 
spectacle glasses has led ; for such an accident, it is said, first origin- 
ated the idea of the telescope. 

The career of Galileo, though for the most part a splendid one, 
was somewhat marred near its close. The prominent position he had 
taken as an upholder and promulgator of the new doctrines had at- 
tracted the attention of the papal authorities, who regarded his views 
as heretical, and demanded of him a public recantation of his belief 
in the motion of the earth. This he reluctantly gave, though he is 
related to have said immediately afterwards : " It moves for all that." 
This was in several ways a sad scene ! Not long after this, in 1642, 
he died. In the same year was born the illustrious Sir Isaac New- 
ton, a man more celebrated than either Galileo or Kepler, and whom 
we have taken occasion to speak of before. From this time onward 
we come across the names of so many prominent astronomers that we 
can but refer to a few of the more celebrated. About the year 1658 
Huygens, a celebrated mathematician and astronomer in Holland, 
using telescopes of a much larger size than those of Galileo, discov- 
ered that the phenomena connected with Saturn was in reality an 
immense ring surrounding that planet, and, as he thought, thirty 
thousand miles distant from every part of it. He at the same time 
discovered the fourth satellite of Saturn ; and in these and other 
observations he used telescopes of his own construction of 12, 28, 
and even 100 feet in length. Napier had, some 40 years before this, 
invented logarithms ; and thus reduced the Avork of Aveeks to days 
or even to hours ; and a little later reflecting telescopes were intro- 
duced by Gregory. Some time afterward Cassini, a French astrono- 
mer, discovered the first, second, third, and fifth satellites of Saturn, 
and the periods of the rotation of Mars and Venus. 

Flamstead was another celebi'ated astronomer, almost contemporary 
with Newton, and was the first that was called Astronomer Royal. 
The origin of the observatory of Greenwich, and of this post, Avas in 
the year 1695. Great inconvenience had been experienced in long 
voyages from the want of some method of determining the longitude 
in Avhich a vessel was at any' time, but at length a plan was proposed 
which was substantially the same as one that is in use at the present 
time. This consisted in noticing very accurately the position of the 
moon with respect to neighboring fixed stars. As the earth moves 



SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY.. 445 

on in its path this position seems to vary. If then we have an accu- 
rate list of these " lunar distances " as they are termed, calculated for 
any given meridian of longitude, we shall be able to tell by observa- 
tion what the time is at that meridian. We can then compare this 
with the local time of the place where we are, and in this way ascer- 
tain the longitude ; for since 15° of longitude make a difference of 
one hour in the time, we have only to allow 15° for every hour of 
difference in the times, and we shall at once tell the longitude. The 
method of solving this problem usually employed now is merely to 
compare a good chronometer, set to the time of the observatory, with 
the local time ; but it was not till a comparatively recent period that 
chronometers were made accurate enough for this purpose, and even 
now it is a great advantage to be able to check them occasionally by 
means of lunar obseiwations. 

When this plan of ascertaining longitudes was proposed an ob- 
jection was made to it on the ground that the tables of the positions 
of the moon and fixed stars which then existed were not sufficiently 
accurate to be of any practical use for this purpose. It was there- 
fore decided that an observatory should be built and sustained with 
this especial end in view, and Flamstead was appointed astronomer 
to the observatory. This observatory was erected, and the post es- 
tablished in 1675, and from that time to the present some of the 
ablest astronomers have resided in it, and an almost uninterrupted 
series of observations has been maintained. These have constantly 
proved in many different ways to be of the greatest pi-actical utility. 
One main duty connected with this Observatory is the preparation 
of the " Nautical Almanac." This is an almanac published three or 
four years in advance, and containing a large number of important 
astronomical tables. The position of the moon with respect to any 
of the fixed stars is shown for every third hour throughout the year. 
The position of the various planets is also exhibited, as well as the 
eclipses and occultations of Jupiter's satellites, and many similar 
tables which are useful to the navigator in ascertaining his position, 
as well as to the astronomer. The reason of its early publication is 
in order that captains about to set sail on long voyages may have it 
to take with them. 

Though this observatory was thus founded by the British Gov- 
ernment it was some time before it was provided with instruments 
worthy of the place : Flamstead having to use his own for a consider- 
able period. This astronomer was a very painstaking observer ; and 
it appears to have been to his accurate observations that Newton was 
greatly indebted in many of his investigations. 

Halley succeeded Flamstead in his position at the Observatory. 



446 CEEATOE AND COSMOS. 

He was for some time an intimate friend of Newton, and made 
several long journeys in the interests of science. An expedition was 
fitted out under his charge to observe and catalogue those stars in 
the southern hemisphere which are invisible with us ; and a list of 
nearly 400 was compiled. This, however, was by no means a com- 
plete one, as the station chosen for observation, St. Helena, was in 
many respects unfavorable. After Newton had made the discovery 
that bodies under the joint influence of a centrifugal force and the 
attraction of a central body might revolve in a hyperbola or parabola, 
as well as in an ellipse, the appearance of a comet was anxiously 
awaited in order that, if possible, it might be ascertained whether 
these bodies moved in fixed orbits of either of these forms, or whether 
they were merely stray wanderers dashing swiftly past our system, 
and then forever lost in the deep abyss of space. In the year 1680, 
this desire was gratified by the appearance of a very remarkable 
comet, which attracted great attention, both by its brilliancy and the 
rapidity with which it travelled. Halley gave his earnest attention 
to the observation of this body ; he accurately noticed and recorded 
its motion, and he discovered that a parabolic orbit coald be con- 
structed which would account for all its movements. Its eccentricity 
was, however, so great that a period of 600 years must elapse before 
it could again return to the sun. 

After this comet had passed away Halley still devoted his atten- 
tion to the subject, carefully enquiring into the recorded appearance 
of different comets, with a view to ascertain whether the intervals 
between the appearances of any of the most noticeable ones appeared 
in any way uniform. Shortly after this, in the year 1682, another 
large comet appeared, and Halley now with the information he 
already acquired was in a better position to enquire into its motion. 
He accordingly did this, and after a time announced that he had cal- 
culated its orbit, and found that it moved in an ellipse, its aphelion 
distance being nearly 3,500,000,000 miles ; also that its period was 
about seventy-five years. He then looked back through his list of 
comets, and found that he could distinctly trace it back for a con- 
siderable period. This so far confirmed his calculations that he dis- 
tinctly foretold its reappearance about the close of the year 1758 ; 
and so convinced was he of the truth of this prediction that he 
requested, since he could not live to witness its return, that when it 
was fulfilled people might remember it was an Englishman who had 
first traced the path and prophesied the return of a comet. 

Long before the date assigned for the return of this comet, which 
began now to be known as Halley's, he himself had passed away. 
Astronomers were, however, on the watch, and some French astrono- 



SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY. 447 

mers, in particular, investigated most carefully and industriously the 
retarding effect which would be produced on the comet by the at- 
traction of the planets, and as a result of their enquiries announced 
that it would be slightly delayed by the action of Saturn and Jupi- 
ter, so that its perihelion passage might be expected on the 13th of 
April, 1759. Just at the close of the previous year, a wanderer was 
detected by an amateur, and as it approached nearer, it proved to be 
the very one, whose return had been for so long a time foretold ; 
and though its period of revolution was upwards of three quarters of 
a century, yet the observations and calculations were so accurate, 
that it actually passed the sun within less than three weeks of the 
predicted' day . On the occasion of the next return of this comet, 
which took place in 1835, not only was the date, but the place of its 
appearance pointed out, and on a large telescope being turned to 
that spot, the comet was seen as a faint cloudy object. We see thus 
that Halley's comet was now to be reckoned as one of the members 
of our system, whose motions are fully understood. Its next return 
may be expected in the year 1912. 

Bradley succeeded Halley as professor of astronomy at Green- 
wich. The great discovery which has rendered his name memorable, 
is that of the aberration of the fixed stars. The aberration of the stars 
is a small change of place in the heavens, which, in consequence of 
the earth's revolution in its orbit round the sun, they appear to de- 
scribe in the course of a year, an ellipse or circle, the greatest 
diameter of which is about 40".' These apparent changes of place, 
occasioned by the annual motion of the earth, are to a certain extent 
common to all the celestial orbs, and are only tlie more perceptible 
and striking in the case of the fixed stars. In consequence of this 
annual revolution of the earth round the sun, the stars appear, ac- 
cording as they are situated in the plane of the ecliptic or in its 
poles, or somewhere between them, in the first case to deviate in a 
straight line to the right or left of their true place ; in the second, 
to describe a circle or something nearly approaching to it around 
their true place ; and in the tliird, an ellipse about that point Avhich 
observation determines to be their real situation. The angle con- 
tained between the axis of the telescope and a line drawn to the true 
place of the star, which angle, in consequence of the earth's motion, 
must be continually changing, is what is called its angle of aberra- 
tion. The aberration of the stars appears to afford a sensible and 
direct proof of the motion of the earth in its orbit round the sun. 
If the earth were not in motion, no such effect could take place. If 
the earth were at rest, the star would be seen in the place in which 
it really is, never seeming to alter its position ; but the earth being 



448 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

in motion with its present velocity, the telescope is necessarily in 
clined a little in order to see the star, and it is the real annual orbit 
ual motion of the earth that causes the apparent motion of the star, 
in describing such a figure in the course of our year. 

Dr. Bradley also took an active part in the reform of the calen- 
dar, which had by this time varied a little from the true seasons; 
and, in order to rectify the error, joined in recommending that 
eleven days should be struck out of the month of September, 1752, 
so that the day that would be the fourth of that month, was called 
the fourteenth. This measure Avas very unpopular at the time, and 
Bradley came in for a large share of popular dislike on this account; 
and his death, which occurred a few days afterwards, was, by many 
of the ignorant, regarded as a mark of Divine displeasure at his pre- 
sumption in thus daring to interfere with the regular order of the 
calendar. This alteration has since been effected in nearly all 
countries, except Russia, where dates are still reckoned according 
to the old style, and are now thirteen days behind those used in the 
rest of Europe. 

We may now just glance at the services which have been ren- 
dered to astronomy by another of those men whose names will ever 
stand foremost in its annals. Sir William Herschel. He was a man 
of somewhat humble origin and unable to procure a telescope suffi- 
ciently powerful by which to understand some of the mysteries of 
the heavens. He had, however, an intense desire to do so, and 
having acquired a knowledge of the principles of the telescope set 
himself to construct one. In this, he succeeded well ; and he is said 
to have ground altogether upwards of 500 specula for reflecting 
telescopes. In March, 1781, when he was examining the sky by the 
aid of one of these instruments, he came upon a small star, which as 
he examined it with higher powers seemed to exhibit a disc. He 
accordingly took an accurate note of its position so as to watch it 
again on another evening. When he again examined it, it was at 
once clear that it had changed its position. The idea, however, of a 
new planet does not appear to all to have entered into his mind, so 
accustomed had every one been to regard Saturn as the extreme 
planet of our system ; accordingly, he set it down as a new and 
strange comet which he had discovered, and announced it as such. 
Its motions, however, soon showed that, unlike the comets, it moved 
in an orbit of but small eccentricity, and it was then found to be a 
planet revolving in an orbit outside of Saturn. This planet he 
named Greorgium Sidust in honor of King George III, who had been 
his patron, but the name was afterwards altered to Herschel, and 
finally to Uranus, by which name it is now known. 



CONCLUSION OF PART FIRST. 449 

Soon afterwards he constructed a much larger telescope, the 
speculum of which was four feet in diameter, and the tube forty 
feet long. The space-penetrating power of this instrument was 
reckoned at 194, that is, it could enable the observer to see into 
space 194 times as great a distance as could the unaided aye. With 
this he discovered two more satellites of the planet Saturn ; six out 
of the number that revolve around Uranus were also detected by 
him; so that he inade a very large addition to the number of the 
heavenly bodies then known. But his most important discoveries 
were made about the stars and nebulae. A large number of double 
and triple stars were first observed by him and carefully noted, with 
a view of determining, if possible, whether any of them exhibited 
any sensible parallax. The Milky Way was also resolved by the 
power of his magnificent telescope, and thus some idea was formed 
of the size and character of the cluster of which our whole system 
forms but an insignificant fraction. 

Sir John Herschel, the son of this distinguished man, who died 
recently, displayed a similar love for astronom}'-. In conjunction 
with Sir J. South he produced a catalogue of 380 double stars, 
whose distances and angles of position they had determined. Sir J. 
Herschel afterward produced a list of upwards of 3300 double and 
triple stars from his own solitary observations, accompanied with all 
the micrometrical measurements; and he also undertook a journey 
to the Cape of Good Hope for the purpose of making observations in 
the southern hemisphere of the heavens, and made many interesting 
discoveries both of stars and nebulae. Other astronomers we have 
named in the other places in connection with certain discoveries, 
and there are still other distinguished ones which we would wish 
our space permitted us to mention. There is, however, an astron- 
omical instrument which we may refer to before closing this histor- 
ical sketch of the science, as having been found of great use in de- 
termining man}^ difficult points. This is a reflecting telescope con- 
structed by the late Earl Rosse, the speculum of which is six feet in 
diameter, and its focal length fifty-four feet. Its higher powers, 
however, owing to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, can 
only be used at rare intervals. This instrument, though not so clear 
in its definitions as telescopes of lesser magnitude, such as the large 
one of Herschel, may still fairly be considered as one of the wonders 
of the age. 

CONCLUSION OF PART FIRST. 

From all the facts which the science we have now reviewed has 
revealed to us, both in relation to the world in wliich we dwell, and 

29 



450 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

to all the other luminous and non-luminous worlds which surround us, 
in the heavens, on all sides, infinitely, it is evident that astronomy 
intimately and necessarily pertains to the demonstration of the sub- 
ject which it is our endeavor to elucidate, the subject of Creator and 
Cosmos. Confined as man is to this terraqueous globe, and to only a 
limited portion of it, he could have no worthy idea of the great 
universe, or of the glorious worlds which surround him, did not the 
earth itself afford him the means, in the telescope, of enlarging his 
views with respect to them. This noble instrument, as well as the 
microscope, by which we become acquainted with the invisible 
world in the other direction, is made of what are regarded as the 
humblest of earthly materials ; still, but for their use we might be to- 
day in the position in which the people of 1500 or 2000 years ago 
were, having no definite knowledge, and constantly changing our 
views and groundless theories, as to the system of the universe and 
Infinite existence. 

There is nothing more evident than that man is of the same 
nature in every respect as the world in which he dwells, the media in 
which he lives and moves. He is, in fact, as any other creature that 
exists in it, a part of it. It is quite as evident, fi-om what astronomy 
and other sciences teach us, that the earth is of the sa.me nature as 
are all of those glorious worlds by which it is surrounded. It is, in 
fact, if we maj^ so express it, a part of the universal whole. We see 
all these orbs, co-existent in space, in mutual dependence on each 
other, as are the members of the human body ; yea, and more so, for 
the human body may lose one or more of its members ; but one of 
those heavenly bodies, a member of the great universe, cannot be lost, 
not a particle of it. They all universally obey the same laws pro- 
ceeding from that simple principle of gravitation, a principle which 
not only preserves their existence in the forms in lohich they are, hut also 
governs their motions and confines them exactly to their own places. We 
see that the principles of light and heat and gravitation act exactly 
alike, and equally, with respect to them all. This effect is abun- 
dantly sufficient to teach us that they are all of the same general 
substance ; but of this fact we have sensible evidence by being made, 
as it were, intimately acquainted with the surfaces of those that are 
nearest us by means of the telescope, and with the nature and consti- 
tution of those that are far distant from us by means of the colors 
■of their light, and spectrum analysis. They are all the same general 
substance, the same spirit pervades the whole ; they are all individual 
'members of the infinite whole. When we walk abroad and see a 
laborer digging a ditch or a pit in the earth, the thought sometimes 
strikes us that the substance on which that laborer is operating is 



CONCLUSION OF PART FIRST. 451 

just the kind of substance of which we ourselves are composed, and 
to which we shall one day, perhaps ere long, return, as it has hap- 
pened to an infinity of our predecessors of mankind. And yet 
how few there are of mankind to whom such a thought ever occurs 
in its proper sense ; men are accustomed to look upon such things as 
altogether beneath their notice ; and not to allow such thoughts for 
a moment to occupy their mind. They look upon the earth as a dead 
thing, devoid of life ; and yet it is full of the principle of life ; there 
is not the minutest particle of lifeless matter in 'the whole earth, nor 
in the universe ; yea the earth itself, as well as all worlds, is all exist- 
ing in life. "We who are present are accustomed to think of the 
earth as a dark, cheerless abode, and to wish that our lot had been 
to live in some of those bright worlds we see surrounding us ; but 
were we situated on the moon, or even on the planet Venus or Mars, 
we should behold what a glorious orb our earth appears from thence ; 
it partakes of that glory which we have seen to characterize the 
other heavenly orbs ; being of the same nature, it is no less in- 
trinsically good and glorious than they. Why then should we be dis- 
contented with our abode ? Why should we wish to transfer our 
residence from it to other worlds which are not superior to it in 
kind? Why should we be afraid when we die to have our bodies re- 
turn to it, in hopes that they may again arise superior in scale of 
being to what they now are ? We should always cherish the 
strongest faith and hope that we shall live intelligently and happily 
after death, and should live to be good and to do good. We should 
use the gifts and privileges which the world affords us, as not abus- 
ing them ; we should obtain them and use them in the best possible 
manner ; we should in fact live in such a way that we should never 
be afraid to die ; and thus we should in reality find that our 
world would present to us a heavenly aspect, a delightful abode with 
which we would be contented, and which we would not be desirous 
of exchanging for another. We should endeavor to attain, while 
living here, the first resurrection, that is, the resurrection, or new 
birth, from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. We should 
ci'ucify the natural man, with its affections and lasts, denying ourselves 
the inordinate pleasures of the world and all ungodliness, and living 
soberly, righteously, and honestly in this sphere of our existence. 
We invite all to take this course, and we promise them, thus doing, 
thus living, they will experience a heavenly peace and happiness in 
themselves such as the followers of natural and worldly pleasures 
shall not experience ; and they shall not be afraid to die when their 
time comes to die. They will come to know God, and Go.d will 
always support and comfort them, and be a near and true friend to 



, 452 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

them, in whatever condition they may be in life ; they will also be 
taught of God, and great shall be their peace ! 

Blessed and holy are they that have part in the first resurrection ; 
on such the second death shall have no power; even the approach of 
their natural death they shall not fear; it will present no terrors to 
them ; resting in the faithfulness and goodness of the Lord, their 
minds are stayed in perfect peace ; they shall be priests unto God, 
and shall reign with Christ forever ! 

It will give us pleasure if our readers have had their knowledge 
increased, or have had some of their suspicions on some things, which 
have hitherto been dark and evanescent in their minds, changed into 
well-grounded and intelligent conclusions by the perusal of this 
First Part of our work. When they have perused its Second Part, 
in which we propose to, in some degree, remove the veil of mystery 
which has hitherto overspread religious subjects, and which in past, 
ages has induced so much error and superstition among mankind, 
they will be better prepared to judge of the whole subject of the 
book, and of the conclusions which have been so far demonstrated 
concerning the subject of the Cosmos. Our work for mankind is 
certainly such as may be called a labor of love, and " perfect love 
casteth out fear" as well as precludes the idea of compulsion; the 
setting forth right conclusions concerning the subjects under con- 
sideration was with us a matter of moral principle ; nor was the idea 
once entertained either in its plan or preparation of pleasing either 
publisher or reader at the expense of the truth. We only expect, 
then, that due respect will be given to demonstration, and that 
whether this is so clear as to amount to conviction, or partly to 
amount to conviction, the matter under consideration will be dis- 
cussed freely and in the proper spirit. 



IS SCIENCE EECONCILABLE WITH RELIGION? 

A Discourse which epitomizes the fundamental principles of this 
book, and sets forth concisely the author's understanding and de- 
velopment of those principles : — 

In commencing to discuss this subject " Is science reconcilable 
with Religion ? " I may, first, state by way of definition that a 
Science is a collection of Natural Principles or Laws which, if ap- 
plied or used by art in certain ways, will invariably produce certain 
eifects. The Science, therefore, is the What, the Art is the How : 
the Science is the knowledge, the Art is how to apply or use it in 
order that the results may follow. In the progress of the discussion 
I may give j^ou some hints as to what religion is not ; and then, from 
what I may say after, leave you to understand for yourselves what 
religion is. I have, however, under the idea of religion to deal to a 
good extent with the Science of Theology, as the belief in the exist- 
ence of an omnipresent and omniscient God is the foundation of all 
true religion. Secondly, whatever I may be able to do in proving 
Science reconcilable with religion I wish it understood that I do not 
attempt to prove all Scientists reconcilable to religion. 

In our days much is said about the progress of Science and the 
discoveries of Science. The class of professional Scientists although 
in the main they do not speak with disrespect of religion nor live 
openly immoral lives yet cannot be said to be champions of religion, 
that is, they in tlie main do not interfere with it or with the book 
from which the popular religious views of Europe and America have 
so long been drawn. From first to last of them they appear to have 
been loath to undertake the Bible as if they understood themselves 
not to have been born or fitted for its interpretation, and if we ex- 
cept Newton who not only wrote the Principia but interpreted the 
prophecies of Revelation we find but few of those pi-ofessionals who 
undertook the Scriptures. They may, 'tis true, have understood 
that the pursuit of one branch of learning is quite enough for one 
class of men, leaving theology to be understood and taught by an- 
other class whom making this latter branch their specialty they con- 
sidered more competent for that work. 

It cannot be denied that in the period since the discovery of 
America by Columbus, Science has made its greatest advances ; also 
the useful arts or those Avhich tend to abridge manual or animal 
labor, and if discovery and application advance at an equal pace for 
one hundred years to come with tliat at wliicli (licy havi' advanced 



454 CEEATOPv AND COSMOS. 

for tlie last century we can now hardly begin to estimate the effects 
upon the population of the earth at the end of that time. Kor can 
it be denied that the opening up of America to the masses of Europe 
has tended to greater freedom of religious ' thought, to greater de- 
velopment of religious views, and to the origination, of religious 
sects and systems in which these views are embodied and enunciated. 
This diversity of opinions doubtless existed in the old world but 
latent, for the people of Europe were for long ages restrained by law 
from developing them publicly, however ardently they might have 
cherished them, if they contradicted even in sentiment the established 
systems of religion. This freedom of religious thought tends to 
freedom and earnestness of inquiry, which, if carried out in the proper 
spirit as well in the field of science as of theology, tends to correct- 
ness of understanding and to development of mind and thence to the 
energizing and invigorating of the masses. This then must be pro- 
ductive of beneficial effects for the body is subject to and obej'S the 
mind, and the mass of individuals with well-regiilated, intelligent, 
and active minds may be expected to be a better-ordered and more 
effectual, in short, a more energetic and useful mass for themselves, 
for the church, and for the state, than the mass of individuals of in- 
active minds that are led and governed by one controlling mind. I 
do not here intend to say that this correctness of thought and this 
development of mind are attainable at once on the act of emancipa- 
tion from the slavery of system to religious freedom, but, I do say, 
that like the complete education of a youth they are attainable 
gradually ; and this state of education or gradual educational pro- 
gression which I have indicated is, I believe, the state in which 
Pi'otestantism with its innumerable religious opinions and the free 
tending elements of Catholicism are to-day. This gradually progres- 
sive state is pertinently indicated in that prophecy of the book of 
Revelation, referring to the age we are now passing through, which 
represents the angel with one foot in the water and the other on the 
land, in the act, as it were, of passing over to the firm and dry land 
of settled opinions and definite understanding in religion. 

It appears to me plain that the denial of religious freedom by 
governments is not only unjust in itself, but somewhat inconsistent 
with the fact of the omnipresence of Deity, which shows the absurdity 
of one man or one corporation of men arrogating to himself or to 
itself all knowledge concerning him or his Avill. The most, then, 
that governments should do or should be expected to do in such 
case is to give their moral support to that system of religion which 
unites in itself simplicity with truth and earnestness, and appears, 
all things considered, to be the best. But this, you will perceive, 



IS SCIENCE RECONCILABLE WITH EELIGIOK ? 455 

leaves complete religious freedom to the masses. As that is not; 
religion by whatever name called Avhich fosters a malignant or per- 
secuting spirit, neither can that be called religion which tends to 
libertinism and immorality, to laziness and the neglect of active 
duties which are too often the concomitants of socialism, or to the 
derangement of moral order or the suppression of the instinct ot 
true Christian love and affection in any way. The object of secular 
government is partly to preserve order among the masses of the peo- 
ple ; its right should, therefore, be recognized to preserve order in a 
religious corporation or assembly, when the latter transgresses the 
laws of the state, which in most cases are quite minute with respect 
to the moral obligations of the individual. 

The religious freedom of the age in which we live allows to 
scientists the privilege of pursuing their investigations, of developing 
their theories, and of expressing their opinions as freely as they 
please ; and the results to Avhich they come are taken up and used 
by religion pro or con as these results may be thought to favor or 
disfavor itself. Hence, science has of late years made great advances, 
the theories propounded have been freely and widely discussed, and 
they are reckoned low, indeed, in the scale of intelligence Avho are 
not able to speak generally concerning the Sciences, their advances, 
and discoveries. 

But referring to ray main subject, " Is Science reconcilable with 
Religion ? " I may here state Avithout fear of being proved false in 
the assertion that there is nothing in the Bible which if properly inter- 
preted shows them to be irreconcilable. The mistake which Scientists 
who have read the Bible as well as imperfect theologians have made 
was in too often giving a wrong interpretation to the Scriptures, ap- 
plying a literal interpretation to figurative language, and sometimes 
conversely, and thus necessitating that the records contradict them- 
selves. But if the Bible when properly interpreted, will not through- 
out contradict itself nor contradict Science, this interpretation will, 
perhaps, be in the main somewhat different from Avhat it received in 
the times of the Kings Henry, James, and Charles, and even in the 
time when many of you were young, when theologians especially of 
certain scliools were so unyielding in support of their assertions, in 
many cases, of what might be called their " hard sayings," and so 
terribly impatient of contradiction. There is too much of this 
inflexibility characteristic of tlie old schools of theology to-day,, 
and in our own free country Ave may now and then meet Avith an 
inflexible specimen of the profession theological. Yet the difference 
now between the European and the American scliools of theology 
appears to me considerable, the latter not being held so rigidly by 



456 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

creed or formula or thought of Sacerdotal Caste as the former, but 
displaying, in the main, as the mass of the American people, the free 
democratic American manners, and uniting in their pulpit discourses 
a pertinence, practicality, earnestness, and energy productive of ex- 
cellent effects. They appear, too, to have begun clearly to recognize 
that their mission is to be life-imparters, and that to this end in 
certain cases, as to effect a reformation from a state of moral degra- 
dation and self-imposed wretchedness in individuals and communities 
they are to bring not peace on earth but a sword. Neither is educa- 
tion and intelligence at such a low ebb amongst us as to allow that 
the minister should be blamed for the performance of his duties ; 
nor does our broad and promising country with all its avenues of 
labor, of service, and of advancement, where every one may right- 
fully feel full of hope and honorable aspiration, where all belong to 
the same Caste ; neither does this broad country, I say, necessitate 
that the minister should refrain from associating with the people, 
who may often have something to communicate to him even on 
theology which it will be well for him to know, through fear of 
his losing Caste or position or the people's confidence or respect by 
such association. 

The time was in our fatherland when society was so bound up 
by the thought of Caste and order as to divide the people of the 
same country into many societies, each jealous of its own assumed 
rights and privileges, and each, perhaps, looking with contempt 
"upon those below it in the scale or with envy upon those still higher 
up. This state of things still subsists in the old world, but methinks 
the bands of society are much less tightly drawn, and the thought of 
Caste much less predominant than they have been in the past, and 
this liberalizing change has been effected there principally, I believe, 
through the agency of America and its free institutions. 

If the discovery of America is due to the Church through the 
agency of miracles or otherwise I have not yet learned the fact. 
Why, it has been asked, did not the church by its miraculous powers 
cause America to have been discovered before, and thus have pre- 
sented its broad lands to the millions of the old world starving and 
downtrodden for long ages ? 

The church, 'tis true, was quite militant upon land until it carried 
its banners to the shores of the Baltic, the Caspian and the Euphrates, 
but it did not cast its omniscient eye over the broad Atlantic, it 
appears, nor descry in the distance the millions yet to be subjected 
to its peaceful sway. The church had no navy for exploring expedi- 
tions, it was no mariner, but depended rather upon the secular 
power for the discovery and conquest of new lands, and when this 



IS SCIENCE RECONCILABLE WITH RELIGION? 457 

was done, it, like a faithful housewife, set itself to organizing and 
housekeeping. 

Thank God that we are now favored with this broad, and free, 
and enlightened country to which since its discovery the outcast of 
Europe, who had dared to think for himself and speak as he thought, 
has often hitherto directed his steps in order to find a jjlace in which 
to live in freedom and peace. I say all this, however, without in- 
intending any unfriendliness toward the land of my fathers, the 
British Nation, Avhich, if we except its aristocratic institution whose 
interests appear contrary to those of the masses of tlie people, is, 
aside from America, the freest country in the world, and to whose 
sons and their descendants the progress of America hitherto is in a 
very large degree attributable. Nor have I the least idea that the in- 
habitants of the British empire now, or the inhabitants of any other 
nation, are responsible for any evil deeds that may have been done 
by their ancestors or are on any such account to be objects of my 
hatred or envy. But it is well known that the free institutions of 
America have reacted upon the established institutions of Europe 
and necessitated a liberalizing modification of their regime to which 
the institution of the Sacerdotal order there is not an exception, and 
which has wrought good for all concerned as even a large body of 
the clergy there will allow. 

Although religion and Science may go hand in hand and mutually 
assist each other if they so will, still theology considered as a Science 
exists independent of Science commonly so called, and this latter 
exists independent of theolog}^ nor are they found to contradict each 
other if the proper understanding be had on both sides. 

While Geology, although not a Science properly so called, proves 
unmistakably that tliis planet has existed for countless ages much 
as to phenomena as we now see it to exist, it does not disprove the 
Scriptural passage if rightly interpreted that, "In the beginning 
God created the Heavens and the Earth." The key to the interpre- 
tation of this passage is doubtless to be found in the following pas- 
sages : " In the beginning was the word and the word was with God 
and the word was God." " All things Avere made by him and without 
him was not anything made that was made." " The word became 
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glor}^ &c. ;" that is to 
say, this word was the spirit of Christor of tlie God Man, in whom of 
all the creatures is pre-eminently represented and developed the Logos 
or the reason with speech. By Man I mean man as to form, ajipear- 
ance, &c., as we now see him to exist and in all these respects man 
is a creature. But, contrary to the hypothesis of Mr. Darwin in tliis 
particular, I have no cause to assume that the reason or head domina- 



458 CREATOR Ais'D COSMOS. 

tion which now characterizes man was at any period joined to and 
supported by any other form than such as we see man now to pos- 
sess. Therefore, this substantial form of the word must " in the 
beginning " and before the creation referred to have had a substratum 
or that by which to be supported while creating all things that were 
created. We do, however, believe the world now exists ; we see it 
to exist, and if we think this to be the substratum for man now, may 
Ave not think it to have been his substratum before and while creatinsr 
all things that were created? All our laws are made, all our moral 
obligations entered into, and all our courthouses and penitentiaries 
built in accordance with our actual experience of the realitj- of the 
Avorld ; it therefore behooves men to live according to reason and law 
for their present welfare and for their jjresent and future welfare to 
worship God Avho is a Spirit in spirit and in truth. But still I may 
be allowed to think that our ancient Saxon fathers were wiser than 
many of our modern sages when they applied to the mental principle 
or rather to the reason the term understanding . The demonstrations 
of the Science of Astronomy now made are based upon the associated 
laws of gravitation and of motion enunciated by Sir Isaac Newton 
and Kepler, the former born in A. D. 1642, and the latter just pre- 
ceding him in time, and upon the law of Inertia demonstrated in the 
Science of Mechanics. The law of gravitation is stated as follows : 
'■'■Every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle 
with a force proportioned to the amount of matter in each and decreasing 
inversely as the squares of their distances" The law of Inertia is, 
that " bodies at rest will remain at rest and hodies in motion will con- 
tinue moving in straight lines if not acted on by controlling forces external 
to themselves.'''' The reason the heavenly bodies do not moA'e in 
straight lines is because of their attraction for each other deflecting 
them mutually into curved lines, such as circles, ellipses, parabolas, 
and hyperbolas in Avhich the moons, planets, and comets move. As 
to the laws of motion deduced by Kepler, I think it unnecessary to 
state them here but they can be found in almost any treatise on 
Astronomy, as that in the present Avoi'k. 

These associated laws, howeA'er, Avere mathematically demonstrated 
by Sir Isaac Newton in his I'rincipia, a Avork Avhich is the basis of 
our present system or science of Astronomy, and any imperfections 
Avhich might have been left in the demonstrations by Newton at his 
death were carefully attended to and the sA'stem perfected by his 
astronomical coadjutors and successors, especially by Flamstead, 
Halley, and Bradley, Avho Avere the first three astronomical pro- 
fessors at the observatory at Green Avich. 

It should be borne in mind that the Science of AstronomA' does 



IS SCIENCE RECOKCIL ABLE WITH RELIGION? 459 

not propose to account for the origin of the spheres or of tl)eir 
motions, but taking these as it finds them, and following out its own 
principles and laws, it accounts admirably well for the celestial 
phenomena. 

If some of the points embraced in this Science, such for example 
as the parallelism of the earth's axis during its journey round the 
sun, the revolution of the earth upon nothing, the earth's motion 
round its axis being in a contrary direction to that in which it moves 
round the sun, and its motion toward the constellation Hercules 
being in a still different direction, that the moon makes one revolu- 
tion on its axis while making one revolution round the earth while 
it is always seen to present the same hemisphere to the earth ; — if 
some of these points, I say, do not satisfy the reason of some mod- 
erns, who have never thoroughly mastered the Science, this is no 
proof against its correctness ; for that Sir Isaac Newton and his 
associates in founding the system had all the principles, bearings, 
and relations of the Science plainly comprehended in their mind, 
there can be no reasonable doubt. If not, it may be asked, whence 
comes the unvarying correctness of the results. But that they had 
even the capabilities of the Science for application to future discov- 
eries in the solar system plainly comprehended in their mind appears 
evident in many after results, notably in the discovery of the planet 
Neptune, which may be called the greatest triumph of the Science, 
an almost infallible proof of its correctness. The laws of the Science 
embrace and govern not only all the planets, satellites, and comets 
known in the solar system in the time of its founders but all that 
might afterwards be discovered in it. They also embrace and 
govern all the celestial bodies in all space, being universal in their 
application and operation. It appears to me that before we allow 
that Science which accounts so well for the celestial phenomena to 
be set aside or even disputed, Ave should require another or others of 
the genius and ability of Newton to disprove it. 

The Ptolemaic system of Astronomy invented by Ptolemy, an 
Egyptian Greek, who was born in the year 69 B. C. was that accord- 
ing to which the celestial phenomena were calculated before the age 
of Kepler and Newton. This system regarded the earth as at rest in 
the centre of the universe with all the other heavenly bodies, sun, 
moon and stars, revolving around it once a day. It was thought to 
account well for the celestial phenomena, and it was not till the time 
of Copernicus and Galileo, or say one century before the birth of 
Newton, that it began to be shown to be erroneous. It is not im- 
possible that the Newtonian system may in time be replaced by 
another, probably by a modification* of itself. 

♦Long obpervation of the effects of the preceesion of the equinoxes, alluded to on page 301, may 
possibly render this convenient. 



460 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

As to forms, motions, &c., the universe gives to all the same general 
impression. If our mind was differently constituted we should, no 
doubt, perceive it differently. I do not know that the mind of man 
was ever constituted differently than it is now ; if not, men have 
always had the same general impression of the external world. The 
conclusion, then, to which we have come thus far is that man's 
general impression or idea of the universe is from age to age the 
same or differing almost imperceptibly,* and liis theories to account 
for the celestial phenomena do, from menial causes, change in time. 
I To see, or to perceive, or to conceive, as well as to make, is, in a 
sense, to create. We know nothing whatever as to the origin of the 
forms, motions, &c., of the earth and the celestial bodies. Science 
has nothing to do with such origins, and theory or speculation should 
never be confounded with nor mistaken for Science. Time spent in 
the investigation of such origins is, in my opinion, time lost. Our 
life's experience show us the continual origination of existences, ani- 
mal, vegetable, and mineral, in obedience to a continuaWy developing 
creative law, which we always see in operation. This is, also, in a 
proper sense creation ; with this creation and with those of our own 
powers and perceptive faculties we shall have to be content or take 
other supposed creations on faith. 

Matter is, in general terms, defined to be everything which is 
recognizable by our senses. It is supposed to be made up of infinitely 
small particles called atoms, which are accounted so infinitely minute 
as to be altogether beyond the recognition of our senses. These are 
supposed, also, to be indestructible by any other power than tliat 
which has brought them into being. All things are composed of 
these \iltimate elements and all things are consequently reducible 
into these elements. Hence, and from other considerations, it is 
known that all the globes and all the objects in space are reducible 
to the state of an invisible gas, a gas doubtless many times rarer than 
the air we breathe ; that is, they are of a nature reducible, but so far 
as we know are not practically reducible. This, therefore, is literal 
spirit, for spirit from the Latin word Spirare, to breathe, is that which 
we breathe, or breath. Hence, all matter is spirit, and, conversely, 
all spirit is matter. The ultimate elements of matter we cannot pos- 
sibly recognize, and yet all things we do recognize are made up of 
these irrecognizable elements. This is the reason Avhy matter is said 
to be infinitely divisible. You see, therefore, matter and spirit are 
the same substance in different states, and we cannot conceive any- 
thing but what is or is of matter. There are what are called simple 
substances and compound substances in nature. The simple sub- 
stances thus far discovered are about 63 in number, and these, Avith 

* A very remarkable variation of phenomeua, such, for example, if we could conceive it, as the sun, 
after a certain period, pay 10,700 years licnce, or when the node, 0° A}ieg, was entering 181 Libra, it 
bavin"; gone through full half a retrofjraclation, remaining a doulilc day above the horizon and then 
traveling in the opposite direction and setting in the eaet, which would make this the first day of 
another great period : such a conceivable phenomenon, 1 say, would of itself conceivably change or 



IS SCEENCE RECONCILABLE WITH RELIGION? 461 

those that may exist undiscovered, form all the compound substances 
in our earth and atmosphere. When we say that the ultimate elements 
of matter are wholly irrecognizable by our senses, we do not mean 
that such elements do not exist ; what we mean is that such elements, 
thougli they be real, can be with us only creatures of the imagination. 
There are some very ingenious theorists who make these atoms (infi- 
nitely minute as they are), to be like the soap bubble, and filled with 
electricity. Consequently, according to them, everything is but a 
different phase of electricity ; but who will undertake to explain that ? 
There are some, also, who claim that spirit cannot possibly be 
conceived or explained ; consequently, according to them, there can 
be no literal spirit, only imaginary spirit. Now, God is a Spirit, but 
that he is merely an imaginary spirit I do not understand, for even 
my faith will not rest on the merely imaginary, but requires for a 
basis the substantial and real ; but, although from his infinite nature 
he is altogether inconceivable by us, he is yet a real spirit, as his 
omnipresence attests. 

The theory of the atoms or ultimate elements of matter is the 
basis of the science of chemistry, which is as demonstrable as is that 
of Astronomy. While contentedly leaving to chemistry its elemen- 
tary atoms, which are as necessary to it as is the theory of gravitation 
to Astronomy, I remark, that the originator and substratum of the 
electricity contained in the atomic soap-bubble, must be the Ego or 
understanding which is infinite and inconceivable. 

Afiiiiity is a term of Chemistry applied to that force by virtue of 
which two or more simple substances combine to form a compound 
body. This compound exhibits properties different from those of the 
combining components, and is called a chemical compound. Some sim- 
ple substances display for each other a greater affinity than do others. 
The laws of chemistry or chemical affinity, and of crystallization, 
which come within the general law of mutual attraction established 
by Newton, when that is fully explained, destroy the supposition of 
anything in the way of progressive creation taking place by chance. 

A knowledge of the science of Light and of the Science of colors 
shows that without light there could be no colors, and that without 
colors, even if light existed without them, there Avould be no objects 
distinguishable, or if they could by their forms be distingui^lied it 
must be with great difficulty and perplexity. Light is therefore, in 
part, the producer of colors, and tlie difference in colors serves, in 
part, to produce objects. From experiments carried on at great 
length of late years, it has been concluded that liglit as well as heat 
is a "mode of motion "' arising from the violent agitation of the ulti- 
mate elements of the luminous body in their seekin^r equilibrium by 

modiCy our prpsent pyetcm of nptronomy. If Hub subipct plioiild lie considered at all, due weight 
should lie L'iven to the permanency of the asfrononiie;!! iihcnoniena dnrin<; the historical observation 
and to the tendency to stability of the angle of obliquity of the ecliptic. But ciich a supposition, if 
really conceivable, must make the sun to revolve in an (iiliit between Mercury and JIars, and around 
a common orbital center with •►"■ Hnnets, to which, however, the earth's orbital center must bi» 
considered a little eccentric See feot-note to pa 'e 3(11 



462 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

chemical separation or combination : and we know that the phenome- 
non of light as distant from the luminous body, Avhich is its source, is 
simply the image of the luminous body infinitely multiplied in all di- 
rections and visible distances from it. The light of the sun is account- 
ed for by scientists in two different ways, some supposing that it 
arises from combustion of the sun's substance, and others that it 
arises from a magneto-electric state of the sun's atmosphere, so that 
on this supposition it might be regarded as somewhat of the nature 
of a continuous surpassingly brilliant northern light with us. Neither 
of these suppositions it might be shown necessitate the sun's entire 
consumj^tion in time, for, according to the laws of gravitation, a par- 
ticle of the sun's substance, even though continually in a state of 
change, can never go beyond the sphere of his attraction so as to be 
entirely lost to him ; and as to the second supposition, we can hardly 
consider an electro-magnetic state of the sun's atmosphere as destruc- 
tive of his substance. 

While white is produced by the union of all colors, black is no 
color, or only the absence of color caused by the substance which 
appears black ahsorhing the colored rays which fall upon it. The 
different colored rays in their order on the spectrum are red, orange, 
yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, that is, red is least and violet 
most refracted. It was Sir Isaac Newton that made the discovery 
not only that white light is a compound of rays of various kinds, 
having different colors and indices of refraction, but that all the sub- 
• stances that appear colored when illuminated with white light derive 
their colors only from a kind of " Natural Selection," that is, the sub- 
stances according to their nature may reflect certain colored rays and 
absorb or transmit others. He concluded, however, from different 
experiments on the same subject that every substance in nature, 2^^'o- 
vicled it he reduced to the requisite degree of thinness, is transpareyit. 
This is, also, plain from the fact now generally understood, that all 
substances in nature are, by the application of a sufficient degree of 
heat, reducible to a transparent, invisible gas. Many transparent 
medice reflect one color and transmit another ; gold-leaf, for example, 
reflects the yellow, but by holding it up against a strong light it is 
found to transmit a sort of green color. 

By modern scientists who have experimented at great length upon 
the science of colors and complementary colors, it has been conclud- 
ed Avith probability that ^vhat we name colors -with their different hues 
are only the various affection of the optic nerve by a greater or less quan- 
tity of light radiating from a focal point in an imperfect reflector. All 
thi'; Avill be better understood by reference to the operations of the 
jicience of lis^ht and of the science of colors in treatises on those 



IS SCIEKCE BECONCILABLE WITH RELIGION? 463 

sciences. From what I have said and will say one can acquire some 
faint idea of the construction of the mind for perception and judg- 
ment. The five senses furnish the reason with all the material or 
data (the eye performing a very important part), and the reason dis- 
poses, judges, and determines. They perceive form, color, motion or 
rest, weight, hardness or softness, density or rarity, many or few, 
diversity or sameness, light, shade or darkness, up or down, east or 
west, &c. The ear perceives language addressed to it in words, or 
the eye as found in books or in nature; the palate perceives the dif- 
ferent tastes, the nose the different smells, and the touch the different 
degrees of hardness or softness, of intensity of cold or heat and the 
like ; and all these objects are instantly presented to the reason or 
understanding which disposes and judges of them. Hence the senses 
are the channels through which we have knowledge of and hold con- 
verse with the external world. That light, heat, electricity and 
gravitation all act according to the same law — their force decreasing 
as the square of their distance from the centres of action increases 
— proves them all to proceed from the same source. The source of 
this action is the understanding, the operation is universal, and the 
centres of action infinite. 

There have been some who have undertaken to demonstrate that 
there is no extei-nal world, that the things we see are only ideal, the 
real and inconceivable being their substratum. This may seem hard 
to reconcile with the freedom of the creatures, especially with the 
free agency of man, which enables him to do or not to do as he may 
choose. " If," it may be said, '^ as according to this theory, and in 
the ordinary sense of the word idea, "the world be only ideal, there is 
but the creator and conceiver of ideas or God and man existing, and 
we find the Creator arrayed against himself in all directions." In 
replj^ to this, it may be said, that an idea as commonly understood 
amounts to nothing as compared with the real which it represents, 
as a shadow is nothing as compared with the substance; nor is an 
inert body any more than a bare idea of much account to resist when 
subjected to a controlling exercise of physical force. In the actual 
world we find most results of any worth to be brought about by op- 
positions. That man, for example, will never amount to much in any 
Avallc of life, who does not encounter and skilfully and patiently over- 
come opposition. If the man do not encounter opposition, but glides 
along smoothly all through life, it is almost a certain indication that, 
at least, any good effects he may produce will not be wide-spreading. 
I do not here intimate that men should court opposition or that they 
should not rather avoid it; what I do mean to say is that if they pur- 
sue the line of their duty according to common sense and uprightness 
the opposition will present itself at times in the course of things, do 



464 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

what they will to avoid it. If you go into a mill you will find all 
the cogs and wheels and all the mill-stones going in opposition to 
each other for the accomplishment of a certain purpose, namely, that 
of grinding. Will you sa}^ it was "Nature " that made each mouth 
a mill for the same purpose? In the individual human experience 
there is such an opposition of flesh to spirit that even a Paul finds 
it difficult alwaj^s to obey his higher self. 

There is an opposition in all things on and in the earth for the 
production of certain results in nature, and it is the opposite mutual 
attractions of the heavenlj^ bodies that keep them in their uniform 
motions and invariably confined to their proper orbits. Now, no 
man will say it is the Creator that acts in opposition to himself, for 
the Creator is one and cannot be supposed to act against himself. 
No, it is the creatures, whether these be intelligent and free or 
otherwise, which act in opposition to each other, and ver}^ often, 
you know, the free and intelligent creatures act unwisely in such 
oppositions, as in the case of an unjust war carried on, or of two men 
trjang to settle a disputed point and winding up in a mutual quarrel. 
Now, we can hardly think the Creator, who is infinitely wise, would 
act thus unwisely. 

I think the foregoing argument must show the attempt to con- 
ceive of the Creator much more, difficult than the idealistic theory as 
understood by some hasty speakers might leave it to be, and also 
show the idea of pantheism to be nonsensical. 

The Creator being infinite, while omnipresent, is inconceivable ; 
it is the creatures that are conceivable. 

There are others, and ver}^ many too, I meet Avith them every day, 
who tell me they do not believe there is a God ; the}" say they do not 
believe that anything but " nature " exists, and all such like talk. A 
man died lately in the state of Illinois who before his death had ordered 
that there should be no religious service performed at his funeral, only 
that they should consign his body to "nature " from whence he had 
sprung. This order was rigidly adhered to at the funeral, and in a short 
oration his body was consigned to "nature," his assumed mother. Now, 
when one speaks of nature one speaks only of created things as related 
to each other, for one can conceive only of created things as related 
to each other, but cannot conceive the real or unconditioned which is 
the substratum underlying and supporting tlie phenomena of the 
creatures. This real or absolute we may call the Ego or Ego sum, 
it is infinite, without body, parts or passions, beyond the recognition 
of our senses and inconceivable. Although all the creatures are 
related to each other and more or less independent of each other 
still they are continually dependent for their existence upon their 



IS SCIENCE EECONCILA.BLE WITH IIELIGION ? 465 

Creator who is also their substratum and supporter. The omnipres- 
ence of the Creator, notwithstanding the freedom and independence 
of each other of the creatu]-es, which doubtless is for wise purposes, 
and which is real (for man is a free and responsible agent as all law 
assumes, and has great power given him over all other creatui'es), 
shows unmistakably that the phenomena of the creatures can only 
be, though in some way unexplainable by us, differerft presentations 
of the Ego to itself, or, speaking properly otherwise, proesentationes 
differentes rationis universalis sibi. 

But what I have stated will help to show that men who say 
there is no God but " nature," rarel)^ if ever understand or consider 
what they mean by nature. Even the contraries of up and* down in 
the universe will show that when you are consigning the body of 
your friend to the tomb you know not but that you are at that 
moment putting him up on high, for I can prove satisfactorily to 
you that there is neither up nor down as regards the universe, what- 
ever jow may now think concerning it. 

But to make the distinction in your mind between the Creator 
and the creature, I may say that in such case the body is returned to 
the dust from whence it came, and the spirit returns to God wlio 
gave it. 

It may be again allowed me to suggest that theory should never 
be mistaken for science. As the theory of the origin of species and 
their growth through different modifications of form, some of which 
were wholly dissimilar to the present one, might be confuted by 
very s-imple facts, such for example as the presence of busy ant- 
communities in all quarters and countries of the globe, which could 
hardly be supposed to arrive at the same general state as to forms, 
habits, &c., in all these countries through different "modifications of 
form," or the "migration of species;" so, I think, the nebular 
hypothesis maybe confuted, not only by all the phenomena of nature 
and the late discoveries of the telescope, but by the simple fact that 
one digs for water wlierever he builds his house and rarely fails to 
find that fluid, which with many other fluids the Creator has made 
provision for in the earth's interior. 

But, although science knows nothing as to the origin of the 
celestial spheres, nothing as to a beginning for their motions, nothino- 
as to the origin of the terrestrial species, nor anything as to a 
destruction or annihilation of the universe, still, I think, we may be 
well content to leave all such like questions in the keeping of the 
Allwise, until it may please him to make other revelations to us con- 
cerning his Cosmos in such manner as pleases liim, and to live in 
peace and love before him, always seeking to attain to the likeness 

"30 



466 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

and righteousness of his son, in the manner set before us in the Gos- 
pels. Thus living, not only science but scientists will be reconcila- 
ble with religion. 

All science is experimental or demonstrable by experiment. 
Religion is also in its way, experimental as is freely professed by 
most of the religious sects and sectaries. The science in which we 
are most concerned in the discussion of this subject, it is well known, 
is astronomy, and although this science is eminently an experi- 
mental one I think religion is, in its way, no less experimental. It is 
no proof against religion being experimental that scientists who 
have never fulfilled its conditions, or faithless professors who have no 
correct understanding of theology, say it is not. In the case of a 
problem in any experimental science certain conditions have to be 
fulfilled in order that certain results may be produced. In the same 
manner, speaking religiously, he that cometh to God must believe 
that God is, and that he is a re warder of all those that diligently 
seek him by living a consistently Godly life. Now, he who has a 
correct understanding of theology has not a shadow of doubt in his 
mind that God exists, that the nature of God is to be just and good, 
and that, therefore, he is a rewarder of all those who seek him in 
truth and sincerity. 

There are millions who will attest from their own experience the 
efficacy of prayer. 

Prayer ma}' not always be answered just in the way the suppliant 
expects or wishes, and yet it may oe answered. Petitions offered up 
jointly by many for the same purpose are, according to the New 
Testament teaching, very likely to be answered, and hence one of 
the good purposes of religious associations. The people who praj^ 
liowever, do not always keep sufficiently in mind that the nature of 
God is to be just as well as good : this thought as well as the thought 
of God's infinite wisdom should temper them in their expectations, 
and should make them content with whatever he sends them and with 
the way in Avhich he sends it. 

While the science of Astronomy fulfils its mission without giving 
any account as to the origin of the globes or of their motions, the 
Christian religion (that religion with which we are here most con- *" 
cerned) does not start out in this way, but exhibits in a book the 
account of its origin. The Christian system of religion Avas meant 
to supplant the old Jewish system as to everything, and it was in- 
troduced to the world somewhat after the manner of the former, at 
least so far as recorded miracles and moral obligations were con- 
cerned. In the New Testament, as in the old, we are of course to 
interpret literal language literally, and figurative language figuratively. 



IS SCIENCE KECONCILABLE WITH RELIGION? 467 

in order that the records may not contradict themselves, or rather 
in order to interpret them consistent!}^ with themselves. 

Even if a fair and impartial critical examination of the four 
Gospels and the book of the Acts should prove those records to be 
in the main allegorical, or at least allegorical as to their main subject, 
their design would evidently yet be to show the possibility of man's 
capableness for elevation to moral and spiritual perfection in holiness 
and Godlikeness, the real Grod-Man being seen set forth in the ideal. 
Nor could the moral code set forth in these records be ever under- 
stood as any other than historical. It is possible, however, that faith 
might find sufficient reason to accept the G-ospels as historical by repos- 
ing itself upon the probability of a historical nucleus as the primary 
basis of the allegorical elaboration, even when the eye of the competent 
historical critic could not find sufficient reason to conclude them as being 
such. 

Paul may not have seen Jesus Christ in the flesh nor yet his 
literal cross, but the eye of faith in the firm believer, who reposes 
himself upon the supposed historical nucleus aforesaid, may perhaps 
see him even more clearly than the eye of sense could have done. 
Even faith, I believe, must have some base in reality in order to 
make it effectual. The competent critic may be at the same time 
eminently religious, and, if so, he will have a more definite, correct 
and, to him, satisfactory view of the Grod-Man, of his ascent in his- 
tory, and of the literary character and object of the New Testament 
records than the unscholarly though zealous religionist may be ex- 
pected to have. The church is always the realm of faith, and the 
profession of a reasonable, religious, and holy faith, provided it be 
such, is always accounted legitimate. 

The religionist almost always understands the creation " in t^ie 
beginning" to have reference to globes of land and water ; rarely 
suspecting that the Heavens and the earth which were created may 
rather have reference to the church and those without its pale which 
were " in the beginning " of moral order in certain communities or 
nations established. He never does, however, think of accounting for 
the origin of the space which those globes occupy and revolve in. 
Perhaps our modern evolutionists, who appear to be full-fledged 
fowls now-a-days soaring high above all old modes . of thouglit 
or forms of belief, would inform us whether, whence or when space 
has been evolved. This doctrine of evolution, it appears to me, will 
not stand in the case of an evolution of the celestial bodies or of their 
motions or of the space they revolve in ; it can only assert what we 
all know, namely, that change is continually taking place in the 
material universe. It appears, however, to make better head-way 



468 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

from its research in geology in accounting for the upgrowth of the 
terrestrial species. Mr. Darwin, however, went considerably too 
far in the particular of his zig-zag ancestry for man. By the term 
reHgjionist I mean no disparagement of any particular mode of 
thought or set of opinions. I use that term in the same way as 
I would use the term Scientist or any other good English word. 
Men are of slightly different constitutions of mind as well as of body : 
we scarcely can account for or be supposed to understand each the 
other's daily spiritual and mental experience: if men find comfort and 
joy in certain modes of thought and tenets of belief, even if, in my 
opinion, their understanding of the matter be not altogether correct, 
I would be sorry to deprive them of the source of their joy if I could 
not replace it with a more intelligent and satisfactory source or cause 
of rejoicing and comfort. Such an one believes such a thing to be 
so because his Bible tells him it is so, and he finds comfort perhaps 
in his belief without attempting to rack his brain with critical inves. 
tigations as to meaning. It may be possible, however, to give an in- 
terpretation to the passage different from that which he gives it, 
which may satisfj' him better and be more correct. 

Astronomy takes the Cosmos as it finds it to be and carries out 
its purposes by means of the laws which it has deduced as to how 
nature is and acts. True religion takes the records concerning the 
creation of the world and the founding of the old and the new 
Church as it finds them and considers them amjDly sufficient when 
rightly interpreted to meet the spiritual wants and requirements of 
mankind. The records of the Old and the New Testament are there 
and have their proper meaning whenever it be discovered, notwith- 
standing the opinion or act of some critics, who when they do not 
find them or portions of them to be historical throw them aside as 
having no meaning ; nor is there one of their recorded miracles, even 
if these should be considered of literal interpretation, half so miracu- 
lous as is this inexpressibly wonderful universe with which we are 
sui'rounded. 

Man is born Avith a religious instinct within him, and the after 
contemplation of his own being and of the great universe which sur- 
rounds him increases and heightens the religious sentiment. True 
religion has as firm a basis to rest on for the belief in the existence 
of an omnipresent, omniscient, just, and good God as has Astronomy 
or any other of the experimental natural Sciences for the validity of 
its claims. The intelligent and true religionist does not trouble 
himself much as to the question of the origin of the material universe 
much less as to that of its destruction : but havins: become satisfied 



IS SCIENCE RECONCILABLE WITH RELIGION ? 469 

of the meaning of the sacred records ^hich generally (I will not say 
always in particular cases) has reference to the world of mankind or 
the moral world rather than the material, he is assured that the 
second birth or the new creation by regeneration of the heart and of 
the life spoken of in " John " is a much more important subject of 
consideration for him than any possible creation of a material world 
is there considered to be. 

Sir Isaac Newton, the principal founder of the Science of As- 
tronomy would be a fair exemplar for scientific men to follow in 
reeard to their estimation of religion. He lived the life of a self- 
denying godly man, wrote largely on religious subjects, and died a 
sincere believer in religion. Religion was with him an experimental 
matter, and the pure Science of theology was by him, I believe, in 
his old age, pretty fairly understood. 

The name of Gravitation is a name arbitrarily but properly 
enough given to the principle which attracts, but who has ever un- 
derstood or could conceive that principle ? The phenomena of the 
creatures, their different degrees of freedom and independence of 
each other are recognized, but the attraction of gravitation attests 
and illustrates the omnipresence and omnipotence of Deity. The 
condition and actual existence of antipodes illustrates the fact that 
the subject of Astronomy is as little fit to be ridiculed as is that of 
Religion. Religion and Astronomy alike defy the sneer of the Sophist 
and the worldly-wise. 

The universal instinct and sentiment in man declares in favor of 
religion and demonstrates the validity of a lively faith in the benevo- 
lence and beneficence of the invisible and omnijjresent Deity. This 
universal religious sentiment may be formulated into creeds and 
confessions of faith, or it may exist lively in the breast of the indi- 
vidual who does not profess or recognize any creed. In order to be 
truly religious it is not necessary that one profess a Pharisaic cast- 
iron creed, but it is necessary that one live a consistently godly life. 
Charity suffereth long and is kind : Charity covereth a multitude of 
sins : Love worketh no ill to his neighbor : Love is the fulfilling of 
the law : Do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with thv God, 
are all good mottos to be remembered and practised. 

It appears to me that people of different sects or of the same sect, 
or even Scientists and Religionists, or professors and non-professors 
of religion should never grow angry Avith each other, more especially 
concerning any religious question. Religion is no fit subject to be- 
come angiy about, and the religious history of the past, if men have 
not read it amiss, should warn them against harboring a malignant 
and bitter spirit in religious questions, and incite them to the culti- 



470 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

vation of the spirit of meekness and sobriety, and to the practice of 
the life of active godliness, which is that also of true manliness, in- 
dicated in the New Testament. 

If religion consisted in names and creeds it might often in the 
past have been inquired " Is religion reconcilable with relioion ? " 
when the different Christian sects were so violently opposed to each 
other as to seem to forget that they were all but different branches 
of the same Christian trunk. True religion, however, does not 
stand in the names of sects or of leaders, but it is a thing of the 
spirit, of the heart, and of the daily life, and consequently there 
is but one true religion and that the same in all sects, and non- 
sectaries. Now, as God is one and cannot be supposed to contradict 
or oppose himself, so true religion, being one, cannot act in opposi- 
tion to itself. When, therefore, we hear of a religious war, a relig- 
ious quarrel, religious rancor, or theological pride, we hear nothing 
at all about true religion, but about a spirit and a life diametrically 
opposite to it. 

True religion, therefore, being of such a simple nature as I have 
indicated, cannot contradict Science, for even Scientists may be true 
Religionists ; and its fruits distinguish it wherever it exists. 

For the mutual help and advancement of society religiously 
organized, religious societies are found to be the most effectual means. 
It would be difficult to find unanimity in any assembly with respect 
to any given subject, arising from different degrees of education and 
different habits of thought in individuals, and, therefore, in a religious 
association it has been found better for the individuals to exercise 
a mutual forbearance and condescension toward each other. One 
should not consider that he is descending from any dignity if for 
a mutually good understanding, on any subject one condescends to 
give or receive explanation. Some there are who have a distinguish- 
ing peculiarity of inquiring from others their religious opinions, 
especially as to particular points of belief or doctrine as they call it. 
Such inquiry is for the most part simply to gratify the curiosity of 
the questioner, and when they become impertinent or insolent in 
their questionings they may well be dismissed without having their 
curiosity gratified with an answer. After a few such dismissals they 
will likely begin to learn better manners, and nobody can fairly 
sympathize with them in their disappointment since, as with a pettish 
child, the course thus taken with them is for their good. This has no 
reference to a fair question wliich in general deserves a like answer 
(although in ordinary cases it need not be answered if one does not 
wish), but one's private opinions or understanding of religion one 
should not be pressed to communicate against one's will. In an orgaa- 



IS SCIENCE KECONCrLABLE WITH RELIGION? 471 

ized religions association the pastor is, of course, supposed to be more 
clear on all religious subjects than those of less extent of theological 
learning than he : it is reasonable, therefore, that he be guide for his 
time. 

Of all the systems of religion upon earth there is none that I am 
aware of so well adapted for the moral advancement and elevation 
of mankind as is Christianity rightly understood. It makes mankind 
of all nations and classes brethren, removes all oppressive and 
burdensome superstition, inculcates the practice of humility and the 
suppression of pride, and teaches the simple worship of the invisible 
and omnipresent God in spirit and in truth. Such religion is, there- 
fore, a religion of the heart and of the e very-day active life, it has 
been designed, for mankind worldwide, is so universal in its applica- 
tion as to meet all their spiritual requirements, and fulfils the con- 
ditions of the Science of theology so far as can be fairly claimed of 
that Science. Such being its nature, design, and scope any diligent 
student of history or observer of his own times can see approximately 
how far its spirit and design have been departed from in certain 
ages, nations, and systems since the period of its first promulgation, 
and how necessary it is that a more general practice of its spirit and 
its precepts be cultivated among mankind. As I have before re- 
marked the democratic spirit of the free American institutions has 
liberalized the narrow and exclusive religious sentiment of the world, 
and these institutions have it in their power to go on doing good in 
the same direction. Within the borders of the United States the 
Christian Sects though numerous have of late years been at peace 
with each other, and as far as 1 know their ministers may consider 
themselves as working for the same great end in slightly different 
ways, namely, for the moral and spiritual advancement of mankind. 

There are, also, in this great country very large numbers of good- 
living, intelligent people who do not profess the Christian religion, 
nor a religion of any other name, perhaps, because they consider 
these religious as erroneous and burdensome. While believing that 
it is better for all to observe one day in seven for rest and for the 
worship of God in public, I have long since discarded the notion 
that the attending church does of itself make one either more or less 
respectable. They that would put on the name of religion as a cloak 
•to cover their worldly designs of avarice and ambition, while not 
evincing the least degree of the spirit and love of God in their life 
and conversation, would wish no doubt to be deemed respectable as 
well as religious while they really are neither. The object in attend- 
ing church should be to worship God in spirit and in truth in that 
place especially set apart for his worship. If one goes to the house 



472 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

of God actuated by worldly or secondary motives it would be decenter 
and more manly for him to turn his steps to some other place or to 
remain at home. 

I do not consider it my mission or consistent with my dignity 
as a scholar and a gentleman to insinuate any invidious distinctions 
between the sects of Christians by an independent criticism of 
each or a comparative estimate of their standing or merits ; but 
I do think that (consistently with the living up to the moral 
precepts of the Gospel and the keeping the ideal head of the 
Church in view as a guide, directing men forward and upward, 
and as an exemplar whose lessons and practice of self-denial 
and active godliness are to be followed, even to " the crucifixion 
of the flesh with its affections and lusts," and in this sense as 
a Saviour, rather than as an unapproachable earthly monarch or as 
a Deity whose perfections it would be presumptuous and superfluous 
in mortals to attempt to imitate,) that the broader and freer, I say, 
the principles of the church are made both as to a consistent Gospel 
intei'pretation and otherwise, and the more intelligently humble and 
condescending its ministers, the greater advances will it make and 
the more effectual work will it accomplish in this country and age. 
Such is, I believe, the way in which the Christian sects, both Catholic 
and Protestant, may be unitized for their common good and for the 
good of mankind, for whose salvation they can then join their 
efforts. Is it any wonder that Scientists should sometimes be found 
who would find fault with religion when religionists of different sects 
are so prone to find fault with each other? It is past the time when 
ministers or leaders of sects would lose any self-respect by stepping 
forward and proposing to unite with their contemporary sects on the 
broad principles of a free and consistent Gospel interpretation. 
What endless series of sermons might be preached, and what numbers 
of excellent books might be written, upon the subject of man's 
capacity for infinite improvement, and on the probability of his 
capableness for advancement and elevation to moral and spiritual 
perfection as represented in the ideal head of the church, his elder 
brother so to speak, which sets forth his own real advancement and 
elevation if he will. The Bible, rightly interpreted, is a sufficiently 
broad basis for Christians to come together upon, and it is sufficiently 
ample and many sided in its adaptability to meet the religious re-, 
quirements of all who will have it or to whom it may be applied in 
all ages. 



CREATOR AND COSMOS 



xiL,x.Tj&rciRj^rc:EiiD- 



BT 

ROBERT SHAW, M.A., 
n 

QBA^DDATE OF UNION COLLKOE, N.Y.. WHO IS UNPREJUDICED TOWARDS ANY SECT 

OR PARTY AT THE EXPENSE OF THE TRUTH. 

AUTHOR OF 

•'EXISTENCE AND DEITV ;" OF A "UNIVEKSITY ARITHMETIC;" &0. 



IN TWO PARTS. 
PART SECOND. 



A GENERAL DIBQUISITION INTO THE SUE.IECT OF THE LITERARY CHARACTER AND NATURE OP THE 

OOSMOTHEOLOGIC SYSTEMS OF MAN'S CREATIVE AGENCY, HISTORICALLY 

RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE AS TO MAN. 



SEVJisED edition: 



ST. LOUIS: 

BECKTOLD AND COMPANY, 

210 & 212 Pine Street. 

1880. 

r 



Revised Edition Copyrighted, 1880. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, bj 

ROBERT SHAW, M. A., 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



INTRODUCTION TO PART SECOND. 



This Second Part of the work serves a most important purpose, 
for, by giving a more correct understanding than that commonly had 
concerning the subjects embraced in it, it tends to confirm the con- 
clusions already arrived at in Part First, a principal one of which is 
that of the permanency of the Cosmos, so far at least as reason or 
demonstration or any light that has yet been shed upon that subject 
can establish this. Thus, by clearing up the subject of revealed re- 
ligion, showing the ground-work, character, and value of it, so to 
speak, it removes many stumbling blocks from the way of the mental 
perception and the spiritual understanding of the subject of the 
Creator and the Cosmos, and renders that subject more simple, in- 
teresting, and profitable. Nor does it say anything from beginning 
to end in the spirit of contention or passion ; but while not intending 
to wound the feelings of the most exquisitely sensitive partizan of 
any religious sect, even of him who has his money interest involved 
in such, it does not in any statement pervert the truth to seek the 
favor of individual or party, which would be most reprehensible and 
base and most effeminate in an author. If, therefore, any one sees 
fit to take up arms against this book they will do so of their own 
incitement and motion, not indeed because they are scholarly gentle- 
men, for such generally use the spirit of aDpreciation and fairness, as 
we should expect, but possibly because they may have some private 
design of their own to further, and conceive that this will be effected 
Avith the unsuspecting masses by the noise of their opposition bring- 
ing them into notice. We have had experience of some such persons 
whom we cannot fairly designate as men. Neither are these facts 
put forth by me in order to prevent public discussion of the book, 
for it is from beginning to end a fit and profitable subject for discus- 
sion, and for public ventilation, provided this be done fairly and in 
a truly Christian spirit. And slowness or failure to notice it fully 
by the Press would we are sure be doing an injustice to the merits 
of the book and to the vast numbers who wish to have this subject 
treated fully and impartially ; for by a consideration of its two parts 
it will be seen that no book on earth covers the ground it does. 
Good Editors, of course, will understand from this that all we wish 
for the book is fair play, and that we understand them to have 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

duties to perform for the masses in the cause of God and of Truth 
as well as we, duties which should not be shirked, as one is not able 
to do the whole of this work and they are in the work of public en- 
lightenment' already. 

It will be observed that in the analysis of the accounts of crea- 
tion in the book of Genesis ; and in the analysis and synthesis of 
the Gospels and the Acts we have done the work with great care and 
thoroughness, and the conclusions, which were all weighed with the 
greatest deliberation, will be found consistent with each other and 
with common sense in everything ; and in these conclusions we are 
strongly supported by the belief or the understanding of the most in- 
telligent classes of the primitive Christian Church, even by some of 
the early Christian Fathers. 

In the application of the civil and religious history of the Chris- 
tian nations in demonstrating the fulfilment of the scriptural prophe- 
cies, our whole aim was to set forth the truth in plain and moderate 
language .with respect to the Christian establishments and their his- 
tory, or the establishments of Church and State of the Christian 
nations, there being no deviation from the line of truth on any con- 
sideration of sect, 7ior any desire to make an attack upon any existing 
religion or sect. In showing the fulfilment of the prophecy we al- 
lowed the history to speak for itself, and where we expressed an 
opinion, or made a comment it was in a moderate tone. When, 
therefore, the Catholic of the Greek or Roman Church reads con- 
cerning the fulfilment of the prophecy in the history of the Church 
and State establishments of Constantinople and Rome, or of the 
East and West, let him remeniber that he has before him only a fair 
and impartial representation of the subject — a subject which it is 
very plain we could have no object to misrej^resent — and let such 
read on carefully and patiently, and before he has finished reading 
the history of the Protestant branch of the Catholic Christian 
Church, as applied to the fulfilment of prophecy, he may perhaps 
conclude that the scale is pretty equally balanced and that there 
has been no partiality used and no misrepresentation made by the 
author. On the other hand, when the Protestant reads the history 
of the Greek and Roman Churches, as applied to the fulfilment of 
prophecy, let him not be disjiosed to be captious or to glory in the 
failings of men, but bethink himself that he is reading the history 
of his own ancestors in common with those of his brethren of the 
Greek and Roman Churches, and keep in mind that in reading the 
history of his own branch of the Church he will observe that like 
failings characterized its founders of the Reformation, and onwards, 
as he has seen to have characterized the old heads and leaders of 



INTEODUCTION. V 

the Catholic Church, though in the main not to so great an extent. 
He will observe by a careful perusal of this book that this varied 
display of human character in every age and nation is simply the 
outworking of the principles inherent in human nature ; that each 
human being in any oi;in every age or nation may if he will be and 
do good rather than evil, that when one thinketh he st^ndeth he 
should take heed lest he fall, and should always be a living, active 
power for godliness in the world, which is the only safeguard against 
being or doing evil. 

The several brief discourses we have added at the end, explana- 
tory of prominent doctrines of Christianity, are designed more fully 
and clearly to set forth the intended idea of the gospel's religion, 
which rightly understood and freed from metaphysical subtilties is 
quite simple, in this respect it is the same of the Old Testament as 
of the New. They are designed also to be interesting and edifying 
for the general readers. 

The authors we have consulted and from whom we have quoted 
in the preparation of this work, both in its first and second parts, are 
in their several departments regarded by the learned as the highest 
standards for veracity and style. 

The Revision. 

The revision of this Second Part of "Creator and Cosmos" has 
been executed with care and thoroughness, and the changes, which 
our research and discovery since the first edition was issued have 
enabled us to make, are many — more especially in the Review of 
the Gospels and the Acts, in which a more distinct idea,, than as 
before, may be obtained of the founding of Christianity — and where 
these changes have been made or foot-notes added throughout this 
Second Part, the reader of the former edition will easily observe. 
As in the case of Part First, this will serve in its way as a reliable 
book of refei'ence. 



CONTENTS. 



PART SECOND. 

PAGE. 

The accounts of the Creation in the Book of Genesis, 

examined and compared from the original . . . 1-7 

On Myths, their origin, &c 7-8 

Sketch of the Religious or the Mythological systems 
of the ancient nations, and of some other systems 
till our own time, the object being to show the idea 
of Deity entertained in each 8-52 

The Account of Jesus Christ including the account of 
John the Baptist as set forth in the four Gospels 
and the Acts, compared and examined from the orig- 
inal Greek ; which may be called an examination 
into the subject of the origin of Christianit}^ or into 
the subject of the literary character of the Gospels 
and the Acts ; and in which these records are found 
to be mainly of allegoric elaboration, based upon 
a limited historical nucleus ; and, interpreted ia 
their intended application to real life, to be more 
important than if mainly of literal significance ; 
but that whether they be of literal or of symbolic 
interpretation, of which they are either one or 
both in all cases, they have in either case a real 
signification 52-220 

First, as to the birth of John and the birth and life of 

Christ until he has chosen his twelve apostles . . 52-89 

Second, an examination of the miracles of Christ in 

chronological order, their meaning being indicated . . 89-161 

Third, the preliminaries to the trial, the trial, crucifixion, 
resurrection and post-resurrection appearances of Jesus 
investigated ' . 161-221 

What follows from our review of the Gospels, and from 

what we gather concerning them from other sources . 221-223 

A BRIEF AND ANALYTIC REVIEW of the Book of the Acts of 
the Apostles; in wliich this book is discovered to be 
in the main of a lilce literary character with the Gos- 
pels ; designed to supplement the canon of the Gos- 
pels ; to be confirmatory of the Gospels' idea of 
Christ ; and to show historically the progress of the 
incipient Christian Church 223-245 

A Review of the History of the Christian Church from 
the first promulgation of Christianity till within 



IV CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

recent times, in which the Church and State estab- 
lishments of the Christian Roman Empire and of 
the Protestant nations of Christendom are scruti- 
nized — especiall_y with reference to the prophecies 
of the Book of Revelation, showing their historical 
fulfilment:— 246-457 

FiBST, an explanation of chapters IV. and V. of Revela- 
tion in connection with the history of the Piimi- 
tive Church extending from the origin of Chris- 
tianity till the establishment of that religion in the 
empire bv Constantine in the beginning of the 
fourth century 246-280 

Second, an explanation of Revelation XIII. to verse 
11, showing its fulfilment in the Greek Catholic 
Church and State system, established at Constanti- 
nople by Constantine and his successors, and ex- 
isting in some sense for a period of over twelve 
hundred years, with reference to the parallel pro- 
phecies of the Book of Daniel 281-343 

Third, an explanation of chapter XVII. Revelation, show- 
ing its fulfilment in the Roman Catholic Church 
and State system established by the Popes and the 
Western Rulers, especially Charlemagne and the 
Gei'man Emperors, and existing for a period of 
over twelve hundred years, with reference to the 
parallel prophecies of the Book of Daniel . . . 344-383 

Fourth, an explanation of chapter XIII. Revelation, from 
verse 11 to the end of the chapter, showing its ful- 
filment in the Protestant Reformed systems of 
Church and State, especially those of Germany and 
Britain, the length of their duration being left to 
be determined by the events, with references 
throughout to other parts of the Book of Revela- 
tion and Explanation, &c 383-457 

Ten Brief Discourses, didactic, and explanatory of 
prominent Christian doctrines, designed to supple- 
ment the preceding, and in which the intended 
idea of the Gospels' religion, or of the true Chris- 
tian religion, is more fully set forth and will be 
more clearly understood 457-528 

1. On Faith mid Works 4.51-4.^2 

2. " Providence and Predestination 462-469 

3. " Baptism and the Trinity . 469-475 

4. "' tlie Lord's Supper 475-481 

5. " the Law and the Gospel 482-488 

6. " the Resurrection 488-494 

7. " Heaven, Hell, and the Judgment 495-503 

8. " the Cross of Christ 503-511 

9. " Regeneration 511-517 

10. " the Future Life 517-528 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



PART 11. 



THE ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS 
EXAMINED AND COMPARED FROM THE ORIGINAL. 

JN the beginning of Part First we have stated that the Deity is 
everywhere present, and that there is no place, conceivable or 
inconceivable, in which He does not exist. Thus, no one object 
exists which excludes or monopolizes Deity, and none has ever 
existed which did, or will ever exist which can ; for the Creator is 
absolutely infinite, containing in Himself all extremes and means, 
moral as well as physical. This fact of the omnipresence of Deity 
should be kept in mind by the reader while perusing this second part 
of our work, in order that he may come to better understand the 
character of the Creator in seeing it variously manifested and dis- 
played. 

We have there also defined creation to be the effects produced 
for and in the universe by the Omnipresent and everacling 
Cause, and have discussed rather the subject of the actual 
creation than of the hypothetical actual or evolutional. This 
idea we have endeavored there to illustrate ; and it will be our 
endeavor in this second part of our work to make it more clear and 
acceptable to our readers by eradicating from their minds some deep- 
rooted prejudices which the creeds and teachings of the past with 
respect to creation, redemption, etc., may have caused to exist in 
them against it. The accounts of the creation of the world o-iven 
in the book of Genesis are probably allegorical,! and liave a 
literal interpretation setting forth historical fact, like as the cos- 
mologies of other ancient nations than the Hebrews. The Hebrew 
cosmology, in accordance with limited human conceptions, represents 
God as an agent bringing the earth and the heavens, not before in 
existence, into being, in some way which is called creation ; and then, 
as on each day of six successive days, issuing an arbitrary command,' 

* The verbs to form, shape, make, cause, create, are synonyms, as all langiiaRcs, even the Celtic 
prove. Weevenspcakor-mouldinfr" or of "crystalizinp" the thought. A man may create a railroad 
or ai: nnprcssiou, but only the Unknowable and Omnipresent God, •■ in whom we live and move," 
couicl eflect (he operations of creation exhibited in the world around us. Sec page 10 etc., vol. I. 

tSome may see fit to give an allegorical interpretation to these accounts of the creation, which 
they have a right to do if they can do it consistently and with good exhibition of proof that they are 
allegories, setting forth consistently some real truth. 



2 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

in obedience to which other things, not before in existence, spring 
into being, connected with the earth and the heavens. Thus, on the 
first day (Gen. eh. I., vs. 1-6), God is represented as creating light, 
and dividing between the light and the darkness, which division con- 
stituted day and night ; and thus was created the first day. On the 
second day (Gen. I., vs. 6-9), he is represented as creating the firma- 
ment (Heb. rdkid, a flattened expansion), which we call the sky, for 
the double purpose of, first, keeping the waters, which existed above, 
as it was conceived, and which are wont to come down to the earth 
in the form of rain, etc., from coming down at once ; secondly, to serve 
as a support for the heavenly lights, the sun, moon and stars, which 
were conceived to be inserted in this firmament as nails are in a door, 
and from which consequently they might be conceived to be liable 
to drop out. (See Isaiah XIV., 12 ; XXXIV., 4 ; Matt. XXIV., 29.) 
This rdkid, or canopy, with all its shining lamps, was thought to 
revolve round the earth once in the space of day and night, or in 
twenty-four hours.* On the third day (Gen. I., 9-14), he is represented 
as gathering together the waters which were before spread broadcast 
over the earth, — so that the whole earth would have presented the 
appearance of a watery waste, — into one place, by which part of the 
surface of our globe becomes dry and hence the dry land is called 
earth, and the gathering together of the waters is called seas. On 
this day also he creates vegetables, each species and variety producing 
after its own kind. On the fourth day (Gen. I., 14-20), he is repre- 
sented as creating the heavenly lights, the sun, moon and stars, which 
are inserted in the firmament, shining lamps, to give light upon the 
earth by day and by night. Here we find the inconsistency of the nar- 
rative, if literally considered, in representing light to have been cre- 



* " The Hebrew term Tcikid. translated firmament, is generalh' regarded as exisressive of 
Simple expansion, and is so rendered in the margin of the authorized version. (Gen. 1., 1-6.) 
The root means to expand by beating, whether by the hand, the foot, or any other instrument. 
It is especially used of beating out metals into thin plates. (Ex. XXXIX., 3; Numbers XVI. 
39.) The sense of solidity, therefore, is combined with the ideas of expansion and tenuity in 
the term. The same idea of soUdity runs through all tlie references to the rdkid. In Ex. XXIV., 
10, it is represented as a solid floor. So again in Ezekiel, I., 22-2fi, the firmament is the floor 
upon which the throne of the Most High is placed. Further, the office of the i-dkid iu the 
economy of the world demanded strength and substance. It was to serve as a division between 
the waters above and the waters below. (Gen., I., 7.) In keeping with this view the rdkid was 
provided with "windows," (Gen. VII., 11; Isa. XXrV.,18; Mai. III., 10,) and "doors" (Ps. 
LXXVni., 23,) through which the rain and the snow might descend. A secondary purpose 
which the rdkid served was to support the heavenly bodies, sun, moon and stars (Gen. I., 14) 
in which they were fixed as nails, and from which consequently they might be said to drop oil. 
(Isa. XIV., 12; XXXIV., 4; Matt. XXIV., 29.) In all these particulars we recognize the same 
view as was entertained by the Greeks, and to a certain extent by the Latins. If it be objected 
to the Mosaic account that the view embodied in the word 7'dkid does not harmonize with strict 
philosophical truth, the answer to such an objection is that the writer describes things as they 
Appear, rather than as they are." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Art. " Firmament.") 



THE ACCOUNTS OF CREATION EXAMINED.. 6 

ated twice, which shows it plainly to be mythical*or allegorical ; for 
on the first day, light is represented to have been created ; and to 
show the absurdity of supposing that light to have been of the char- 
acter of the Aurora Borealis, the electrical light, the light proceeding 
from volcanic eruptions on the earth's surface, or any such transitory, 
accidental, or evanescent phenomenon, — as some have pretended to 
suppose, — it is plainly stated (Gen. I., 1-6), that God divided the 
light from the darkness, called the light Day and the darkness he 
called Night; and the evening and the morning, or the intervals of 
light and darkness of the twenty-four hours, were the first day. 
Narratives which do not represent reality, or which are not to be 
understood literally, will almost invariably be found to be inconsist- 
ent with themselves, literally considered. Proper history, or narra- 
tive representing reality, will never be found inconsistent with itself, 
or self-contradictory, unless this spring from incompetency or acci- 
dental mistakes of the writer. On the fifth day (Gen. I., 20-24), 
God is represented as creating fish and fowls, or the various tribes 
that inhabit the waters and the air ; and on the sixth all beasts and 
creeping things on and in the earth ; as well as man, whom God cre- 
ates after his own image and likeness (Gen. I., 24-31). In the act of 
creating man God is represented as plural, that is, as consisting of 
more than one person. This, besides the circumstance of man's being 
created in God's image and likeness, may suggest to the mind the 
probable conception of God which the framers and believers of this 
cosmological system entertained. 

Elohim, the Hebrew word for God used in this chapter, is plural, 
but is turned into English as singular by the translators of our Bible. 
But in verse 26 this pluralit}'- is more explicitly set forth in the cre- 
ation of man by the use of the pronouns "us" and "our." "And 
God (Elohim) said, let us make man in our image after our likeness." 
On the seventh day (Gen. II., 1-4), which brings the narrative down 
to the fourth verse of the second chapter, God is represented to have 
rested from his work ; and here, let us remark, is the foundation upon 
which the whole seven-day system of Jews, as well as Christians, is 
built up. 

Verse 4. of chapter II., begins another and distinct account of the 
creation. This narrative extends to the end of ch. IV., and includes 
an account of the Garden of Eden, the fall of man, the murder of 
Abel by Cain, etc. And there is a third account of the creation of 
man, which, beginning with ch. V., and being continued in a gene- 
alogy of the patriarchs, and in an account of Noah and the flood, 
extends to the end of ch. IX. 

The style of the second of these narratives differs very consider- 

* Myth, the same primarily as root Math in word Mathematics, I understand in my Genesaic 
applications of it may be synonymous with Allegory, i. e., a composition designed to convey 
some truth, to teach something figuratively. 



4 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

ably from that of the one we have just reviewed. In the first narra- 
tive the creative agent is designated by the term Elohim ; in the 
second he is generally spoken of under the name of Jehovah Elohim. 

This goes to prove a fact which has been very clearly discovered 
hj modern critics, — that is, that the book of Genesis was not the 
production of a single author, but was made up of many ancient 
documents, characterized b}^ the use of the divine names, and by 
other peculiarities of style and narrative, some of them more ancient 
than others, but all of them having existed before the time Moses 
is represented to have lived. Of these documents the ones character- 
ized by the use of the divine name Elohim, are put down as more 
ancient than those characterized by the name Jehovah, or Jehovah 
Elohim. It is considered that Moses may have been the one that 
compiled these into the form in which we now have them in the 
book of Genesis and the- Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible, 
all of which give evidence of having been compiled from different 
documents), or that this compiling may have been done by some 
othcT and later hand than his._ 

This second account of the creation, ch. II., 4, III., 24, is not onl}- 
distinguished by a peculiar use of the divine names, — for here, and 
nowhere else in the whole Pentateuch, have we the combination of 
the two, Jehovah Elohim, — but also by a mode of expression peculiar 
to itself. No one will read this second account of the creation, and 
pretend to say that it came from the same source as the first, so 
entirely different is its representation. In the second it speaks of 
the day (Gen. II., vs. 4, 5), in which the Lord God made the earth 
and the heavens, &c. ; in the first it represents God as taking six 
days at least to accomplish the work of creation ; iu the second it 
represents the Lord God as having made " every plant of the field 
before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it 
grew ;" in the first it represents God as, on the thij'd day, command- 
ing " the earth to bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the 
fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind," which, accordingly, it is 
represented as doing on this very day. According to the second 
account (Gen. II., v. 6), a mist ascends from the surface of the earth, 
which comes down in rain and moisture, and waters the whole face 
of the ground, which, indeed, corresponds exactly with our knowl- 
edge now of how the earth is watered, namely, by the process of 
evaporation, by which the clouds, as a sponge, absorb the waters 
from the surface of the oceans, lakes, and rivers, and distil it again 
in the form of rain, &c., upon the thirsty earth. 

But in the first account an entirely different idea is represented, 
for the rdkid, or firmament, is made with windows and doors in it 



THE ACCOUNTS OF THE CKEATION EXAMINED. 5 

which were opened and shut at the pleasure of Elohim, and through 
which the waters above the firmament should descend in the form 
of rain, &c., upon the earth. In the second narrative (Gen. II., v. 7) 
the Lord God is represented as forming one man out of the dust of 
the ground, breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, and consti- 
tuting him a living soul ; but in the first God creates man in his own 
image, male and female, or mankind. In the second (Gen. II., verses 
18, 21-25), the Lord God observes that it is not good for the man 
whom he has formed to be alone, and so he causes a deep sleep to 
fall upon Adam, and while in that unconscious state he extracts one 
of his ribs, out of which he forms a woman ; in the first, no such 
means are employed in the production of a woman ; Elohim creates 
mankind, male and female, in his own image. In the second account 
the creation of man appears to take place before that of the beasts 
and fowls ; in the first it follows them, for man is last of all created 
on the sixth day. In the second narrative (Gen. II., 19, 20) the 
Lord God forms out of the ground every beast of the field, and every 
fowl of the air, and brings them to the man to see what he would 
call them; " and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that 
was the name thereof ; " in the first, God commands the earth to 
bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping 
thing and beast of the earth after its kind ; and it was so. And God 
made all these terrestrial living creatures after their kind, and saw 
that it was good ; but he is not represented here as bringing them to 
the man, or to man, to be named. In the second narrative (Gen. II., 
8-18) is represented the garden of Eden, with the tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil, and the tree of live, which the Lord God 
planted, and especially prepared to be the abode of the man and 
woman that he had formed; in the first, no mention is made of such 
a garden or place having been prepared for man's abode ; but " God 
blessed them, and God said unto them : Be fruitful and multiply 
and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the 
fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over every living 
thing which moves upon the earth." The earth here was the garden 
prepared for man's abode, which he was to cultivate and to keep ; 
and all the productions of the earth, animate and inanimate, were 
given to him for his use. But a singular deficiency in the second 
account of creation is, that in it nothing is said of the creation of the 
water animals, fish, etc., which with all the rest of the creatures are 
mentioned in the first. According to this second account of creation 
especial care is represented to have been taken to provide for the 
comfort and convcTiience of the newly created pair, but in the next 
chapter (Gen. III.) a representation is given of their fall through 



b CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

their yielding to the temptation of the old serpent, the devil, from 
the happy state of innocence in which they were created; and of 
their being cast out of paradise into the wide world. Were thia 
narrative to be understood literally their expulsion from paradise 
might seem like their being cast out of an abode in a singularly beau- 
tiful and extensive garden where grew all manner of delicious fruits 
and beautiful flowers, which had its enclosures of beasts and birds, 
both wild and tame, and its spacious streams flowing through it, 
replenished with fish of all kinds and varieties that pertain to rivers, 
into a wild, inhospitable common, where grew neither plants nor 
flowers, where coursed no crystal river nor babbling brook, in which, 
like as in Eden, the finny tribes might sport, embanked with verdant 
meads, and dewy glades, and groves of trees through which the birds 
and beasts might flutter, frisk and feed ; but where all around was a 
wild and dreary waste, and savage men, and savage beasts, and birds 
of prey, did roam at large. 

The next chapter (Gen. IV.) gives a further representation of the 
effects of their fall from original innocence, in the murder of Abel 
by Cain, which should at least teach men the importance of practis- 
ing self-denial, of subduing in themselves the principle and spirit of 
malignancy, of eradicating that baneful principle from their very 
nature, and cultivating in all circumstances the spirit of benevolence 
and brotherly love to their kindred and neighbors of mankind. It 
will, we think, require no long dissertation to convince any one who 
will give a sufficient degree of attention to the subject that this 
second account of creation is not of literal interpretation, since 
it is inconsistent with itself, xiterally cc::sidered, in representing 
only a partial creation. The lirst accouii'" is, as we have stated, 
mythical or allegorical. But both of tbcsc accounts of creation 
come down to us with equal authority ciiacl zz cf equal credibility ; 
and since, if literally considered they arc inconsistent in themselves 
taken singly, and contradictory when examined with reference to 
each other (for if one of them represents creation as having 
taken place in one way, and the other in another different way, 
both of them purporting to relate the same event or series of events, 
namely, the creation, they certainly contradict each other), how can 
we understand either one of them as of literal interpretation ? But 
considering them as different phases of the same allegoric representa- 
tion', which may be intended to set forth a trutli that wlien discovered 
is applicable to real human life, in this way they may be made to bear 
a respectable and useful interpretation, which it is not our present 
purpose to enter into, but which others may be interested to under- 
take. 



MYTHS. • 7 

The third account of the creation in Genesis has especial refer- 
ence to the creation of man. It does not, as the two preceding 
narratives, refer to the creation of the world or anything else per- 
taining to it, but man. This is found in the two first verses of ch. 
v.. Genesis, and appears to correspond partly to the first, and partly 
to the second account of the creation of man, as set forth in the first 
and second chapters. Here the divine name Elohim is used, as in 
the first; not Jehovah Elohim, as in the second account ; but the name 
Adam is here used, which does not appear in the first, but is in the 
second. It is as follows : " This is the book of the generations of 
Adam. In the day that God created man in the likeness of God 
made He him ; male and female created He them and blessed them, 
and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. 
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his 
own likeness after his image, and called his name Seth, etc." 

In the second account it is not said that God creates man in his 
own image after his likeness.* 

Thus, this third account corresponds partly to the first and partly 
to the second account of the creation of man, and appears to be in- 
serted here for the purpose of exhibiting the genealogy of Noah with 
reference to Adam, or tlie reputed first man, according to the second 
account, which genealogy is given in the remaining part of Chapter 
v.; and then the account of Noah and the flood to the end of 
Chapter IX. 

Such is a complete and dispassionate examination of the accounts 
of the creation in the book of Genesis, and we have only to note that 
we have not the least doubt of the correctness of the conclusions to 
which we have come concerning them, that we would be pleased for 
all to have the correctest and consequently the simplest understand- 
ing on the grand and sublime subject of the Creator and the Cosmos, 
but that if others incline to other conclusions concerning this sub- 
ject than those we have demonstrated, we do not intend " to meddle 
with their joy," but expect at least an equal defereaice for our 
original demonstrations, as they doubtless wish for their opinions or 
assumptions. 

Oif MYTHS ; THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 

Myths originate, not necessarily, as some say, in the early period 
of a nation's history, for a nation's history is permanent, though it 
may not be written, but in a nation's ignorance. Ancient men, for 
example, seeing around them certain institutions or states of things, 

* See I. Corinthians, XI., 7. 



8 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and not being able, by the knowledge they possessed, to account for 
their existence (for men naturally suppose that everything they see 
must have had an origin, that is, must have been brought into ex- 
istence) ; arbitraril}^ and, perhaps in some cases ingeniously, ascribed 
their origin to some agent or occurrence which never existed to pro- 
duce them, unless in their imagination ; and so the mythical story 
is made up, the one part being added to the other, and all made to 
hang together as consistently as the amount of knowledge, or the 
ingenuity of the author or authors, allows it to be. 

Also there may be different accounts of the origin of the same 
institution, or of the production of the same thing or state of things 
from as many different authors, each and all of whom were ignorant 
of it; one ascribing its origin to one cause or agent, another to an- 
other, one representing it as being produced in one way, another ir 
another vs^ay, according to the view each happened to take of it 
(for we know that men often take different views of the same sub- 
ject, with respect to which the facts are not known or given) ; and 
each of these stories put together as plausibly and consistently as 
the ability of the author admitted, but each, when examined with 
the eye of knowledge and of sound criticism, being found to be in- 
consistent with itself, and all, when examined with reference to each 
other, being found to contradict each other mutually. 

Some myths there are, doubtless, which owe their origin to 
dreams or visions ; to false rumors from abroad, which, agreeing with 
the opinions of the hearers, were eagerly caught up and systematized 
into plausible stories ; and to other causes, of which many likely 
ones might be adduced, and of which each one is privileged to think 
for himself. Yea, and upon such mythical foundations great super- 
structures of history have been raised. The histories of all the 
ancient nations have a mythical foundation; that of the Medes and 
Persians, and Babylonians, and Assyrians ; that of the Egyptians, of 
the Greeks, of the Romans, and of the Germans ; in short, of all the 
ancient nations; for we know no exception to the statement. And 
how far these myths extend into the records, or at what point in the 
records the authentic history begins, is often a very difficult matter 
to determine, and requires the painstaking labor of the scholar and 
the critic. Until one arrives at the point in these records where the 
mythical chaff is no longer intermingled with the historical wheat, 
the records cannot be relied on as authentic history or story. 



THE ANCIENT CHINESE AND HINDOOS. 



S1CkjT3 of the RELIGIOUS OR MYTHOLOGICAL SYSTEMS OF THE 

ancient nations. 

The Chinese, Hindoos, Etc. 

Confucianism, Brahminism, Buddhism. 

The ancient religion of the Chinese, not speaking of Buddhism, 
"which was imported to China at a later period from abroad, and 
which we shall have occasion to speak of afterwards, was an ex- 
tremely meagre one ; and it is said their language does not contain 
a word or symbol representing a spiritual or divine Being. Confu- 
cius, their celebrated philosopher, who lived about the year 500 
B. C, as well as his disciples and followers, never in their teachings 
alluded to a spiritual or divine Being as the creator or the governor 
of the universe. In his lifetime, it is said, all the relations of social 
and civil order were in a state of utter dissolution, and he, by incul- 
cating a strict and pure system of ethics, endeavored to restore the 
morality and happiness of former ages. To this great object he de- 
voted all the energies of his life, but he did not live to see the fruits 
of his labors ; for it was not till after his death that his countrymen, 
appreciating his doctrines, really commenced the work of reform, and 
made his ethical system the soul of their social and political life. 
This tradition appears to be perfectly correct, and is borne out even 
by the present condition of the Chinese people. The moral code of 
Confucius teaches the most absolute submission of children to the 
will of their parents, of wives to that of their husbands, and of the 
whole nation to that of its rulers. The idea of freedom, or of a self- 
determining will, is not at all recognized in it. 

The Sanscrit, the ancient and sacred language of the Hindoos, in 
which their greatest works are written, is one of the richest, the most 
euphonious, and the most generally perfect that has ever been spoken 
by man. The most ancient works extant in this language are the 
Vedas and the Laws of Manu, in which at the same time we find the 
earliest form of the Indian religion. In them we meet with the idea 
of one uncreated supreme Being, existing from all eternity, and of 
himself, comprehending and pervading the universe as its soul. 
From him who is himself incomprehensible and invisible all visible 
things have emanated ; hence the universe is nothing but the un- 
folding of the divine Being, who is reflected in the whole as well as 
in every individual creature. This original and simple notion of one 
supreme Being was changed in the course of time into polytheism 
(of which there is always great danger, and there never is any need, 
and that in the case of all nations), and of which traces appear iu tho 



10 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Vedas themselves. The stars, the elements, and all the powers of 
nature were conceived as different divine Beings that had emanated 
from the one supreme Deity. Even in the work of creation, a plu- 
rality of Gods were believed to have been engaged. Brahma, himself 
created by the first invisible cause, and assisted by the Pradshaptis 
(the lords of creation), called into being all the various living 
creatures. Nature after its creation is supposed to be under the 
special guardianship of eight spirits, or gods, of secondary rank, 
among whom Varuna presides over the sea, Pavana over the winds, 
Yama over justice, Locapalas over the world, Indra over the atmos- 
phere, and Surya over the sun. Numberless spirits of an inferior 
order are subject to these, and are diffused throughout nature ; while 
the divine substance pervades all living beings, from Brahma down 
to the lowest animals and plants. Within this endless variety of 
beings the souls of men were believed to migrate, entering, after the 
death of man, into beings of a higher or lower order, according to 
the degree to which they had become purified in passing through 
their previous state of existence. This doctrine of the transmigra- 
tion of souls, which we meet with in other countries also, probably 
originated in India, where it was carried out to its full extent. By 
way of illustration we may state that, according to the common be- 
lief, the soul of a disciple of Brahma, blaming his master, passed after 
his death%into the body of an ass ; if he calumniated his master, into 
that of a dog ; if he robbed him, into that of a little worm ; and if 
he envied him, into an insect. By this it is seen in what state of 
bondage of body and mind the lower orders of the Hindoos were 
kept, and what absolute control their priests and the higher castes 
exercised over them. This belief also led the Hindoos carefully to 
avoid killing or injuring any living being; while, on the other hand, 
there was no scruple in treating a Pariah (one of the lowest class, or 
one not included in any caste) with inhuman cruelty, because his 
very condition was regarded as a well-deserved punishment for his 
transgressions during a previous existence. It must not, however, 
be forgotten, that this belief acted as a powerful stimulus to strive 
after moral purity and goodness, inasmuch as it created the notion 
that by self-denial, self-control, a knowledge of the sacred books, and 
a conscientious observance of the rules contained therein, the soul of 
man might return to God, and become worthy of his preseaice. The 
object, however, in all these things seems to have been to make men 
(M)nform to certain mechanical rules rather than to make them strive 
after the real purity of heart. 

A somewhat different phase of this Indian religion appears in the 
national epics in which the gods are described as having descended 



THE ANCIENT HINDOOS.- 11 

to the eartli, and as taking part in the affairs of men. At this stage 
the gods appear as real personifications, with definite forms ; their 
images are set up in temples and worshipped, and the pure idea of 
one supreme and invisible Deity re-appears under the name of 
Brahma (of the neuter gender), who manifests himself in three divine 
capacities, bearing the names Brahma (masculine), the creator and 
lord of the universe; Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer. 
Vishnu is said to have come into the world in a variety of forms, to 
save it from the influence of evil powers, to punish vice, and to main- 
tain order and justice. Tiiese numerous incarnations of the god 
furnish rich materials for a varied and fantastic theology. Siva is 
conceived as destroying all finite things ; but as death is only a 
transition to a new form of life, he was also worshipped as the god of 
creative power ; whence he is the representative of ever-decaying 
and reviving nature. The number of subordinate Deities also in- 
creases, and they assume more definite forms. The earth itself is 
conceived to be inhabited b}'' hosts of spirits, dwelling in mountains, 
rivers, brooks, and groves; animals, and even plants, are worshipped 
as embodiments of divine powers and properties. This vast mythol- 
ogy, which subsequently became the popular religion of India, may 
be gathered from the works called Parunas, which occupy a middle 
character between epic and didactic poetry. They seem to be a 
compilation from earlier poems, and to have been made at the time 
when the Indians began to be divided into sects, that is, when the 
gods of the Triraurti began to be no longer regarded as subordinate 
to the one great original god, called Para-Brahma, but when one of 
the three was himself worshipped as the supreme god ; for the sec- 
tarian divisions consisted in this, that some portion of the people 
worshipped one of the three gods of the Trimurti more particularly 
as the supreme being, while the two others enjo3^ed less honor ; and 
the priests of one member of the Trimurti, with their votaries, per- 
secuted the worshippers of either of the other two members with ob- 
stinacy and relentless fury. At first, Brahma seems to have had his 
separate worshippers, though no temples or images were erected to 
him, for idolatry was till then unknown. Afterwards, there followed 
the separate worship of Vishnu, and last that of Siva and other gods. 
In the end, the worshippers of Vishnu and Siva gained the upper 
hand, and pure Brahminisra was suppressed, although it is still 
largely represented in the worship of the idols of India. 

In the sixth century B. C, according to the Cingalese chronol- 
ogy, — in the tenth, according to the Chinese, — a new religion arose 
ill India in the midst of Brahniinisni. It was, and still is, called Budd- 
hism, from Buddha, its founder, who came forward as the reformer 



12 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

of Brahminism. The history of this remarkable religious reformer is 
involved in obscurity, partly because it was written by his disciples 
in a legendary form, with additions and embellishments, and partly 
because until recently it was known only from the works of non- 
Indian followers of Buddha, such as the Tibetians, Chinese, and 
Mongols ; while the most authentic, or Sanscrit, authorities have 
scarcely yet been thoroughly examined. The Sanscrit works are 
considerable in number, and are divided into three classes : the first 
of which consist of discourses and conversations of Buddha ; the 
second of rules of discipline ; and the third of metaphysical specula- 
tions. 

According to the common legends about the origin of Buddha, 
his real name was Sakyamuni, or Gautama. He was the son of a 
powerful prince, and the most handsome of all men. Even at his 
birth, he was surrounded with spirits, which continued to watch over 
him throughout his life. The fourfold miseries of mankind, viz. : the 
pains of childhood, disease, old age, and death, affected and saddened 
him so much, that he resolved to renounce all the pomp and luxury 
of his station, and lead the life of an humble hermit. After having 
spent a period of six years in this way, he returned among men, and 
began to inculcate to them the necessity of despising the pleasures of 
this world, and of subduing every selfish feeling. He himself prac- 
tised these virtues to such a degree, that he became a superior being, 
Buddha, that is, an immortal. As such he was believed, after his 
death, to rule over the world for a period of five thousand years ; at 
the expiration of which he was to be succeeded by another Buddha, 
as he himself had been preceded by four or six other Buddhas. Tlie 
saints who, by their merits, ranked nearest to Buddha himself, and 
who might become his successor, were called Bodhisattvas. Accord- 
ing to this doctrine, therefore, the highest power in the spiritual as 
well as in the natural world, belongs to deified men, and most of the 
Buddhists (this religion is likewise divided into several sects) do not 
recognize one eternal divine creator and ruler of the world, but 
believe that all things have come, and are still coming, into existence 
by some inscrutable law of necessity, and by an unceasing process of 
change. Only one of these sects practises the worship of one supreme 
God, under the name of Adi-Buddha. But the non-existence of such 
a being had been asserted even before the time of Sakyamuni, by 
certain Indian philosophers, from whom he perhaps borrowed the 
idea. He did not indeed impugn the existence of Brahma and the 
numerous other divinities, but he taught that the power of Buddha 
was greater than theirs. In other respects, he retained the doctrines 
of Brahminism, as, for instance, that of the migi*ation of souls. Re- 



THE ANCIENT HINDOOS. 13 

wards and punishments, according to him, were not eternal, but he 
taught that the man raised by his virtues to the rank of a god, as well 
as the condemned, was subject to the immutable law of change ; and 
that both must return to this earth to pass through fresh trials, and 
a fresh succession of changes. The highest happiness, in his opinion, 
was to escape from this eternal change of coming into being and 
dying ; whence he held out to the faithful and the good the hope 
that in the end they would become a Nirwana, that is, that they would 
enter a state of almost entire annihilation. This state of supreme 
happiness is conceived differently by the different sects of Buddhists ; 
but in the main idea all agree. 

The objects which Sakyamuni himself had in view were far removed 
from those metaphysical speculations on which at a later period his 
followers became divided into sects. His own doctrines, though 
intimately connected with his philosophical views, were, essentially 
practical ; for he maintained that there were six cardinal virtues, by 
means of which a man might attain the condition of Nirwana, viz., 
almsgiving, pure morality, knowledge, energy in action, patience, and 
good-will towards his fellow-men. The fundamental principles of 
Buddhism, therefore, are essentially of an ethical nature, and the 
advantages which such a system seemed to afford were so great that 
it could not but attract great attention at a time when Brahminism, 
though still intellectually at its height, had sunk very low in a moral 
point of view. Religion in the hands of the Brahmins had become a 
mere mechanical observance of ill-understood ceremonies, for which 
Sakyamuni wished to substitute a truly pious life ; at the same time 
he endeavored to put an end to the haughty and domineering spirit 
of the priests. He accordingly denied the unconditional authority ol 
the Vedas, and it was formerly believed that he even condemned the 
whole system of castes ; but although this latter belief appears to be 
founded upon error, still it is evident that a pious and virtuous life 
being made the sole condition of eternal happiness, virtually the di- 
vision into castes was not recognized, though they continued to exist 
as corporations of different occupations and trades, or as political 
bodies. The Brahmins alone, as a religious class, were not only not 
recognized, but vehemently opposed. This open rupture between 
the old and the new religion was not produced at once, for Sakya- 
muni himself did not aim at destroying what he found, but only 
wished to bring about a peaceful reform within the established reli- 
gion, and to inculcate the necessity of a really pious life. His own 
personal influence, his discourses, and his austerity, however, pro- 
duced a great effect, and disciples gathered around him from all 
classes, even from the Brahminical caste. Afterwards, however, the 



14 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

Brahmins began to persecute the ascetic Buddhists ; but the greater 
the opposition the greater was the success of the new religion. The 
lower castes in particular, feeling themselves elevated by the new 
doctrines, seized eagerly the opportunity of getting rid of fetters 
which had hitherto constrained them ; and the teaching, addressed as 
it was to the people without distinction, produced astonishing effects. 
The Sudras (or lowest of the four castes) felt called upon to embrace 
the new doctrines, and to become members of the community oi 
saints ; and even many of the Kshatryas (the second caste, the war- 
riors), impatient of the priestly arrogance of the Brahmins (or first 
caste), adopted them in the end. Kings also joined the reformers, 
and gave a character to the new religion at least in the eyes of the 
popular masses. About the middle of the third century B.C., we 
meet with a king Acoka, a grandson of Chandragupta, who ruled 
over nearly the whole of India, and was devotedly attached to the 
doctrines of Buddhism, without, however, persecuting the still nume^ 
rous adherents of Brahminism. He not only erected numerous 
Buddhist temples, but strove himself to live entirely in accordance 
with the ethical precepts of the new religion, practising the virtues 
of general benevolence and kindness to all men. He abolished capital 
punishment throughout his extensive dominions, erected everywhere 
hospitals for the sick, and made roads, shaded by trees, and provided 
with wells at certain intervals. He not only established and extend- 
ed Buddhism in India, but even sent missionaries into foreign coun- 
tries. The progress of the new religion was thus immense, but very 
little is known about the struggles it had to maintain in India with 
its great and powerful rival. All we know is that the Brahmins 
continued to exert themselves in maintaining their own religion, and 
the old state of things ; and that after a few centuries a mighty 
reaction took place, in which the exasperated Brahmins succeeded 
in rousing their followers to a desperate and bloody contest with 
their opponents. These struggles, which appear to have lasted from 
the third to the seventh century of our era, terminated in the defeat 
of Buddhism, which was almost exterminated in the western penin- 
sula. After the expulsion of the Buddhists, however, a sect of them, 
called Yainas, still maintained itself, rejecting the authority of the 
Vedas, and worshipping deified men. But Buddhism had long before 
spread beyond the borders of western India, and had been adopted 
by numerous other Asiatic nations. In the third century B.C., it 
was introduced into Ceylon, whence it spread over nearly all the 
Indian islands, and over a great part of further India, Thibet and 
China, in the last of which countries it took root as early as the first 
century of the Christian era, under the name of the religion of Fo, or 



THE ANCIENT HINDOOS. 15 

Foe, which is the Chinese name for Buddha. It was especially the 
lower classes among the Chinese that eagerly took up the new reli- 
gion, and to this day Buddhism is the religion professed by a majority 
of the Chinese people. Altogether this religion is the most widely- 
spread in the world, extending from the Indus to Japan, and num- 
bering over two hundred millions of adherents. 

Bmidhism has undergone various changes in the countries into 
which it has been introduced, but its most essential points every- 
where are traceable to its Indian origin. It had at first combatted 
the existence of a privileged class of priests ; but in its turn, proba- 
bly for the purpose of self-preservation, or to be more effectual in the 
promulgation of its doctrines, it instituted an order of priesthood 
itself. Sakyamuni himself is said to have raised those of his followers 
who chose an ascetic life, by a kind of consecration, to the rank of 
Sramanas, which we may interpret by the term " mendicant friars ; " 
for they were obliged to vow to spend their lives in celibacy, and to 
support themselves solely by alms. These Sramanas formed the 
retinue of Sakyamuni as long as he lived, and even those who lived 
in the wilds and solitudes sometimes gathered round him to listen 
to his discourses. These monks in the course of time began to con- 
gregate in separate buildings, and thus formed convents, which, by 
the liberality of their adherents, acquired great wealth, and were 
placed under strict regulations regarding dress, food, the mode of 
admission, and the like ; in all of which respects they were types of 
the convents and monasteries afterwards and so long established in 
Christendom. These priests differed essentially from the Brahmins 
by their ascetic mode of life in convents, and by their celibacy. The 
worship of this new religion was at first very simple. Bloody sacri- 
fices were unknown, because it was unlawful to kill any living being 
and because the religion recognized no God to which sacrifice might 
be offered. Buddha alone was worshipped, and that in two ways ; 
divine honors being paid to his image and to the remains of his body, 
the latter of which were preserved in eight metal boxes deposited in 
as many sacred buildings or temples. Buildings containing the 
remains of Buddha himbelf, or of distinguished persons who had sup- 
ported his doctrines, were afterwards greatly multiplied. The Brah- 
mins in a similar manner raised vast mounds over the remains of 
illustrious men, but never paid them any divine honors. Such Budd- 
hist mausoleums are found in great numbers in those countries where 
his religion is, or was once, established, especially in Ceylon, where 
they are called Dagops. In Afghanistan, on the north-west of the 
Indus, many such monuments of great interest have been discovered 
in modern times, and are popularly known under the name of Topes. 



16 ^ CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

They are all built in the form of cupolas, with a few small chambers 
in the interior. Many of them have been opened, and a great num- 
ber of objects of value, offered by pilgrims, have been found in them. 
Buddhism, though originating in an opposition to the abuses of 
Brahminism, degenerated in the course of time into something which 
is probably worse than Brahminism. Its dogmas have become wild 
and fantastic ; its form of worship is an empty system of poiiips and 
ceremonies; and its ascetic priests are described as forming a most 
domineering hierarchy, so that in all Buddhist countries there exists 
a very marked distinction between the clergy and laity. The priests 
still live in convents, which are at the same time the schools for the 
young ; and the greatest veneration is paid to them b}^ the people ; 
but they are in turn bound to strict obedience to their ecclesiastical 
superiors. Nowhere is the Buddhist hierarchy so fully and so per- 
fectly organized as in Thibet, where nearly half of the population 
consists of priests, who together with all the rest of the people, rec- 
ognize a sort of pope, styled Dalai Lama, as their head. He is 
regarded as the living embodiment of a Bodhisattva, whose soul at 
the death of the individual in whom it has existed is believed always 
to migrate into the body of his successor. Many of the institutions 
and ceremonies of Buddhism have so striking a resemblance to those 
of the Roman Catholic religion that it was once believed that 
Christianity had exercised great influence upon Buddhism ; but sub- 
sequent investigations have proved that the eastern institutions are 
more ancient than Christianity, and that in all probability Buddhism 
and Roman Catholicism have arrived at the same results independ- 
ently of each other. Under such circumstances the expulsion of Bud- 
dhism from India has not been a misfortune, for at an early period 
its pure ethics gave way to the worship of its founder, and to a 
pompous and wearisome ceremonial; and its influence tended to re- 
tard rather than promote intellectual and literary culture. In India 
intellectual pursuits have always been mainly connected with Brah 
minism, as is clear from the development of its literature. The 
Buddhists have indeed a literature, but it was subservient only to a 
transmission of their doctrines ; whereas the national, or Brahminical 
literature, embraces all the relations and manifestations of human 
life, and is worthy of careful study. The Vedas, as was remarked 
before, are the most ancient monuments of the Sanscrit, or Brah- 
minical literature, and Avere, according to tradition, communicated to 
men by Brahma himself. They were then handed down by oral 
tradition, until a wise man, by the name of Vyasa (the collector) 
put them together in their present order, and divided them into 
four great parts, each of which is subdivided into two sections, of 



THE BACTRIANS, MEDES AND PERSIANS. 17 

which the first contains prayers, hymns, and invocations, and 
the second rules about religious duties ; and theologico-philosophical 
doctrines. Some few of the pieces constituting the Vedas are 
evidently later interpolations, but the genuine parts cannot belong 
to a later date than the tenth century B. C, but as much before 
that period as may be. In Sakyamuni's time they were revered 
as very ancient works. The book next in importance consists of 
the laws of Manu, which was likewise believed to be divinely in- 
spired, for Brahma was said to have communicated them to his grand- 
son Manu, the first mortal. The laws contained in this book are in- 
tended as a basis for all the religious, political, and social relations 
of life. It begins with the creation of the world, in this respect like 
our Bible, and treats of education, marriage, domestic and religious 
duties; of government, the civil and penal law, of castes, repentance, 
the migration of souls, and the blessings of the future life. The 
age of this work is probably more recent than that of the Vedas, not- 
withstanding the tradition ; and much also is traceable to subsequent 
compilers ; but although despotism and priestly rule, as well as a 
great number of petty and childish ceremonies, form the main sub- 
stance of the work, yet the whole is pervaded by a spirit of profound 
piety and benevolence toward men and all living creatures. 

The Iranians (Bagtkians, Mi:des, and Persians). 
Ormuzd and Ahriman; Zoroaster in the Zendavesta. 

It is one of the fundamental doctrines with all the Iranians that 
originally all things, both moral and physical, were divided into good 
and evil. Each of these two divisions was presided over by a divine 
being, the good by Ormuzd, and the evil by Ahriman. Neither of 
these beings was regarded as eternal, but as produced by Zei'vane 
Akrene, that is, uncreated Time, who after the creation of Ormuzd 
and Ahriman, entirely disappears, leaving the creation and govern- 
ment of the world, and all that is contained in it, to those two mighty 
and divine beings. Ormuzd was from the beginning in a region of 
light, the symbol of all that is good ; while Ahriman dwelt in dark- 
ness, the symbol of all that is evil ; and the two were perpetually at 
war with each other. Ormuzd began and completed the creation 
M'^hich was a creation of light, and Ahriman, though conceived as the 
destroyer, was nevertheless regarded as a creator ; but this creation 
was the empire of death, and darkness, and evil, which he constitu- 
ted in such a manner as to oppose to every creature of Ormuzd one 
created by himself, with similar qualities, but perverted into evil ; 
thus he created the Avolf as the counterpart to the useful dog ; and 
in general all beasts of prey which shun the light and crawl on the 
Vol. II.— 2 



18 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

earth, and all troublesome and destructive insects were regarded aa 
creatures of Ahriman. In this manner the whole of the physical 
world was divided between light and darkness, and all the moral 
world between good and evil, and the two worlds were conceived as 
engaged in perpetual contest with one another, the evil trying to 
destroy the good, while the good in its turn is bent upon overpow- 
ering the evil. It was believed, however, that in the end the prin- 
ciple of good would prevail, which belief would probably correspond 
with the Christian expectation of the Millennial era ; and, according 
to some, even Ahriman and his followers were then to be purified 
and admitted among the blessed. In both these empires, of light 
and of darkness, there existed intermediate beings between the su- 
preme rulers and the race of mortals ; these consisted of spirits of 
different grades and ranks. The throne of Ormuzd was surrounded 
by six arch-spirits, called Amshaspands. Next to them in rank were 
the Izeds, who stood to the Amshaspands in the same relation as the 
latter did to Ormuzd. The hosts of other inferior spirits, called 
Fervers, were innumerable, and pervaded all nature ; for every living 
creature had its Ferver dwelling in it, imparting to it light and 
motion, and conferring physical and spiritual blessings on those who 
addressed it in pious and humble prayer. The spirits in the empire 
of Ahriman were called Devs, six of which answered to the Amshas 
pands, and they were the authors of every misfortune and of all sins. 
This religious system, notwithstanding its singular dualism, is yet 
far more spiritual than any of the other polytheistic religions of Asia. 
It seems to have originated in the worship of the heavenly bodies 
which shed their light upon the earth, for this worship prevailed in 
a very large part of Asia, where the cloudless sky, with its cerulean 
blue, clothes all nature with a peculiar brilliancy. Light, there, 
naturally appeared as the vivifying principle, diffusing joy and hap- 
piness over all creation, while darkness seemed to remove and destroy 
all that owed its origin and life to light. Hence fire also was wor- 
shipped as the element containing and diffusing light ; and in special 
places a perpetual fire was kept up with certain purifications and cer- 
emonies. This material worship of light and fire was raised, in the reli- 
gion of Ormuzd, to a spiritual character, for in it light is no longer 
a mere physical but a moral good, and the symbol of higher spiritual 
purity. For a long time worship was paid simply to the light and 
fire as they appeared in nature ; the imaginations of the Iranians do 
not appear to have conceived the objects of their worship in definite 
forms, nor did they invent any mythological stories about them. 
Sacrifices were offered in the open air, and on hills ; and Herodotus 
expressly states that the Persians in his time had neither statues, 



THE BACTEIANS, MEDES AND PERSIANS. 19 

nor temples, nor altars. But religion did not remain in this condi- 
tion ; for idolatry was introduced as early as the age of the Persian 
empire. At a still later period idolatry again disappeared, and its 
place was supplied by the material worship of fire ; and at this stage 
the religion of Ormuzd has continued to the present day ; for a few 
surviving remnants of the ancient Iranians, called Parsi, still cling 
to the worship of their ancestors, notwithstanding the furious perse- 
cution of the Mohammedans. They are found in some of the eastern 
parts of Iran, especially in Surate in western India, and their religion 
has become a coarse, mechanical, and superstitious fire-worship, 
deserted and abhorred by the Mohammedan population. 

The sacred writings in the Zend (ancient Iranian) language 
called Zend-Avesta, were unknown in Europe until, about the mid- 
dle of the last century, a Frenchman named Anquetil du Perron 
brought them to France and published a translation of them. These 
books excited great interest at the time, because they revealed one 
of the most remarkable of religious systems, which till thsn had been 
imperfectly known in Europe. The authenticity of the works, which 
was at first questioned, has since been established beyond all doubt 
by Oriental scholars. The legends and religious views which the 
books, especially the most ancient of them, contain, appear, if not 
in their original freshness and purity, yet free from foreign ad- 
mixture. 

According to the ancient and genuine doctrine of the Zend-Avesta 
man became mortal through the sin of his first parents, and for the 
same reason he was placed in the middle between the world of 
Ormuzd and that of Ahriman. Being free in his choice, but weak, 
he would sink under the dominion of Ahriman and his agents, who 
watch him night and day, and endeavor to draw him into the regions 
of darkness, were it not that Ormuzd had revealed to him the law 
of light. Under the guidance of this law man is able to escape the 
pursuit of Ahriman and his Devs, and to arrive at a state of bliss, 
which was the object of Ormuzd in revealing his law. The sum 
and substance of this law is that in order to be happy man must be 
pure in his thoughts, words and actions ; and the pure man must 
shun the contact of everything proceeding from Ahriman, the source 
of all that is impure. If he has been unable to avoid coming into 
contact witli the impure he is obliged to undergo a process of purifi- 
cation, consisting of a variety of ceremonies. The worship of the 
sacred fire, sacrifices, prayers, and the reading of the sacred books, 
constitute the chief religious observances ; contact with dead bodies 
of animals or men was regarded as particularly polluting ; whence 
the people were allowed neither to bury nor to burn the dead ; by 



20 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the former the earth would have become polluted, and by the latter 
the fire. Accordingly there remained no way of disposing of the 
dead bodies but to expose them in a place where they did not come 
in contact with the earth until the birds of prey and the wild beasts 
had consumed the flesh, after which the bones were collected and 
preserved. In all this moral and physical purity are blended and 
confounded. But one part of the law tells men what to do to induce 
the earth to yield her blessings ; they are enjoined to build towers, 
where priests, herds, flocks, women and children might congregate 
in purity ; to cultivate waste lands and improve them by irrigation ; 
and, lastly, to take care of the cattle and all domestic animals. The 
following is a maxim which we quote from the Zend-Avesta : " He 
who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater 
stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten 
thousand prayers." The prayers here referred to are most probably 
after the manner of those formal prayers which some people even 
now-a-days are wont to spend their time in repeating, to the neglect 
of their proper and pressing duties. There is no reason why one, 
while being diligent and industrious in the pursuit of an honest 
business, may not cultivate a prayerful spirit ; why one may not at 
the same time be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. That part of 
the law to which we have referred, as well as the maxims, of which 
there are many good ones, is evidently intended to preserve and 
promote civilization and the popular welfare ; and while Ormuzd 
thus presides over civilized life, Ahriman rejoices in wildness and 
sayageness, and everything that is opposed to a well organized moral 
system. Hence the Iranians, considering their own country to be 
under the special protection of Ormuzd, believed that the land to 
the north-east, beyond the Oxus and Jaxartes was under the direct 
influence of Ahriman, because it was inhabited by rude nomadic 
tribes, Avhich were hostile to them ; and they distinguished that 
country from their own by giving it the name Turan. Their aver- 
sion to the Turanians, however, did not arise merely from the fact 
of the latter being nomads, for some of the Iranian tribes themselves 
led a nomadic life, but because they were hostile to them, and all 
their social and religious institutions. 

The religion of Ormuzd, by impressing upon its adherents the 
necessity of subduing nature, and of combating with all their might 
the influence of the Empire of Ahriman, could not fail to rouse them 
to a life full of vigorous activity ; and it must have exercised a very 
considerable influence upon the social and political condition of the 
people ; but we possess but very little historical information about 
the earliest times. The most ancient, and at the same time the only 



THE BABYLONIANS OR CHALDiEANS. 21 

native records of the history of Iran are contained in the Zend- 
Avesta; but they are so entirely mythical that it would be useless 
to attempt to deduce any real history from them. Also, the tradi- 
tions embodied in the great epic poem by Firdusi, a Persian poet of 
the middle ages, are so thoroughly legendary and so much embellished 
in the oriental fashion, that they cannot be regarded as a real basis 
of history. Hence the age of Zerdusht, commonly called Zoroaster, 
the famous religious lawgiver of the Persians, is buried in utter 
obscurity. Some Greek authors state that he flourished about five 
thousand years before the Trojan war, or over six thousand years 
before Christ, according to which he might be set down as a purely 
mythical personage. Firdusi relates that he lived in the time of 
king Gushtasb, who adopted his doctrines, ordered his subjects to 
establish the worship of fire, and diffused the Zend-Avesta through- 
out his dominions. The Zend-Avesta does not describe Zoroaster 
as the original author of fire-worship, but only as a prophet who 
developed and completed the whole system. Hence he cannot be 
regarded as a purely mythical personage, nor be assigned to as late 
a date as some critics would assign, that of Darius, the son of 
Hystaspes, in the 6th century B. C. 

The Babylonians or Chaldeans. 

The Babylonians, or Chaldseans, were especially celebrated as 
diviners ; it was especially by means of astrology that they pretended 
to obtain a knowledae of the future ; and as this knowledge was 
believed to be hereditary in the caste of the Chaldseans their predic- 
tions were thought to be infallible, and were consequenth^ looked 
upon with great respect. This art of foretelling the future by obser- 
vation of the stars was reduced by the Chaldaeans to a regular system, 
which was called by both Greeks and Romans a Chaldsean science ; 
and ultimately astrologers in general came to be called Chaldaeans 
in the southern countries of Europe. The belief in the possibility 
of such astrological prophecies arose among the Chalda^ans from their 
notion of the divine powers possessed by the stars, a notion of which 
indications occur even in the religion of Ormuzd. The sun and the 
moon being the most prominent among the heavenly bodies were 
regarded by the Babylonians as the principal divinities, next to 
which came the planets or the twelve signs of the Zodiac. But 
these divinities were conceived in human form, and in this anthropo- 
morphism Baal or Belus, the sun-god, was the supreme divinity, 
whence Western nations identified him with the Greek Zeus, and 
the Roman Jupiter or Saturn. Belus was further regarded as the 



22 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

founder of the state and city of Babylon, and as the progenitor of 
the Babylonian kings. As Belus was the supreme male divinity, so 
Mylitta, or the moon-goddess, was the highest female divinity ; being 
also the sj-mbol of productive nature, she is often mentioned by 
Greek and Roman writers under the name of Aphrodite, or Venus. 
Her worship was connected with the most revolting obscenity ; and 
seems to have contributed not a little to the demoralization of the 
Babj^lonian people. 

The five planets were the heavenly bodies, from which in par- 
ticular the Chaldaeans pretended to obtain their knowledge of the 
future ; with them as with all subsequent astrologers, Jupiter and 
Venus were beneficent powers. Mars and Saturn hostile, while 
Mercury was either the one or the other, according to its position. 
As the priests by their astrological observations were led to observe 
the stars and their revolutions, which in the plains of Babylon, with 
their clear unclouded sky, was easier than elsewhere, they gradually, 
acquired real astronomical knowledge, which enabled them to calcu- 
late with astonishing accuracy the returns of eclipses of the sun and 
moon. In their chronological calculations, they had lunar cycles as 
their basis ; but they devised means for bringing the lunar and the 
solar year into harmony. They knew and employed the division of 
the day into twelve hours ; to determine which, they used a sort of 
a water-clock or clepsydra, which was afterwards adopted by Greek 
astronomers. This occupation, with mathematical calculations also, 
led them to other branches of Natural Philosophy, such as mechanics ; 
and in Western Asia the Babylonians were the first people that had 
a regular system of weights and measures, which was afterwards 
adopted by the Syrians and Greeks. Their system of religion, 
though faultj^, operated well upon their character, and would have 
produced far more extensively beneficial effects, had they as a nation 
practised purity of life, and abstained from that licentiousness and 
gross immorality to which it is well known the Babylonians were 
addicted. 

The Phcenicians. 

The basis of the religion of the Phoenicians was also the worship 
of the heavenly bodies ; but this worship became coarse, and degene- 
rated, in consequence of the notion which was gradually formed that 
the stars were persons with all the passions of human beings. The 
great god of the Shemitic race, Baal, is understood to have been the 
same with the Phoenician Moloch; he was the demon of fire, to 
whom, for the purpose of appeasing his wrath, men, and especially 



THE PHCBNICTANS AND EGYPTIANS. 23 

children, were sacrificed in a most cruel and revolting manner. The 
statue of the god was made of brass, and when sacrifices were to be 
offered, the idol was made red-hot, and the wretched victims were 
placed in the arms to be slowly roasted to death. Their mothers, 
who were compelled to be present, did not venture, through fear, to 
give utterance to their feelings. Such sacrifices of children were 
offered every year on a certain day at the commencement of great 
undertakings, and during any misfortune with which the country 
was visited. But the progress of civilization and the government of 
Persia, to which Phoenicia ultimately became subject, forbade the 
perpetration of such horrors. During the siege of Tyre by Alexander 
the Great, some persons in despair proposed to return to the practice, 
which had long been discontinued ; but the magistrates prohibited 
it. It is uncertain whether Melkarth may be also regarded as iden- 
tical with Baal and Moloch. His chief temple was at Tyre, but he 
was worshipped also in the Phoenician colonies. The Greeks par- 
tially identified him with their own Heracles, from whom, however, 
they sometimes distinguished him by the attribute of the " Tyrian." 
Among the female divinities Astarte occupied the first rank ; she 
was the tutelary goddess of the Sidonians, and was identified by the 
Greeks and Romans, sometimes with Aphrodite or Venus, and some- 
times with Hera or Juno. 

The Egyptians. 

The Egyptians^ though a people inclined to enjoy life, were 
nevertheless a serious and meditative people, and in one way or 
another religion, or rather superstition, was connected with all their 
thoughts and actions. Their religion seems originally to have been 
a kind of pantheistic idolatry, or a worship of deity in all the mani- 
festations of nature. This view appears to account more satisfac- 
torily for their worship of animals than the explanations of the 
Greeks, according to whom it arose out of gratitude towards certain 
animals on account of their usefulness ; for it was useful animals 
alone that they worshipped.* In Osiris and Isis, they worshipped 
the fertilizing powers of nature under the names of a male and female 
divinity. Kneph, or Neph, was conceived as the spirit of God per- 
vading the universe at the creation, while Pthah was regarded as 
the real creator, and Ammon, or Amon, as the king of the gods. 



* True wisdom, however, teaches us not to worship the Deity under any form, real or sym- 
bolical, substantial or iniaguiary. Spiritual worship is what is, and what always has been 
alone required. Tlie worship of the infinite and invisible Deity with a prayerful heart, and a 
contrite and pure spirit, shall not be despised. 



24 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

The power of evil seems to have been personified in Typhon, who in 
many respects resembles the Persian Ahriman. 

Among the animals receiving divine honors in Egypt, we may 
mention the ox, the dog, the cat, the ibis, the hawk, and some fishes, 
all of which were worshipped in all parts of Egypt ; others enjoyed 
only a local veneration, while in some localities they were regarded 
as unclean, or were even objects of persecution. Thus, the sheep 
was worshipped only in the district of Thebes and Sais ; the goat at 
Mendes ; the wolf at Lycopolis ; the lion at Leontopolis ; the eagle 
at Thebes ; the shrew-mouse at Athribis ; and others elsewhere. 
Whoever killed a sacred animal intentionally was punished with 
death ; if unintentionally, he might escape by paying a fine. Some- 
times even bloody wars were, it is said, carried on between neigh- 
boring districts because an animal had been killed in the one Avhich 
was worshipped in the other. This strange superstition and fanat- 
icism maintained themselves among the natives even during the 
time the country was governed by the Greeks, the successors of 
Alexander the Great, and by the Romans. We naturally conclude 
that such a system of animal worship must have been worthy not 
only of denunciation but ridicule, when we are told that when a 
cat died a natural death, all the inmates of the house shaved their 
eyebrows, and when a dog died they cut away the hair from all parts 
of their bodies ! These sacred animals after their death, were em- 
balmed, and deposited as mummies in the sepulchres of men. In 
some instances the worship did not extend to whole classes or spe- 
cies of animals, but to one particular animal of the species, distin- 
guished from the rest by certain marks. An animal of this kind was 
attended to with the greatest care, and the priests charged with it 
were held in the highest respect. The most celebrated among such 
animals was the bull Apis, which was kept at Memphis. The animal 
was always black, with a triangular white spot on his forehead, and 
the figure of an eagle on its neck. It was believed to confer upon 
boys attending upon it the power of prophecy. If it reached the age 
of twenty-five years, it was killed, but otherwise it was allowed to 
die a natural death. Such an event prodviced general mourning and 
lamentation, and its burial was accompanied with all imaginable 
pomp and ceremony. But the general grief gave way to the most 
unbounded joy as soon as the priest had discovered or prepared a 
calf with the requisite marks, and produced the new god. The 
ancients expressly state that Apis was only the symbol of Osiris, 
whose soul was believed to be in the bull, and to migrate after his 
death into the body of his successor. This last notion is connected 
with the belief which the Egyptians shai-ed with the Indians and 



THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 25 

other nations that the soul, after the death of the body migrated 
into another. The doctrine itself was, however, differently de- 
veloped by the Hindoos than by the Egyptians ; for according to 
Herodotus, the Egyptians believed that the soul of man after his 
death had to pass through the bodies of all the animals of the land 
and of the sea, and even through those of the birds of the air ; and 
that then, after the lapse of three thousand years, it returned into 
the body of the human being. When, notwithstanding this theory 
of the migration of souls, we hear of the belief of the Egyptians in 
the existence of a kingdom of the dead, called Amenthes or Amenti, 
the sojourn of the souls in it could'not have been conceived as per- 
manent, and it was probably regarded as only a transition state, in 
which the mode of migration was determined by Osiris, the judge in 
the kingdom of the dead. His judgment is often represented in 
Eg3^ptian paintings, and we there see the actions of the departed 
regularly weighed in a pair of scales. A similar judgment is said to 
have taken place in Egypt, whenever a person had died. On such 
an occasion any one might come forward with accusations against 
the deceased ; and when the charges were proved, the burial of the 
bod}'- was forbidden. Even deceased kings had to undergo such an 
ordeal. The priests, it is said, eulogized him, but the assembled 
people either agreed, or expressed their dissent by a tumultuous 
noise ; and if the latter prevailed, the king was deprived of the 
customary magnificent burial. This regulation was probably the 
reason why few of the Egyptian kings made any gross abuse of their 
power. Such extraordinary care as the Egyptians bestowed upon 
the preservation of dead bodies seems to be irreconcilable with the 
doctrine of the migration of souls, as well as with that of a kingdom 
of the dead, unless we assume that the preservation of the body was 
believed to be indispensable to the immortality of the soul, and that 
the soul would return to it after its three thousand years of trans- 
migration. There can be no doubt that the religion of the priests 
differed in many essential points from that of the great mass of the 
people. This has been so, and is so still, to a considerable extent, 
in all religions. We have little information as to the extent and 
amount of knowledge possessed by the Egyptian priests, simply 
because the country had no national literature. The god Thoth was 
regarded as the author of all knowledge, and believed to have in- 
vented arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and the art of writing, all 
of which sciences were to some extent cultivated by the Egyptians ; 
the art of writing was used in the way of hieroglyphics. 



26 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



The Pelasgians and the Greeks of Heroic and Historic 

Times. 

The religion of the ancient Pelasgians appears to have consisted 
mainly in the worship of the powers of nature, many traces of which 
are visible in the religion of the Hellenes, though they are more 
numerous in the purer religion of the Italian Pelasgians. Their 
principal god was Zeus, whose most ancient seat of worship was at 
Dodona, in Epirus. He there also had an oracle, which retained its 
celebrity for a very long period, until in the end it was eclipsed by 
that of Apollo, at Delphi. This male divinity Zeus had his counter- 
part in the female Dione, who was his wife, and the mother of 
Aphrodite, the goddess representing love and fertility. In some 
parts of Greeee, such as the islands of Samothrace, Imbros, and 
Lemnos, in the north of the Egean, a certain mysterious Pelasgic 
worship continued to exist down to a late period. The most im- 
portant branch of the Pelasgians were the Pierian Thracians, who 
inhabited the coast district of Macedonia, north of mount Olympus ; 
for mythology tells us that there the first poets flourished, such as 
Orpheus, Musseus, Thamyris, Eumolphus, and Linus, all m3'thical 
personages who probably never existed, only as the creations of the 
imagination ; but the legends about them show that according to 
the notions of the Greeks, poetry had been widely and enthusiasti- 
cally cultivated by the Pelasgian Pierians, and had been employed 
by them for the exaltation and embellishment of religious worship. 

The religion of the Greeks in the heroic age was only a further 
development of that of the Pelasgians, and not essentially different 
from that which we find established during the historical ages. The 
Greek sympathized strongly with the outer world, and in all the 
objects around him he found life, or imparted it to them from the 
fulness of his own imagination. Every part of nature roused in him 
a distinct sentiment of religious awe, and everywhere his imagination 
conceived divine forms to worship. The complicated system of 
mythology which arose out of this simple worship of the powers of 
nature was formed partly by a process of personification, partly by 
raising the local deities of certain tribes to the rank of national gods, 
and by connecting and uniting them into one great hierarchy. 
These processes were the work of the national mind of the Greeks, 
strengthened and guided by the poets. Each tribe or city, however, 
continued to worship one or more deities as its special patrons or 
protectors. All the gods were conceived as beings in human forms, 
and as subject to the same passions and frailties as mortals ; but they 



THE PBLASGIANS AND A.NCIENT GEEEKS. 27 

were nevertheless believed to punish men for their offences both in 
this world and in the future state. Prayers and sacrifices were 
employed to propitiate them, and the more precious the offering was 
the more pleasing it was thought to be to the deity. Hence the 
sacrifice of human beings was the highest oblation. The gods were 
represented in statues or symbols, but we need not believe that the 
statues or symbols themselves were worshipped as the divine beings ; 
such gross idolatry seems to have arisen only in later times, when 
the symbol was confounded with the power symbolized.* The func- 
tions of the priests, male and female, who were generally connected 
with the worship of some particular divinity, consisted mainly in 
offering sacrifices, though the king, and the fathers of families might 
do the same on behalf of those whom they represented. The most 
important branch, however, of a priest's duties consisted in his as- 
certaining the will of the gods, and those occurrences of the future 
which the faculties of men were unable to divine. The belief in the 
possibility of acquiring such knowledge gave rise to oracular places, 
the most renowned of which was Dodona and Delphi ; but many 
other methods also were resorted to to discover the will of the gods or 
the decrees of destiny. The reverence and veneration for departed 
great men gradually led to hero worship, which, common as it was 
in more recent times, is never hinted at in the Homeric poems. The 
whole earth was conceived by the Greeks as a plane surface sur- 
rounded by the river Oceanus ; the Mediterranean was only a de- 
pression of the earth's surface, the central point of which was 
Delphi ; a vast pit in the earth called Hades was the receptacle of 
the departed spirits ; and far below the earth lay the still more 
dismal pit of Tartarus. Mount Olympus, in Thessaly, was regarded 
as the highest mountain on earth ; here was the habitation of Zeus, 
the supreme monarch of gods and men, and his attendant deities ; 
and the canopy of heaven was considered to be a solid vault of metal, 
supported by Atlas, who kept asunder heaven and earth. 

One remarkable way in which the Greeks were accustomed to 
honor the gods was by the celebration of certain national games 
periodically in different parts of Greece. The most important of 
these festivals was that celebrated every four years at Olympia in 
Elis. The foundation of these Olympic games belongs to a period 

* We may remark, however, that if a being in human form, or indeed in any form, is con- 
ceived as the object of worship, it is as reasonable to pray to a statue or symbol as to tliat 
creature of the imagination ; the one is just as absurd and as inadmissible as the other. The 
Deity being everywhere present is not to be represented by any creature, either substantial, 
tangible, and visible, or only imaginary ; it is dishonorable to the Deity to so represent him; 
and still we cannot be too earnest and enthusiastic in our prayers to him and our worship 
of him. 



28 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

buried in obscurity ; but after tliey had been discontinued for a long 
period, during the disturbances created by the conquest of Pelopon- 
nesus by the Dorians, they were revived by Iphitus and Lycurgus ; 
but they were not finally and permanently established till 776, B.C., 
whence that year was emj^loyed by the Greeks as a chronological 
era. During the celebration of these games at Olympia, there was 
a general suspension of hostilities, to enable the Greeks from all parts 
to attend them without hindrance or danger. The contests at this 
festival in honor of the Olympian Zeus consisted of exhibitions 
displaying almost every mode of bodily activity ; the}^ included races 
on foot, and with horses and chariots; contests in leaping, throwing, 
wrestling and boxing ; and some in which several of these exercises 
were combined ; but no combats with any kind of weapon. Towns 
and families regarded it as the highest honor for one of theii' members 
to gain a victory in any of the contests at Olympia. The prize con- 
sisted of a simple garland of the leaves of the wild olive. Athens 
and Sparta showered honors upon any of their fellow-citizens who 
had gained a prize. The celebrity of these Olympic games led to the 
institution of several others of a similar character, such as the 
Pythian, Avhich were celebrated in the neighborhood of Delphi, in 
honor of Apollo, in the third year of every Olympiad ; the Nemean, 
which were celebrated in Nemea in Argolis, and the Isthi^iian, at 
the Isthmus of Corinth twice in every Olympiad. 

The religious notions of the Greeks underwent a considerable 
change in the interval between the heroic age and the conquest of 
Greece by the Romans. The undoubting and childlike faith of the 
early times, when the gods were considered as beings that took an 
interest in the joys and sorrows of mortals, had long since vanished 
among the higher and educated classes, and was despised as super- 
stitious. The philosophical enquiries from the time of Socrates 
downwards had shaken polytheism to its very foundations. Govern- 
ments attempted to interfere, declaring themselves the defenders and 
upholders of the ancient national religion, and some philosophers 
were even punished or banished, ostensibly, for atheism. But it 
was of no avail : ancient polytheism could not maintain its ground, 
and was ultimately supplanted by a purer and holier religion, which 
was intended as a blessing for all mankind, but which at length 
itself became polytheistic, and no less absurd and wicked than the 
old religion which gave it place. 

THE ROMANS. 

The religion of the early Romans was in all essential points like 
that of the early Greeks, a worship of nature, and her various powers 



THE ROMANS. 29 

personified ; but with this difference, that the Greeks, being a more 
imaginative and poetical people, clothed their conceptions and ideas 
in the form of numberless stories, of which the Roman religion, in 
its ancient and pure state, is perfectly free. Jupiter was their 
supreme male divinit}^ the monarch of gods and men ; and the 
corresponding female divinity was Juno, his sister and wife. Tliis 
religious system of the Romans is described as a device of Numa 
Pomjiilius, the second king of Rome (who, we may remark, is sup- 
posed by modern historians and critics to have been most probably 
a mythical personage, as was his immediate predecessor Romulus, 
the reputed founder of the state and city of Rome). Numa's long 
reign of forty-three years, from 715 to 672, B. C, is represented as 
a period of uninterrupted peace, during which the king was chiefly 
occupied in establishing the priesthood, and the ceremonies connected 
with the worship of the gods. He first regulated the calendar by 
the institution of a lunar year of twelve months, or 355 da3's, of 
which some were set apart for religious purposes; and then instituted 
the various orders of priests, as the flamens, or priests of Mars, of 
Jupiter, and of Quirinus ; the vestal virgins ; the salii of Mars ; the 
pontiffs, who possessed the most extensive powers in all the matters 
connected with religion ; and lastly, the college of augurs, whose 
.business it was to ascertain the will of the gods by observing the 
flight of birds in the air and their manner of feeding. Numerous 
temjDles and altars were also erected to the gods ; and in all these 
proceedings Numa is said to have been guided by the counsels of a 
divine being, the nymph Egeria, who favored him with her presence 
in a sacred grove. There can be no doubt that many of the institu- 
tions ascribed in the legend to Numa had existed from time imme- 
morial among the Latins and Sabines. But in the reign of Tarquinius 
Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, the religion, which had before been 
of a simple and rustic character, is said through his influence, to have 
become more pompous and showy ; the gods are then said to have been 
first represented in human form. Moreover, as soon as the Romans 
had become connected with the Greeks in southern Italy, Greek 
local deities and forms of worship were adopted, and threw many of 
the other parts of the ancient national religion into the shade to such 
a degree that they became mere matters of antiquarian curiosity, 
whose meaning and import were forgotten. 

In the beginning of the empire a regular custom was introduced 
that on the decease of every emperor who had neither lived nor died 
a tyrant, the senate by a solemn decree should place him in the 
number of the gods ; and the ceremonies of his apotheosis were 
blended with those of his funeral. This legal, and, as it appears, 



30 CEEATOE AND COSMOS. 

injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our sense of right, and so 
blasphemous withal was then received with a very faint murmur 
by the easy nature of polytheism ; but it was received, so the event 
proved, as an institution, not of religion, but of policy ; for though 
the worship of certain dead emperors was established by law, their 
worship was never universally practised in the Roman empire, but 
in general only by those who were connected with the court and 
government. This worship of the deceased emperors was to some 
extent continued in the case of the Christian emperors. 

In all ages, more especially among the eastern nations, there has 
been a certain kind of worship, which in our language is called 
homage, paid to ruling sovereigns. The pagan Roman emperors, 
and even the governors of provinces, who, indeed, according to their 
own Roman customs and usages, were rather democratic, that is, of 
the people, and accustomed to mingle with the people in all the 
affairs of life, social as well as civil, had this worship paid them in 
various ways, principally through the flattery of the conquered na- 
tions. This worship was also continued to the Christian emperors, 
and to the present day is given to ruling sovereigns of Europe, all 
calling themselves Christian. 

The Ancient Gebmans. 

The religious system of the ancient Germans was not very unlike 
some of the systems we have reviewed. They adored the great visi- 
ble objects and agents of nature : the sun, the moon, fire, and the 
earth, together with the imaginary deities that were supposed to 
preside over the most important occupations of human life. They 
practised arts of divination to discover the will of the superior beings ; 
and human sacrifices they supposed were the most acceptable obla- 
tions at their altars. The Germans neither represented the deity by 
any human figure, nor confined him within the walls of a temple ; 
their only temples were dark and ancient groves, consecrated by the 
reverence of succeeding generations. Their secret gloom, the im- 
agined residence of an invisible power, by presenting no distinct 
object of worship, impressed the mind with a deep sense of religious 
awe ; and the priests, rude and illiterate as they were, had been 
taught by experience the use of every artifice that could preserve and 
fortify impressions so well suited to their own interests. 

The defects of civil policy- among the ancient and uncivilized 
Germans were sometimes supplied by the interposition of ecclesias-. 
tical authority. The latter was constantly exerted to maintain 
silence and decency in the popular assemblies ; and was sometimes 



THE ANCIENT GERMANS; AND THE ANCIENT CELTS. 31 

extended to a more enlarged concern for the national welfare. A 
solemn procession was occasionally celebrated in the territories which 
are at present called Mecklenburgh and Pomerania. The unknown 
symbol of the earth, covered with a thick veil, was placed on a car- 
riage drawn by cows; and in this manner the goddess, whose com- 
mon residence was in the isle of Rugen, visited several adjacent tribes 
of her worshippers. During her progress, the sound of war was 
hushed, quarrels were suspended, arms laid aside, and the restless 
Germans had an opportunity of tasting the blessing of peace and 
harmony. The Truce of God, so often and so ineffectually proclaimed 
by the clergy of the eleventh century, was obviously an imitation of 
this ancient custom. A brave man among the Germans was the 
worthy favorite of their martial Deities ; the wretch who lost his 
shield was alike banished from the civil and religious assemblies of 
his countrymen. Some of the German tribes appear to have embraced 
the doctrine of transmigration ; others imagined a gross paradise of 
immortal drunkenness. All agreed that a life spent in arms ^ and a 
glorious death in battle, were the best preparations for a happy 
futurity, either in this or in another world. The immortality so con- 
fidently promised by the German priests, was in some degree con- 
ferred by the bards. The genius and character of that singular order 
of men have most deservedly attracted the attention of all who have 
attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Germans, the Scandi- 
navians, and the Celts. How faint and cold the sensation a peaceful 
man can only receive in the solitary study of the works of these 
bards ! It was in the hour of battle, or in the feast of victory that 
the bards celebrated the prowess, and the glories of the heroes 
of ancient days, the ancestors of these warriors or chieftains who 
listened with transport to their artless but animated strains. The. 
view of arms and of danger heightened the effect of the military 
song ; and the passions which it tended to excite, the desire of fame 
and contempt of death, were habitual sentiments of a German mind. 

The Gauls and Britons or Ancient Celts. 

The religion of these ancient peoples was Druidical, but about 
this system of religion or of superstition little is known. The Druids 
(wise men, magicians), practised their rites in dark groves, or other 
secret recesses ; and in order to throw greater mystery over their 
religion, they communicated their doctrines only to the initiated, and 
strictly prohibited the committing of them to writing, lest they should 
at any time be exposed to the scrutiny of the profane vulgar. Human 
sacrifices were offered among them ; the spoils of war were often de- 



32 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

voted to their divinities, and they punished with the severest tortures 
whoever dared to secrete any part of the consecrated offering. These 
treasures they kept in woods and forests, secured by no other guard 
than the terrors of their superstition ; and their steady conquest over 
human avidity may be regarded as more signal than their availing 
to prompt men to the most extraordinary and the most violent efforts. 
They inculcated the eternal transmigration of souls, and thereby ex- 
tended their authority as far as the fears of their votaries. The 
people, fierce and violent, urged on to war by their priests and bards, 
rushed into battle with the greatest vehemence. Such an ascendant 
had this idolatrous superstition over the minds of the ancient Gauls 
and Britons, that the Romans, after their conquest, finding it impossi- 
ble to reconcile these nations to the laws and institutions which 
they imposed, were at last obliged to abolish it by penal statutes : a 
violence which had never, in any other instance, been practised by 
those tolerating conquerors. 

The American Indians. 

The superstitions of the various tribes of Indians of North and 
South America, were, and are, various. They, however, universally 
believe in the Great Spirit, and some of them, we know by experience, 
have very intelligent views of things spiritual. They also, in gen- 
eral, believe in immortality and in a blissful home, which awaits them 
after death, in some happy island which the Great Spirit has pro- 
vided for the good. Their spiritual ideas are indeed sublime, inspired 
as they are by the wild scenery of their native forests ; by the bright 
waters of the majestic American rivers, and rippling brooks, roaring 
cataracts, and cascades ceaselessly flowing in their courses ; by the 
natural verdure which the earth presents in such luxurious abun- 
dance and such great variety beneath their feet and all around them ; 
and by the grand and diversified appearance which the sky presents 
above their heads, the shining orb of the sun dazzling their eyes while 
describing his course in the heavens during the day, and bedecked 
with the moon, displaying at times her different phases, and the stars 
and planets all pursuing their courses during the night. Their 
modes of worship, or rather religions, are different ; one of the tribes 
now in North America, perhaps more, is accustomed once every year 
to sacrifice a dog ; and the Aztecs of Mexico, and, doubtless, other 
tribes of the continent, and of the West India Islands, were accus- 
tomed to sacrifice human beings. It would be a desirable object if 
more efficient measures than ever yet were instituted, should be de- 
vised to civilize the tribes of the Indians, and bring them to a knowl- 



THB MOHAMMEDANS. '6'6 

edge of the truth, to be and to do good. Doubtless there could be 
many good, sensible, and self-denying men found, and fitted, who 
would be willing to go among the Indians for that purpose, provided 
they were enabled first to undertake the enterprise, and then supported 
in their missionary work. And who of our readers would not be will- 
ing to contribute somewhat to such an enterprise, when they would 
hear of such an one being undertaken ? And shall not this book come 
to some who will themselves originate such measures as will result in 
ameliorating tlie condition of the poor benighted Indian? God will 
recognize all such efforts, and will liberally reward them. 

THE MOHAMMEDANS. 

The religion of Mohammed, which now overspreads a wide extent of 
the fairest portions of the earth, was begun to be introduced by its 
founder in the first quarter of the seventh century of our era. It is 
now, and for many centuries has been, the prevailing religion in those 
countries once constituting the Eastern Roman Empire, and includ- 
ing the cities of Jerusalem, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch. 
The conquest of the Eastern countries by the Mohammedan arms, and 
theconsequent establishment of the Mohammedan religion on the ruins 
of Paganism and perverted Christianity, appears very like a divine 
judgment upon both Pagan and Christian idohltr^^ As has been shown 
before, and may be seen more fully hereafter, the idolatry which from 
the days of Constantine came to be practised by the Christians in those 
countries was even more absurd and abominable than that which had 
been destroyed with Paganism to give place to Christianity. And 
as people of our language in general know but little about Mohammed 
or Mohammedanism, we think it necessary here to give a somewhat 
more detailed account of both, than we have given of any of the 
ancient religions of which we have spoken. 

Seven hundred years before the age of Mohammed the Jews were 
settled in Arabia ; and a far greater number were exiled from the 
holy land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles 
aspired to liberty and power ; they erected synagogues in the cities, 
and castles in the wilderness, and their Gentile converts were con- 
founded with the children of Israel, whom they resembled in the 
natural mark of circumcision.* . The Christian missionaries were still 
more active and successful in proselytizing ; the Catholic mission- 
aries asserted the universal reign of the Church; the Marcionites, 
and Manicheans, being oppressed by the Catholics, successively 
retired beyond the limits of the Roman empire, and dispersed their 

* The Arabians practised circumcision as well as the Jews. 

Vol. II.— 3 



S4 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

fantastic opinions and apochryphal gospels ; the churches of Yemen 
and the princes of Hira and Sassan, were interested in the creed of 
the Jacobites and Nestorians. The liberty of choice was presented 
to the Arabian tribes by the variety of Christian sects ; each Arab 
was free to choose or to compose his private religion ; and the rude 
superstition of his house was mingled with the sublime theology of 
Christian saints and martyrs. A fundamental article of faith was 
inculcated by the consent of the learned strangers ; the existence of 
one supreme god, who is exalted above the powers of heaven and 
earth, but who had often revealed himself to mankind by the ministry 
of his angels and prophets, and whose wisdom and power had inter- 
rupted by seasonable miracles the order of nature. The most rational 
of the Arabs acknowledged his power, though they might neglect 
his worship ; and it seemed to be habit rather than conviction that 
still attached them to the relics of idolatry. The Jews and Chris- 
tians were called the people of the Book ; the Bible was already 
translated into the Arabic language, and the volume of the Old Tes- 
tament was accepted with accord by the hostile Arabian tribes. In 
the story of the Hebrew patriarchs the Arabs were delighted to dis- 
cover the fathers of their nation. They applauded the birth and prom- 
ises of Ishmael, revered the faith and virtues of Abraham ; traced his 
pedigree and their own to the creation of the first man, and imbibed 
with equal credulity the prodigies of the sacred text, and the dreams 
and traditions of the Jewisli rabbis. 

The Christians have unskilfully calumniated Mohammed in describ- 
ing him to be of a base and plebeian origin, for by this they exalt rather 
than degrade the merit of their adversary. His descent from Ishmael 
was a national privilege or fable ; but although the first steps of the 
pedigree could not be traced, he could produce many generations of 
pure and genuine nobility. He sprang from the tribe of Koreish and 
the family of Hashera, the most illustrious of the Arabs, the Princes 
of Mecca and the hereditary guardians of the Caaba, or the temple of 
Mecca. Thus, Mohammed was of a priestly family, the sacerdotal office 
having devolved through four lineal descents to the grandfather of 
the prophet ; and the family of the Hashemites, from whence he 
sprung, was the most venerable and sacred in the eyes of their nation. 
Abdallah, the son of Abdol Motalleb, was the most beautiful and 
modest of the Arabian youth ; and in the first night when he consum- 
mated his marriage with Amina (a Jewish maiden) of the noble race 
of the Zahrites, two hundred maidens are said to have expired 
through jealousy and despair. Mohammed, the only son of Abdallah 
and Amina, was born at Mecca about four years after the death of 
the Emperor Justinian, or about the year 570 A. D. In his infancy 



THE MOHAMMEDANS. 35 

he was deprived of his father, his mother, and his grandfather ; his 
uncles were strong and numerous ; in the division of the inheritance 
the orphan's share was reduced to five camels and an Ethiopian maid- 
servant. At home and abroad, in peace and in war, Abu Taleb, the 
most respectable of his uncles, was the guide and guardian of his 
youth ; and in his twenty-fifth year Mohammed entered into the service 
of Cadijah, a rich and noble widow of Mecca, who soon rewarded his 
fidelity with the gift of her hand and fortune. The marriage con- 
tract, in the simple style of antiquity, recites the mutual love of 
Mohammed and Cadijah ; describes him as the most accomplished of 
the Koreish, and stipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of gold, and 
twenty camels, which was supplied by his uncle's liberality. By this 
alliance the son of Abdallah was restored to the station of his ances- 
tors ; and the judicious matron was content with his domestic virtues, 
till, in the fortieth year of his age, he .assumed the title of a prophet, 
and proclaimed the religion of the Koran. Being persecuted at Mecca 
he fled to Medina, whence he afterwards returned as a conqueror to 
Mecca ; and the date of his flight from Mecca is called the Hegira, 
whence dates the Mohammedan era. Mohammed's youth was spent in 
the bosom of the noblest race, and in the use of the purest dialect of 
Arabia, and the fluency of his speech was moderated and enhanced 
by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these pow- 
ers of eloquence Mohammed was an illiterate barbarian ; he had never 
in his youth been instructed in the arts of reading and writing, though 
doubtless he saw the necessity of them and acquired these arts to 
some extent afterwards. The common ignorance that surrounded him 
exempted him from reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle 
of existence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors which reflect to 
our minds the minds of sages and nations. Yet the book of nature 
and of man was open to him ; in two journeys which he made in his 
youth, in company with the caravan, to the fairs of Bostra and Damas- 
cus in Syria, his eye of genius might discover some objects impercep- 
tible to his grosser companions ; some seeds of knowledge might be 
cast upon a fruitful soil ; but liis ignorance of the Syriac language 
must have checkeil his curiosity ; and in the life and writings of Mo- 
hammed one cannot perceive that his prospect was far extended beyond 
the limits of the Arabian world. From every region of that solitary 
empire the pilgrims were annually assembled at Mecca by the calls 
of devotion and commerce ; in the free concourse of multitudes a sim- 
ple citizen in his native tongue might study the political state and 
character of the tribes, the creeds and practice of the Jews and 
Christians. Some learned strangers might possibly be obliged to 
seek the rights of hospitality ; and the enemies of Mohammed have 



36 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

named the Jew, tlie Persian, and the Syrian monk, whom they claim 
lent their secret aid to the composition of the Koran. If it requires 
uniformity in a work to denote its being the production of a single 
artist it will be plainly discernible by any one who takes the pains to 
examine it that neither Mohammed nor any other one man was the 
author of the Koran, though it may be he compiled it into some such 
form as we have it now from his own composition and from pre- 
existing materials.* 

From his earliest youth Mohammed was accustomed to religious 
contemplations. Each year during the month Ramadan f he with- 
drew from the public and from his wife, Cadijah, into the cave of 
Hera, three miles from Mecca, where it is probable he spent his time 
in religious contemplations, in composing and arranging the Koran, 
and in devising schemes for his future conquests. The faith which, 
under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation was 
this : That there is only One God, and that Mohajvimed is 
THE Apostle of God. 

Mohammed rejected the worship of idols and men, of stars and 
planets. In the Deity he confessed and adored an infinite and eternal 
being, without form or jDlace, without issue or similitude, present 
to our most secret thoughts, existing by the necessity of his own 
nature, and deriving from himself all moral and intellectual perfec- 
tion. These sublime truths, thus announced in the language of the 
prophet, are firmly held by his followers, and defined with meta- 
physical precision by the interpreters of the Koran. The professors 
of the religion of Mohammed are universally distinguished by the 
name Unitarians,; and the danger of their becoming idolaters has been 
prevented by the interdiction of images. The doctrine of eternal 
decrees and of absolute predestination is strictly held by the Moham- 
medans ; and they too struggle with the common difficulties, how to 
reconcile the prescience and predetermination of God with the free- 
dom and responsibility of man ; how to explain the permission of evil 
under the reign of infinite power and infinite goodness. 

Mohammed liberally allowed to his predecessors, the prophets of 
the Old Testament, the same credit which he claimed for himself; 
and the chain of inspiration was thus continued from the fall ot 
Adam to the promulgation of the Koran. During that period some 
rays of prophetic light had been imparted to one hundred and twenty- 
four thousand of the elect, discriminated by their respective degrees 
of virtue and grace ; three hundred and thirteen apostles were sent 
with a special commission to recall mankind from idolatry and vice; 



* See Koran, translated by George Sale. t The ninth month of the Mohammedan year. 



THE MOHAMMEDANS. d( 

one hundred and four volumes had been dictated by the holy spirit ; 
and six legislators of transcendent brightness had announced to 
mankind the six successive revelations of various rites, but of one 
immutable religion. The station and authority of Adam, Noah, 
Abraham, Moses, Christ, and Mohammed rise in just gradations above 
each other; but whoever hates or rejects any one of the prophets is 
numbered with the infidels. Of the myriads of prophets Moses and 
Christ alone lived and reigned ; and the remnant of the inspired 
writings are composed in the books of the Old and New Testament. 
For the author of Christianity the Mohammedans are taught by the 
prophet to entertain a high and mysterious reverence. "Verily 
Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle of God ; and his word, 
which he conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit proceeding from him, 
honorable in this world and in the world to come ; and one of those 
that approach near to the presence of God." The wonders of the 
genuine and apocryphal gospels are profusely heaped on his head ; 
and the Romish Church has not disdained to borrow from the Koran 
the immaculate conception of his virgin mother. Yet Jesus was a 
mere mortal, and at the day of judgment his testimony will serve to 
condemn both the Jews that reject him as a prophet, and the Chris- 
tians who adore him as the Son of God. The malice of his enemies 
aspersed his reputation and conspired against his life ; but their in- 
tention only was guilty; a phantom or a criminal was substituted on 
the cross ; and the innocent saint was translated to the seventh 
heaven. During some hundreds of years, the gospel was the way of 
truth and salvation ; but the Christians insensibly forgot both the 
laws and the example of the founder of their faith ; and Mohammed 
was instructed by the Gnostics * to accuse the church as well as the 
synagogue of corrupting the integrity of the sacred text. Moses and 
Christ rejoiced in the assurance of a future prophet, more illustrious 
than themselves ; the evangelical promise of the Paraclete, or holy 
spirit, was prefigured in the namef and accomplished in the person 
of Mohammed, the greatest and the last of the apostles of God. The 
inspirations of the Hebrew prophets might not be incompatible with 
the exercise of their reason and memory; and the diversity of their 
genius is strongly marked in the style and composition of the pro- 
phetic books of the Bible. But Mohammed was content with a char- 
acter more humble, yet more sublime, of a simple editor. The sub- 
stance of the Koran, according to himself or his disciples, is uncreated 
and eternal, subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed 



* One of the most influential and learned of the primitive Christian sects, 
t This arises merely from a play upon words, their making the word 7rapa/c/l^rof afford the 
etymology of the name Mohammed or Mahomet. 



38 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

with a pen of light on the table of his everlasting decrees. A paper 
copy in a volume of silk and gems was brought dovrn to the lowest 
heaven by the angel Gabriel, who, under the Jewish economy, had 
been despatched on the most important errands: and this trusty mes- 
senger successively revealed the chapters and verses to the Arabian 
prophet. Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine 
will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of 
Mohammed ; each revelation is suited to the exigencies of his policy 
or passion ; and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim 
that any text of scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent 
passage. The word of God and his apostle was diligentl}^ recorded 
by his disciples on palm leaves, and the shoulder-bones of mutton ; 
and the pages, without order or connection, were cast into a domestic 
chest in the custody of one of his wives. Two years after the death 
of Mohammed, the sacred volume was collected and published by his 
friend and successor, Abubeker. The work was revised by the 
caliph Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira ; and the various 
editions of the Koran assert the same miraculous privilege of a uni- 
form and incorruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or of vanity, 
the prophet rests the authority of his mission on the merits of his 
book ; boldly challenges men and angels to imitate the beauties of 
a single page; and presumes to assert that God alone could dictate 
this incomparable performance. This argument, doubtless, is most 
powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is enthusi- 
astic with faith and rapture ; Avhose ear is delighted with the music 
of sounds; and who b}' his ignorance is incapable of comparing the 
productions of human genius. The harmony and copiousness of the 
Koran will not reach, in a translation, the English scholar; he will 
peruse with impatience the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable and 
precept and declamation, which seldom excites a sentiment or an 
idea, which sometimes crawls along the dust, and is sometimes lost 
in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fanc}' of the Arabian 
prophet; but his loftiest strains must 3'ield to the sublime simplicity 
of the book of Job, composed at an early age in the same country, 
and probably in a dialect of the same language ; and, indeed, it might 
well be asked, if the composition of the Koran exceed the faculties 
of man, to what superior intelligence should we ascribe the Iliad of 
Homer, or the discourses of Cicero. 

The sayings of Mohammed were regarded as so many lessons of 
truth; his actions as so many examples of virtue; and the public 
and private memorials were preserved by his wives and companions. 
At the end of two hundred years the Sonna, or oral law, was deter- 
mined and consecrated by the labors of Al Bochari, who discriminated 



THE MOHAMMEDANS. 39 

7,275 genuine traditions from a mass of 300,000 reports of a more 
doubtful or a spurious character. Each day the pious collector 
prayed in the temple of Mecca and performed his ablutions with the 
holy waters of Zemzem (the holy well in the Caaba), the pages were 
successively deposited upon the pulpit and the sejoulchre of the 
apostle; and the work has been approved by the four orthodox sects 
of the Sonnites. 

The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses and Jesus, had 
been confirmed by many splendid prodigies ; and Mohammed was 
repeatedly urged by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina to produce 
a similar evidence of his divine mission ; to call down from heaven 
the angel or the volume of his revelation, to create a garden in the 
desert or to kindle a conflagration in the unbelieving city. As 
often as he is pressed by the Koreish he involves himself in the 
obscure boast of vision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proof 
of his doctrine, and shields himself behind the providence of God, 
who refuses those signs and wonders that would depreciate the 
merit of faith, and aggravate the guilt of infidelity. But the modest 
or angry tone of his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation ; and 
these passages of scandal go to establish the integrity of the Koran. 

The followers of Mohammed are more assured than he was himself 
of his miraculous gifts, and their confidence and credulity increase 
as they are farther removed from the time and place of his spiritual 
exploits. They believe or affirm that trees went forth to meet him ; 
that he was saluted by stones, that water gushed from his fingers ; 
that he fed the htiugry, cured the sick, and raised the dead ; that a 
beam groaned to him ; that a camel complained to him ; that a 
shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poisoned ; and that 
both animate and inanimate nature were equally subject to the 
apostle of God. 

His dream of a nocturnal journey is seriously described as a real 
and corporeal transaction. A mysterious animal, the Borak, convey- 
ed him from the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem ; with his 
companion Gabriel he successively ascended the seven heavens, and 
received and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, 
and the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond the seventh 
heaven Mohammed alone was permitted to proceed; he passed the veil 
of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and felt 
a cold that pierced him to the heart when his shoulder was touched 
by the hand of God. After this familiar though important conversa- 
tion he again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the Borak,. return- 
ed to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a night the journey 
of (according to the common opinion) perhaps thousands of years. 



40 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

According to another legend the prophet confounded in a national 
assembly the malicious charge of the Koreish. His resistless word 
split asunder the orb of the moon ; the planet, obedient, stooped 
from her station in the sky, accomplished the seven revolutions 
round the Caaba, saluted Mohammed in the Arabian tongue, and sud 
denly contracting her dimensions, entered at the collar and issued 
forth through the sleeve of his shirt. The vulgar are interested in 
these marvellous tales, but the gravest of the Mussulman doctors 
imitate the modesty of their master and indulge a latitude of faith 
or allegorical interpretation. 

In the times of idolatry the precincts of Mecca enjoyed the rights 
of sanctuary ; and in the last month of each year the city and the 
Caaba were crowded with a long train of pilgrims, who presented 
their vows and offerings in the temple. Mohammed, through prejudice, 
or policy, or fanaticism, sanctified those ancient rites of the Arabians, 
so that the same rites which are now practised by the faithful Mus- 
sulman were invented and practised in the times of superstition and 
idolatry. At an awful distance they cast away their garments ; 
seven times with hasty steps they encircled the Caaba, and kissed the 
black stone ; seven times they visited and adored the adjacent 
mountains; seven times they threw stones into the valley of Mina ; 
and the pilgrimage was accomplished, as at the present, by a sacrifice 
of sheep and camels, and the burial of their hair and nails in the 
consecrated ground. But the precepts of Mohammed himself inculcate 
a more simple and rational piety ; prayer, fasting, and alms are the 
religious duties of a Mussulman ; and he is encouraged to hope that 
prayer will carry him half way to God, fasting will bring him to the 
door of his palace, and alms will give him admittance. According 
to the tradition of the nocturnal journey the apostle in his personal 
conference with deity was commanded to impose on his disciples the 
daily obligation of fifty prayers. By the advice of Moses he applied 
for an alleviation of this intolerable burden ; the number was grad- 
ually reduced to five, without an}^ dispensation of business, or pleas- 
ure, or time, or place. The devotion of the faithful is repeated at 
daybreak, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening and at the first 
watch of the night ; and in the present diminution of religious fervor 
our travellers are sometimes edified by the profound humility and 
attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is the key of pray- 
er ; the frequent washing of the hands, the face and the body which 
was practised of old by the Arabs, is solemnly enjoined by the 
Koran; and a permission is formally granted to supply with sand the 
want of water in the Arabian deserts or elsewhere. The words and 
attitudes of supplication, as it is performed either sitting, or stand- 



THE MOHAMMEDANS. 41 

ing, or prostrate on the ground, are prescribed by custom or authority ; 
but the prayer is poured forth in short and fervent ejaculations ; the 
measure of zeal is not exhausted by a tedious liturgy ; and each 
Mussulman for his own person is invested Avith the character of apriest. 
Among the theists who reject the use of images it has been found 
necessary to restrain the wanderings of the mind by directing the 
eye and the thought to a Kebla, or visible point of the horizon. The 
prophet was at first inclined to gratify the Jews with the choice 
of Jerusalem ; but he soon displayed a more natural partiality, and 
five times every day the eyes of the nations at Astracan, at Delhi, 
and at Fez are devoutly turned towards the holy temple of Mecca. 
Yet every spot for the service of God is equally pure ; the Mohamme- 
dans indifferently pray in their chambers or on the street. As a 
distinction from the Jews and Christians the Friday of each week is 
set apart for the useful institution of public worship ; the people are 
assembled in the church ; and the Imam^ some respectable elder, 
ascends the pulpit to begin the prayer and pronounce the sermon. 
But the Mohammedan religion is without priesthood or sacrifice ; * 
and the independent spirit of fanaticism or pure religion looks down 
with contempt on the ministers and the slaves of superstition. The 
voluntary penance of the ascetic Christians, the torment and glory 
of their lives, was odious to a prophet who censured in his compan- 
ions a rash vow of abstaining from flesh, and women, and sleep, and 
firmly declared that he would suffer no monks in his religion. Not- 
withstanding he instituted in each year a fast of thirty days, and 
strenuously recommended the observance as a discipline which puri- 
fies the soul and subdues the body, as a salutary exercise of obedience 
to the will of God and his apostle. During the month of Ramadan, 
from the rising to the setting of the sun, the Mussulman abstains 
from eating and drinking, and women, and baths and perfumes, from 
all nourishment that can restore his strength, from all pleasure that 
can gratify his senses. In the revolution of the lunar year, the 
Ramadan coincides alternately with the winter cold and the summer 
heat ; and the patient martyr, without assuaging his thirst with a 
drop of water, must await the close of a tedious and sultry day. 

The interdiction of wine, peculiar to some orders of priests and 
hermits, is converted by Mohammed alone into a positive and general 
law ; and a very considerable portion of the inhabitants of the globe 
have abjured at his command the use of that salutary though danger- 
ous liquor. These painful restraints are doubtless violated by the 

• Although sacrifice forms no part of the ordinary Mohammedan ritual yet, as mentioned 
above, Mohammed retained, and the Koran sanctions, the sacrifice of sheep and camels at Mecca, 
with which the pilgrims who assemble there achieve their ceremonial. 



42 CE.EATOB AND COSMOS. 

libertine, and eluded by the hypocrite ; but the legislator by ^Yhom 
they were enacted cannot, indeed, be accused of alluring his pros- 
elytes by the indulgence of their sensual appetites. 

The charity of the Mohammedans extends to the inferior animals, 
and the Koran repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit, but as an indis- 
pensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate. 

Mohammed is perhaps the only lawgiver who has defined the pre- 
cise measure of charity ; the standard may yary with the degree and 
nature of property, as it consists either in money, in corn, or cattle, 
in fruits or merchandise. But the .Mussulman does not accomplish 
the law unless he bestows a tenth of his revenue for the needy ; and 
if bis conscience accuses him of fraud or extortion, the tenth, under 
the idea of restitution, is enlarged to a fifth. Such a benevolent law 
must be productive of excellent effects, since men are forbidden to 
injure or oppress those whom they are bound to assist. 

The two articles of belief, and the four practical duties of Islam, 
are guarded by rewards and punishments ; and the faith of the Mus- 
sulman is devoutly fixed upon the event of the judgment and the 
last day. The prophet has not determined the moment of that awful 
catastrophe, though he darkly announces the signs both in heaven 
and earth which will precede the universal dissolution, when life 
shall be destroyed, and the order of creation confounded in the primi- 
tive chaos. At the blast of the trumpet new worlds shall start into 
being ; angels, genii, and men shall arise from the dead ; and the 
human soul shall again be united to the body. The doctrine of the 
resurrection, as we have seen, seems to have been entertained by the 
ancient Egyptians ; and in accordance with this belief their dead 
were embalmed, and their pyramids constructed to preserve the 
ancient mansion of the soul during a period of three thousand years. 
But the attempt is evidently partial and unavailing, and it is with a 
more philosophical spirit that Mohammed relies on the omnipotence ot 
the Creator, whose word can reanimate the breathless clay, and col- 
lect the innumerable atoms which no longer retain their form or 
substance. The reunion of the soul and body will be followed by 
the final judgment of mankind ; and in his representation of what 
will take place on that momentous occasion the prophet has faith- 
fully copied the magian picture of the slow and successive operations 
of an earthly tribunal. Mohammed held out the hope of salvation, and 
of a favorable sentence in the last day, to all who would believe in 
God, and accomplish good works. In the idiom of the Koran the 
belief of God is inseparable from that of Mohammed ; the good works 
are those which he has enjoined, and the two qualifications imply the 
profession of Islam, to which all nations and all sects are equally 



THE MOHAMMEDANS. 43 

invited. The spiritually blind, though excused by ignorance, and 
distinguished by virtue, will be scourged with everlasting torments ; 
and Mohammed shed tears over the tomb of his mother, for whom he 
was forbidden to pray, displaying thereby a strilfing contrast of 
humanity and enthusiasm. The doom of the infidels is common, the 
measure of their guilt and punishment is- determined by the degree 
of evidence which they have neglected, and by the magnitude of the 
errors which they have entertained ; the lowest hell is reserved for 
the heartless hypocrites, who have assumed the mask of religion. 
After the greater part of mankind have been condemned for their 
opinions the true believers will be judged by their actions. The 
good and evil of each Mussulman will be accurately weighed in a 
real or allegorical balance ; and a singular mode of compensation will 
be allowed for the payment of injuries; the aggressor will restore an 
equivalent of his own good actions for the benefit of the person whom 
he has wronged ; and if he should be destitute of any good moral 
property the weight of his sins will be loaded with an adequate share 
of the demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares of guilt or 
virtue shall preponderate the sentence shall be pronounced, and all 
without distinction will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of 
the abyss ; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mohammed, 
shall gloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty shall fall 
into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The term of expiation 
will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand years ; but the prophet 
has judiciously promised that all his disciples, whatever may be their 
sins, shall be saved by their own faith, and his intercession, from 
eternal condemnation. It is not surprising that superstition shall 
act most powerfully on the fears of her votaries, since the human 
imagination can paint with more energy and vividness the misery than 
the bliss of a future life. With the two simple elements of darkness 
and fire a sensation of pain is created, which may be aggregated to 
an infinite degree by the idea of endless duration. But our idea of 
the continuity of pleasure operates with an opposite effect, and many 
of our present enjoyments are obtained from a relief or comparison 
of evil. It is natural enough that an Arabian prophet should expa- 
tiate with rapture on the groves, the fountains, and tlie rivers of 
Paradise ; but instead of inspiring the blissful inhabitants witli a 
liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship, 
he itUy celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, marble 
palaces, dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous 
attendants, and the whole train of sensual and costly luxury which 
becomes insipid to the possessor even in the short period of tliis 
mortal life. Seventy-two Houris, or black-eyed maidens of resplend- 



44 CREATOR AKD COSMOS. 

ent beautj', blooming youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, 
will be created for the use of the meanest believer ; a moment of 
pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand years, and his faculties will 
be increased a hundred-fold to render him worthy and capable of his 
felicity. Notwithstanding a viilgar prejudice the gates of heaven 
will be open to both sexes ; but Mohammed has not specified the male 
companions of the female elect, lest he should either alarm the jealousy 
of their former husbands, or disturb their felicity by the suspicion of 
an everlasting marriage. This representation of a carnal paradise 
has provoked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the Christian 
monks ; they declaim against the impure religion of Mohammed ; but 
the modest expounders of the Mohammedan faith have recourse to the 
excuse of figures and allegories. A large party, however, adhere 
without shame to the literal interpretation of the Koran; useless, say 
they, would be the resurrection of the body unless it were restored 
to the possession and exercise of its noblest faculties ; and the union 
of intellectual and sensual enjoyments is necessary to complete the 
happiness of the double animal, the perfect man. Yet the joys of 
the Mohammedan paradise are not to be confined to the indulgence of 
luxury and appetite, and the prophet has expressly declared that all 
meaner happiness will be forgotten and despised by the saints and 
martyrs who shall be admitted to the beatitude of the divine vision. 

They who refer to vision or allegory the pictures of the future 
state, as of paradise and hell, the nocturnal journey to heaven by the 
way of the temple at Jerusalem, the revelation of the Koran in chap- 
ters and verses by Gabriel to Mohammed, &c., are doubtless the more 
correct ; but there are some representations, which may seem irrecon- 
cilable either with allegory or reality. Some of these representations 
were doubtless filled out and enlarged from the mythologies of other 
eastern nations ; but would not the conquest of the eastern nations, 
including Jerusalem and its temple — (that temple which above all 
others in ancient times was distinguished for the worship of the one 
supreme God) — by the Mohammedan arms be a fulfilment of the pro- 
phetic vision of a nocturnal visit to Jerusalem, and through the 
temple, to the seventh heaven, b}' Mohammed ? 

The key to the success of Mohammed's movement, and ultimately 
to the success of the Mohammedan arms, was the doctrine of one 
infinite and invisible God which the prophet preached, a doctrine 
which commends itself to, and is at once approved by the human 
understanding. The prophet being transported in visions, or having 
transported himself, as it were, in allegory, from Mecca, the very seat 
and centre of idol worship, to Jerusalem and its temple, where the 
one invisible God was alone wont to be worshipped, would at once 



THE MOHAMMEDANS. 4{) 

symbolize the character of his mission as against idolatry, and his 
being taken up to the seventh heaven would indicate the complete 
success of his mission and movement. His feeling the cold hand of 
God pressing upon him, and having to retire when within two bow- 
shots of the throne, appears to indicate that he himself would die, 
and that the cold earth would receive him before his Mohammedans 
should succeed in taking Jerusalem and the temple ; but he being 
taken up to the seventh heaven, and admitted to the presence and 
converse of Deity, would still indicate complete success for his mis- 
sion. And it is a fact that Jerusalem was taken in the reign of the 
third caliph, Omar,* the second successor of Mohammed, so that the 
latter was within two prophetic bow-shots of the throne, and Omar 
himself worshipped in the temple, though not after the manner of the 
Jews or Christians. And would not the vision of paradise and of the 
dark-eyed maidens, the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, marble 
palaces, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the 
like, be amply fulfilled in the spoils not only of inanimate things, 
but of human beings, comprising myriads of the most beautiful and 
delicate females, which fell into the hands of the Mohammedans, Ara- 
bians and Turks, on their conquest of the nations and the great cities 
of the East, especially of the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia ? 
These conquests were continued from the rise of Mohammed, in the 
beginning of the seventh century, for a period of nearly nine hundred 
years, to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, and 
for some time after they were pushed forward in the Roman Empire 
in Europe. And would not his idea of hell be amply realized in the 
captivity, the enslavement, the despair, and the destruction of those 
who opposed the Mohammedan arms daring that long period and in 
that long series of conquests ? The history of the Mohammedan con- 
quests doubtless will tell. It seems very plain that the prophet or some 
one else connected with his movement, but most probably himself, 
had a series of visions, indicating the conquest of the Eastern Roman 
Empire, and the other eastern countries, by his followers, in which 
the main idea would be the subversion of idolatry and the establish- 
ment of the worship of the true God in its stead ; although he, or 
whoever experienced them, may not have fully understood at the 
time their import. Yet we must distinguish between these visions 
and some that seem clearly enough to have been falsely attributed to 
Mohammed. 

It is peculiar to Mohammedanism, among all religions, always to 
have enforced its tenets with the sword. The Mussulmans came 

* Mahomet died in 632; Jerusalem was taken in 637. 



46 CEEATOR AND COSMOS, 

with the sword in one hand, the Koran in the other, and left no alter- 
native between the acceptance of the faith of God and His apostle, 
and submission and tribute, or extermination. Mohammedanism swept 
like a destructive wave over the eastern, and to a great extent over 
the western nations, trailing the idols in the dust and grinding them 
to powder ; yea, and where it did not destroy idolatry it rebuked it, 
and it remains a standing rebuke to it to-day. In the Caaba, or an- 
cient temple of Mecca alone 360 idols were destroyed by Mohammed ; 
figures of men, eagles, lions, and antelopes, etc., which were conse- 
crated from time immemorial by different Arabian tribes, and those 
that were destroyed by the Mohammedans in both Pagan and Chris- 
tian temples over the wide extent of the globe where their arms have 
prevailed could, perhaps, hardly be numbered. 

After the apostle had undertaken to propagate his religion by the 
sword, he carried out his project with the greatest zeal and effect, 
though this was often attended, as seems inevitable in the case of an an- 
tagonist fighting for the success of his cause, if not for his life, with 
great cruelty. The prophet is represented to say, at the outstart of 
his mission : " The sword is the key of heaven and of hell ; a drop of 
blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more 
avail than two months spent in fasting and prayer ; whosoever 
falls in battle, his sins are forgiven; at the day of judgment his 
wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk ; 
and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and 
cherubim." Thus, the intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with 
enthusiasm ; the picture of the invisible world was painted vividly 
upon their imagination ; and the death which they had been wont to 
despise became an object of hope and desire. Before the battle of 
Yermuk, which took place a few years after Mohammed's death, where 
the}'' defeated the Roman army with prodigious slaughter, the exhor- 
tation of the general was brief and forcible : "Paradise is before you, 
the devil and hell fii-e in your rear." Also, the doctrine of fate and 
predestination, inculcated so strongly in the Koran, left the followers 
of Mohammed to advance fearlessly to battle ; for their idea was that 
there is no danger where there is no chance ; they were ordained to 
perish in their beds, or they were safe and invulnerable amid the 
darts of the enemy. 

The following is the most glaring specimen of the cruelties of 
Mohammed himself. There are said to have been seven hundred 
Jews who had joined with Koreish in resisting the prophet ; after a 
siege of twenty-five days they surrendered. On their surrender a 
venerable elder, whom they supposed an old acquaintance and 
friend, and to whom they had appealed, pronounced the sentence of 



THE MOHAMMEDANS. 47 

their death. The seven hundred were dragged in chains to the 
market-place of the city, and the prophet " beheld with an inflexible 
eye the destruction of his captive enemies." There may possibly be 
another version of this story, which would reflect more favorably 
upon the character of Mohammed ; and if this version be true, how 
do we know but that the conduct of these Jews had entitled them to 
harsh treatment at his hands, in retaliation for the injury they 
might or meant to have done his cause, although he might have been 
well satisfied with a milder proceeding towards them? If the story be 
true that these Jews were put to death with such aggravated cruelty 
as they are represented to have been, and that act had been authorized 
and justified by the laws of war, while we do not attempt to justify 
it, it will not still appear so bad as the slaughter of the four thousand 
five hundred Saxon captives by Charlemagne, M^hom that cruel tyrant 
had beheaded on the same spot. And if Mohammed is recognized by his 
followers as the apostle of God, Charlemagne is recognized as a Saint 
of the Roman Calendar; and this saint with a rare felicity is crowned 
with the praises of some of the historians and philosophers of an en- 
lightened age.* 

But we are to bear in mind that Mohammed in his extirpation of 
idolatry, claims to follow the example of the Israelites in their extir- 
pation of it from the land of Canaan ; and the same bloody precepts 
so repeatedly inculcated in the Koran are ascribed by the author to 
the books of Moses and even the Gospels. The mild tenor of the 
Gospels, should, however, have explained to him the text that Jesus 
did not bring peace on earth, but a sword. But the military laws of 
the Hebrews are even more rigid than those of the Arabian legis- 
lator. The Lord of hosts marched in person before the Israelites ; if 
a city resisted their summons the males without distinction were 
put to the sword ; the seven nations of Canaan were devoted to 
destruction; and neither repentance nor conversion could shield 
them from their inevitable doom that no creature within their con- 
fines should be left alive. The fair option of friendship, or sub- 
mission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies of Mohammed. If they 
professed the creed of Islam they were admitted to all the temporal 
and spiritual benefits of his primitive disciples, and marched under 
the same banner to extend the religion which they had embraced. 
The clemency of the prophet was decided by his interest, yet he 
rarely insulted a prostrate enemy ; and he appears to promise that on 
the payment of a tribute the least guilty of his unbelieving subjects 



•Mabley, "Observations on the History of France;" Voltaire, "General History;" Rob- 
ertson, " History of Charles V. ; " Montesquieu, " Spirit of the Laws; " etc. 



48 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

might be indulged in their worship, or at least in their imperfect 
faith. The choice of Jerusalem for the first Kebla of praj'er discovers 
the early propensity of Mohammed in favor of the Jews. Their rejec- 
tion of him converted his friendship into opposition and resentment, 
which he caused that unhappy people to experience to the last daj^s 
of his life ; and in the double character of an apostle and a con- 
queror his persecution was extended to both worlds. This resent- 
ment to the Jews is, however, thought to have been partly caused 
by his serious belief that he had been poisoned at Chaibar by a 
Jewish female. 

If we inquire into the causes which operated on Mohammed and 
led him to adopt and to follow the course which he did in the 
propagation of his faith, and the extension of his empire, we shall 
find them to be mainly two. First, he felt fully impressed from his 
early life with a divine mission for the extirpation of idolatry, and 
the promulgation of the faith of one God. This sprung from the 
principle of truth within him, which is also in every human being, 
by his holy and devotional manner of life gradually ripening to per- 
fection, and which was the great cause. We cannot say that from 
his early youth he was instructed in the faith of the divine unity, for 
his mother Amina, who was a Jewess, and who would have been 
likely to have so instructed him, died while he was an infant, as did 
also his father and his grandfather. But he was in his youth of a 
pious contemplative disposition, of a mind susceptible of the im- 
pressions of truth, if perchance he could only come by them in any 
way. During the first twenty-five years of his life or before he 
entered with Cadijah, whom he afterwards married, he may have 
been to a great extent surrounded with Jewish and Christian influ- 
ences, for these two sects were abundantly represented in Mecca, his 
native city, at that time. The unity of God is an idea most con- 
genial to nature and reason ; and intercourse and conversation with 
the Jews and Christians would teach him to despise and detest the 
idolatry of Mecca. He would feel it his duty as a man and a citizen 
to rescue and save his country from the dominion of sin and error. 
The teachings, therefore, which he would receive from the Jews and 
Christians, and from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, especially 
from the former — for the Scriptures of the Old Testament more par- 
ticularly were those which he took for the rule and guide of his 
life — would be the second cause which might be assigned for 
Mohammed taking the course which he did, and which, speaking cor- 
rectly, would be only an accidental cause ; but though accidental, 
none the less effectual ; for if Mohammed had been born and raised in 
other circumstances than those in which he was, that is, if he had 



THE MOHAMMEDANS. 49 

been born and brought up in a place where he would not be sur- 
rounded or influenced by Jews or Christians, but only by Arabian 
idolaters, although he might be genuinely good, morally, in his 
youth and live righteously during his life, yet as to his religion he 
would be likely to live and die not remarkably different from his 
idolatrous neighbors. To his ignorance and prejudice is to be 
attributed the peculiar interpretation which he gave to the Hebrew 
Scriptures. It is well known that Mohammed was not well learned; 
it is even thought by some from certain passages that occur in the 
Koran that he could not read nor write ; but there seems to us to be 
good evidence of his being able to do both, though probably not very 
perfectly. The extent of his learning then did not permit him to com- 
prehend those Scriptures, and so, as an ignorant, illiterate man nat- 
urally would, he interpreted literally both the Old and the New 
Testament. This literal interpretation of the Old Testament satis- 
fied the prejudice of the Arabs, which they had in common with the 
Jews, of tracing back their pedigree to the first man, the Arabs 
through Ishmael, the Jews through Isaac. And not only so, but 
Mohammed gave his own peculiar intei'pretation to the apocryphal 
books of the Jews and Christians ; and the result of all these peculiar 
and various interpretations we find in the life and religious system of 
Mohammed in the Koran. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that 
Mohammed, taking the books of Moses for his guide in the extirpation 
of idolatry and the promulgation of his faith, should take the very 
course he did and propagate it by the sword. The wonder is, if any, 
that he proceeded so gently as he did against the idolators ; but it 
is probable that his conduct was moderated by the mild and gentle 
teachings of the Christian gospels. Ignorance is the mother of all 
false systems of religion, and Mohammed, in so far as he has given a 
false meaning to the Scriptures, and has put them before the world in 
the Koran, with a mixture of Arabic and other Eastern fables, in this 
false light, is not improperly styled a false prophet ; in other respects 
he was worthy of the name of a true prophet and a true man. As 
for his system of religion, in so far as it is good, and there are many 
good points in it, it speaks for itself; and in so far as it is not good, 
and there are some things practised in it which ai-e unnecessary and 
wrong, it also is judged by the common sense of an enlightened man- 
kind. 

There are many things in the life of the Arabian prophet which 
areindeed worthy of example. When Mohammed might have been a 
king he despised the pomp of I'oyalty ; the apostle submitted to the 
menial offices of the family ; he kindled the fire, swept the floor, 
milked the ewes, and mended with his own hand liis shoes and his 
Vol. II.— 4 



50 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

woollen garment. Disdaining the life of a monk or the penance of a 
hermit, he observed without effort or vanity the abstemious diet of 
an Arab and a soldier. On certain occasions he feasted his com- 
panions with rustic and hospitable plenty, but in his domestic life 
many weeks would elapse without a fire being kindled on his hearth. 
The interdiction of Avine was confirmed by his example ; he used a 
sparing allowance of barley bread to satisfy his hunger; he delighted 
in the taste of milk and honey ; but his ordinary food consisted of 
dates and water. Perfumes and women were the two sensual enjoy- 
ments which he took pleasure in, and which his religion did not for- 
bid. The social life of the Mohammedans is regulated by the civil 
and religious law of the Koran ; the boundless license of polygamy is 
reduced to four legitimate wives or concubines ; but Mohammed dis- 
pensed himself from the laws which he had imposed upon his follow- 
ers, and still, while not disposed to favor polygamy in any way, if we 
remember the seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines of 
the wise Solomon, we shall be inclined to applaud the moderation of 
the Arabian prophet who espoused no more than fifteen or seventeen 
wives. 

In closing this account of the ancient religions, we may state that 
the systems of mythology of the ancient nations varied according to 
the genius of the different peoples. The experience of mankind in 
all nations* and ages demonstrates that man acknowledges and 
recognizes the existence of a Being infinitely greater every way than 
himself, and with Avhich he is himself in some Avay connected. This 
knowledge has its origin in an innate sense, which is strengthened 
and developed, and brought to a full conviction by the daily obser- 
vation and experience of life. This Infinite Being the different 
ancient nations represented in so many different ways according to 
the view which their peculiar genius or turn of character, and their 
ignorance of the constitution of nature and of the true God, caused 
them to take of Him. 

Thus the Egj^ptians acknowledged and worshipped Deity not only 
in personifications, but especially in the animal creation. 

The Iranians, that is, the Medes, Persians, and Bactrians, ac- 
knowledged Deity first under the abstract idea of uncreated Time, 
then under metaphysical personifications of good and evil, light and 
darkness, and fire, until they ultimately came to worship material 
fire, which thej continue yet to some extent to do. 

The Indians, or Hindoos, at different periods of their history con- 
ceived of the Deity differently. They, first, according to their ex- 

* The ancient Chinese can hardly be called an exception to this statement 



CAPITULATION OF THE AKCIENT BELIGIONS. 51 

tant literature, worshipped the Invisible and Infinite Being which 
they conceived to have given birth to all visible and finite things. 
In another and succeeding age they change this simple and original 
notion of Deity into polytheism," and worship the stars, the elements, 
and all the powers of nature as divine beings that had emanated from 
one supreme being. They now recognize Brahma, himself conceived 
as a created being, who, with the assistance of the Pradshaptis, 
brought into existence all the various living creatures. They con- 
ceive also eight spirits, under whose guardianship is nature in its 
various departments or localities. Then, according to their national 
epics, they conceive of the gods in definite forms descending to the 
earth and taking part in the concerns of men, and worship their 
images set up in temples. Brahma (neuter) now appears as the 
supreme deity under the three names or characters of Brahma the 
creator, Siva the destroyer, Vishnu the preserver. Then comes an 
age when one of these three deities or characters of deity is itself 
worshipped as the Supreme God. 

Then arose Buddhism in the midst of Brahmin ism, which taught 
that the power of Buddha or perfect man was greater than that of 
Brahma, and which resulted (though it does not seem to have been 
so intended by its founder) in the worship of Buddha, a deified man, 
and a host of other deified men. And still the worship of Deity, as 
variously symbolized by differently formed idols, is practised by the 
Hindoos. 

The Babylonians and Phoenicians acknowledged the Deity in the 
heavenly bodies, which they conceived in human forms, with all the 
faculties and passions of human nature. 

The ancient Chinese acknowledged Deity especially in the moral, 
pious and dutiful life of their people ; in more recent times they 
have, to a large extent, fallen into the idolatry of Buddhism. 

The ancient Pelasgians, Greeks, and Romans acknowledged Deity 
in the powers of nature, which they conceived in the forms of hu- 
man beings, male and female, and which they honored in various ways, 
even to the extent of human sacrifices. 

The Germans and other northern nations acknowledged Deity 
especially in the sun, moon, earth and fire. 

The Hebrews acknowledged Deity as a being aside from and above 
nature, but still in some way connected with nature and themselves, 
which they indistinctly personified under the names Elohim and 
Jehovah ; and also under visible material forms as represented in the 
calf-idols at Bethel and Dan. 

The American Indians acknowledge Deity as the great spirit per- 
vading all nature, ever and everywhere present. 



52 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

As for the mythological system of the Druids, their silence and 
secrecy concerning it, in the practice of their worship, and in leaving 
no literary records, prevent us from having any definite knov^^ledge 
of it. 

The Mohammedans acknowledge Deity as a being infinite and 
invisible, omnipresent and omnipotent. 

Trinitarian Christians, a name which embraces the three great 
branches of Christians, Greek, Latin, and Reformed, as they all profess 
the faith of the Trinity, acknowledge and worship Deity as existing 
in some mysterious Avay, which they describe as three persons united 
in one being, so that there are three, and still there is only one ; a 
being which, indeed, as they have explained it, is only imaginary, or 
cannot be understood ; but when rightly explained the Trinity sets 
forth a reality ; for who will not understand that a father must be a 
son, and may, if he but will, be a holy person or influence ? If he 
be not a good, and true, and holy person he never will be likely to 
understand himself as representing the Trinity. The Trinity is not 
three persons in one but one person in three characters, for the pur- 
pose we believe of illustrating the eternal Son ship of Christ ; and 
each human being may represent the Trinity. 

Review op the account of Jesus Christ, including the ac- 
count OF John the Baptist as set forth in the four Gos- 
pels, COMPARED AND EXAMINED FROM THE ORIGINAL GrEEK. 

We here deem it necessary to give a Review, critical and explana. 
tory, of the account of Jesus Christ as we find it set forth in the 
four gospels : First as to the account of His birth and life until He 
has chosen his twelve apostles ; and to do this the more fully and 
intelligibly we shall have to give the account of the forerunner, 
John the Baptist, as the early histories of the two characters are some- 
what interwoven with each other. Second, and following this, we 
shall give a review of the miracles of Jesus as we find them recorded, 
in the four gospels. And, thirdly, a review of the account of the 
preliminaries to the trial, the trial, the crucifixion, resurrection, and 
post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, as set foi-th in the four gospels. 
And, fourthly, we shall give a short review and examination of the 
book of the Acts of the Apostles. In our review of the account of 
John the Baptist and of Christ we shall have to transcribe in full 
from the four gospels the passages which bear on these subjects so 
that the text itself shall be before the eyes of our readers for them 
to compare and judge of, not only in part but in whole before pro- 
nouncing any opinion concerning them ; and in each case we shall 



EEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 53 

compare the several accounts with each other, show wherein they 
agree or disagree, and illustrate and explain them. 

We shall carry on the disquisition throughout in accordance with 
the popular idea of the gospels being authentic history, and see how 
matters stand with respect to them on that ground. 

First, as to the birth of John, and the birth and life of Christ until 
He has chosen His twelve apostles. In Luke's gospel only is there 
an account given of the birth of John ; and therefore we shall begin 
with Luke ; otherwise we should commence with the first gospel in 
order. According to LuJce, chap. I., it is : " Forasmuch as many have 
taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which 
are most assuredly believed among us, even as they delivered them 
unto us, which from the beginning were eye-witnesses, and ministers 
of the word ; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect under- 
standing of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, 
most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of 
those things, in which thou hast been instructed. 

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain 
priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia : and his wife was of 
the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they 
were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments 
and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, 
because that Elisabeth was barren, and they were now well advanced 
in years. And it came to pass, that as he executed the priest's 
oflice before God in the order of his course, according to the custom 
of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into 
the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were 
praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto 
him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of 
incense. And when Zacharias saw him he was troubled, and fear 
fell upon him. But the angel said unto him : fear not, Zacharias ; 
for thy prayer is heard ; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, 
and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and 
gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in 
the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ; 
and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's 
womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord 
their God. And he shall go before him (''^di-urj. lit. before his face) 
in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to 
the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just: to make 
ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias said unto the 
angel : Whereby shall I know this ? for I am an old man and my 
wife well advanced in years'. And the angel answering said unto 



54 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

him : I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God : and am sent 
to speak unto thee, and to show thee glad tidings. And behold, thou 
shalt be dumb, and not be able to speak, until the day that these 
things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, 
which shall be fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for 
Zacharias and wondered that he tarried so long in the temple. And 
when he came out he could not speak unto them, and they perceived 
that he had seen a vision in the temple : for he beckoned unto them 
and remained speechless. And it came to pass, that, as soon as the 
days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own 
house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid 
herself five months, saying : Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the 
days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among 
men. 

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God £o a 
city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose 
name was Joseph, of the house of David ; and the virgin's name was 
Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said : Hail, thou that art 
highly favored ; the Lord is with thee : blessed art thou among, 
women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, 
and considered in her mind what manner of salutation this should 
be. And the angel said unto her. Fear not, Mary : for thou hast 
found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy 
womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He 
shall be great, and shall be called the son of the Highest, and the 
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David : and 
he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever ; and of his kingdom 
there shall be no end. Then said Mary to the angel : how shall this 
be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto 
her: the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the 
Highest shall overshadow thee ; therefore also that holy thing which 
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, 
thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age ; 
and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For 
with God nothing shall be impossible. And Ma.i-j said : Behold the 
handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to thy word. And 
the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those days, and 
went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Juda ; and entered 
into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to 
pass, tliat, Avhen Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe 
leaped in her womb, and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit : 
and she spake out in a loud voice, and said : Blessed art thou among 
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this 



KBVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 55 

to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me ? For, lo, as 
soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe 
leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed : for 
there shall be a performance of these things which were told her from 
the Lord. And Mary said : My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my 
spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the 
low estate of his handmaiden : for, behold, from lienceforth all gener- 
ations shall call me blessed. For he. that is mighty hath done to me 
great things ; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that 
fear him, from generation to generation. He hath showed strength 
with his arm : he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their 
hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted 
them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things ; 
and the rich he hath sent away empty. He hath helped his servant 
Israel, in remembrance of his mercy ; as he spoke to our forefathers, 
Abraham, and to his seed forever. AndJMary abode with her about 
three months, and returned to her own house. 

Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered ; and 
she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard 
how that the Lord had showed great mercy upon her ; and they re- 
joiced with her. And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they 
came to circumcise the child ; and they called him Zacharias, after the 
name of his father. And his mother answered and said : Not so ; 
but he shall be called John. And they said unto her : There is none 
of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to 
his father, how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing 
table, and wrote, saying ; His name is John. And they all marvelled. 
And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, 
and he spake, praising God. And fear cam.e on all that dwelt round 
about them : and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout 
all the hill country of Judsea. And all they that heard them laid 
them up in their hearts, saying : What manner of child shall this be ! 
And the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias 
was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying : Blessed be 
the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 
and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his ser- 
vant David ; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which 
have been since the world began : that we should be saved from our 
enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us ; to perform the mercy 
promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the 
oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant 
unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, 
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before 



/)6 CREATOR i^ND COSMOS. 

him, all the clays of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the 
prophet of the Highest : for thou shalt go before the face of the 
Lord to prepare his way ; to give knowledge of salvation unto his 
people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of 
our God ; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us ; to 
give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; 
to guide our feet in the way of peace. And the child grew, and 
waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desert, till the day of his 
showing unto Israel." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

The foregoing is the only account given in the four gospels of 
the birth of John, and the annunciation by the angel of the birth of 
Chiist as well as John. Luke, the ascribed writer of the gospel, was 
not one of the apostles of Christ, nor was he a Jew. Tradition says 
he was a Gentile, and was born at Antioch in Syria, and ascribes his 
conversion to St. Paul. But Paul himself was not converted till 
some years after Jesus of Nazareth was crucified ; therefore, is this 
Gospel considered historical, written by one not a present witness of 
what he relates ? But Christ is not represented to have chosen any 
of His apostles until He was thirty years of age; and, considering 
that this gospel was written thirty years later, say A. D. 60, than 
which it does not appear to have been sooner, how did the writer know 
that which he here relates concerning John the Baptist and the com- 
ing of Christ ? But, he says, in the preface to his gospel, verse 2d, that 
he has received his information from those who from the beginning 
were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word. By these eye-witnesses 
one would naturally suppose he meant the apostles. But none of 
these are represented as having been chosen to accompany Jesus till 
he was thirty years of age. It seems most probable that the aged 
Zacharias and Elisabeth must have died before Jesus could have chosen 
His apostles: for it is said that at the time of the angel's visit to them 
they were both well advanced in years. Mary, the mother of Jesus, 
however, is represented still to have remained alive, and to have been 
a contemporary with the apostles, and to have survived the crucifix- 
ion of her son. The only way then in which the writer of the third 
gospel could have come by this which he here relates to us was by 
tradition, that is, by its having been delivered orally or written from 
one to another till it came to him. Zacharias and his wife and Mary 
might have communicated these facts to John the Baptist, and Jesus, 



REVIEW OP THE GOSPELS. 57 

and the disciples ; and these latter might have delivered them to 
Paul ; and thence, or from some other of the disciples, Luke, the 
writer of the third gospel, might perhaps have derived them ; so that 
there would in any case require to be considerable intercommunica- 
tion of these facts before they could have come to the ears of the 
writer, which would not make them as facts any the less facts. But 
let it be particularly remarked here that the writer states most of this 
account we give from the first chapter of Luke in the oratio directa, 
that is, he repeats the sentiments delivered by those of whom he is re- 
lating, not in his own words, but in the words in which they gave 
them themselves. He, in short, represents these persons as them- 
selves speaking. Now how could the writer of this narrative know 
the precise words in which the angel spoke to Zacharias and the lat- 
ter to the angel in the temple ; Luke, ch. I., ver. 11-21 ? How could 
he know the precise words in which Elisabeth spoke when she hides 
herself for five months: verse 25? The precise words in which the 
angel spake to Mary, or she to the angel ; verses 28-38 ? The precise 
words in which Elisabeth spoke to Mary, or Mary to Elisabeth in 
tlieir interview with each other on Mary's visit to Elisabeth's house ; 
verses 42-56? The precise words of the discourse between Elisabeth 
and her relatives as to the name to be given to the infant, finally 
called John ; verses 58-64 ? Or the precise words of Zacharias' proph- 
ecy which he delivers on having recovered from his dumbness; verses 
67-80 ? These are questions to which we cannot give any reasonable 
or satisfactory answer, for we do not conceive how in the circumstances 
he could know what precisely they did say. And besides all this, how 
does it happen that none of the other gospels gives any account of these 
tilings but this ; although the ascribed writers of two of them, namely 
Matthew and John, are represented in Church history as of the number 
of the twelve apostles? For the want, therefore, of evidence, either in- 
ternal or external, to prove its historical authenticity, we cannot con- 
clude this narrative as in the main having a literal signification. 
Still we believe there was some event which gave a foundation to 
the story, for there was born and has lived such a man as John 
the Baptist; and how we understand the Gospel narratives, and 
probably also our idea of inspiration, may be perceived by the care- 
ful reader the more clearly as he proceeds. 

CONCERKING THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST. 

According to MattJieiv, ch. /., vej-se IS to end of chaj^ter : " Now 
the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise : when as his mother Mary 



58 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found 
with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a 
just man, and not wishing to make her a public example, was minded 
to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things be- 
hold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying ; 
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; 
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she 
shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his iiame Jesus ; for lie 
shall save the people from their sins. Now all this was done that it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, 
saying : Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a 
son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted, 
is God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the 
angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and 
knew her not until she had brought forth her first-born son ; and he 
called his name Jesus. Ch. II. : Now when Jesus was born in Beth- 
lehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the King, behold there came 
wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying : Where is he that is 
born King of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the east, and are 
come to worship him. When Herod the king heard these things he 
was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had 
gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he de- 
manded of them where Christ should be born. And the}^ said unto 
him, in Bethlehem of Judsea ; for thus it is written by the prophet : 
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among 
the princes of Juda ; for oiit of thee shall come a governor that shall 
rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the 
wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 
And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said : Go search diligently 
for the young child ; and when ye have found him, bring me Avord 
again that I may come and worship him also. When they had heard 
the King they departed ; and lo, the star which they saw in the east 
went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child 
was. When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great 
joy. And when they were come into the house they saw the young 
child with Mary its mother, and fell down and worshipped him ; and 
when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, 
gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a 
dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into 
their own country another way. And when they were dej^arted, 
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying: 
Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, 
and be thou there until I bring thee word ; for Herod will seek the 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 59 

young child to destroy him. When he arose he took the young 
child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt : and was 
there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I 
called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of 
the wise men, was exceeding angry, and sent forth and slew all the 
children that were in Bethlehem, and in all its precincts, from two 
years old and under, according to the time when he had diligently 
enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken 
by Jeremy the prophet, saying: In Rama there was a voice heard, 
lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning : Rachel weeping for 
her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. 

But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appear- 
eth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying : Arise, and take the 
young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel : for they 
are dead which sought the young child's life. And he arose, and 
took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of 
Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judsea in 
the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither : notwith- 
standing, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the 
parts of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth : 
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets : He 
shall be called a Nazarene." 

Concerning the same, according to Luke, ch. 11. : " And it came to 
pass in those days that there went out a decree from Csesar Augustus 
that all the world should be subjected to a census. And this census 
was first made when Cj^renius was governor of Syria. And all went 
to be enrolled, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went 
up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city 
of David, which is called Bethlehem ; because he was of the house 
and lineage of David, to be enrolled Avith Mary his espoused wife, 
being great with child. And so it was that while they were there 
the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she 
brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling 
clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for 
them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds 
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And, 
lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord 
shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel 
said unto them: Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this 
day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And 
this shall be a sign unto you :' ye shall find the babe wrapped in 



60 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with 
the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying : 
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward 
men. And it came to pass, as the angels Avere gone away from them 
into heaven, the shepherds said one to another : Let us now go even 
to Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the 
Lord hath made known u to us. And they came with haste, and 
found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when 
they had seen it they made known abroad th^ saying which was told 
them concerning the child. Aiid all they that heard it wondered at 
those things which were told them by the shejjherds. But Mary 
kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shep- 
herds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that 
they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. And when eight 
days were accomj)lished for the circumcising of the child, his name 
was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was 
conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification, ac- 
cording to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they brought him to 
Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ; (as it is written in the Law 
of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy 
to the Lord ;) and to offer a sacrifice, according to that which is said 
in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. 
And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, 
and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation 
of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it was revealed 
unto him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he 
had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the 
temple ; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for 
him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms and 
blessed God, and said : Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people ; a light to 
lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph 
and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. 
And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother : Behold 
this (child) is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and 
for a sign which shall be spoken against ; (yea, and *a sword shall 
pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts 
may be revealed. And there Avas one Anna, a prophetess, the 
daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser ; she was of a great age, 
and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; and 
she was a widow of about four-score and four years, who departed 
not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 61 

and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto 
the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in 
Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things according to 
the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city 
Nazareth. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with 
wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him. Now his parents 
went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when 
he was twelve years old they went up to Jerusalem after the custom 
of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they return- 
ed, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Jose^^h and his 
mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in 
the company, went a day's journey, and they sought him among their 
kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not they 
turned back again to Jerusalem seeking him. 

And it came to pass that after three days, they found him in the 
temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and 
asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at 
his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were 
amazed; and his mpther said unto him: Son, why hast thou thus 
dealt with us ; behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. 
And he said unto them: How is it that you sought me? Knew you 
not that I must be about my father's business ? And they under- 
stood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down 
with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. But 
his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased 
in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

These are the only accounts we liave purporting to be of the 
birth and youth of Jesus Christ. They both agree tbat a child was 
born at Bethlehem, of Judgea, whose name was called Jesus Christ, 
of parents whose respective names were Joseph and Mary. Tims 
tliey agree as to the child's name, his parents' names, and the 
name of the place of his birth ; as to all the rest, they certainly dif- 
fer much. In Luke the event of the nativity is made to coincide 
with the taking of a census in the Roman empire, when one named 
Cyrenius was governor of Syria. Here we meet with a difficulty in 
the outset. Roman history shows that Publius Sulpicius Quirinus 
(the name the nearest in form to Cyrenius, which we find in the his- 
tory of this period) who was consul in A. U. C. 742, or B. C. 12, 
was appointed governor of Sy)ia, after the banishment of Archelaus, 



62 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

in A. D. 6. He was sent to make an enrolment of property in Syria, 
and accordingly made both there and in Judaea a census. It also 
shows one named Sentius Saturninus to have been governor nf- 
Syria at the time Jesus is said to have been born : but A. W. 
Zumpt, of Berlin, wrought out some able arguments to show the 
probability of Quiriuus having been appointed twice to the same 
office, his first term of government extending from B. C. 4 to B. C. 
1, when he was succeeded by M. LoUius, which is probably correct. 
This difficulty with respect to Cyrenius has been solved variously by 
modern scholars, some supposing a corruption in the text of Luke, 
and others giving some unusual sense to his words.* The account 
in Matthew does not represent Joseph and Mary to have lived in 
Nazareth previous to the birth of Christ ; but to have gone to reside 
there after their return from Egypt with the infant Christ, to avoid 
being persecuted by Archelaus ; (so that their happening to reside 
there would, according to this, be rather a matter of accident), and 
thereby that a prophecy referring to another f person and thing, 
which had already long before been fulfilled in another or in others, 
might be fulfilled. It is noticeable by any reader of Matthew's Gos- 
pel, that the writer of it delights to represent all these events which 
took place in the life of Christ as fulfilments of prophecies ; and if 
one takes a little pains to find out, he will discover that almost all 
these prophecies had already been fulfilled long before in the charac- 
ters to which they particularly referred. But it is true that a prophecy 
once fulfilled may be re-verified ever so often, for history repeats 
itself with respect to persons and things. But in Luke, the residence 
of Joseph and Mary is represented to have been in Nazareth, not only 
after, but before the birth of Christ ; for it was there the angel 
Gabriel is said to have come to Mary and made the announcement to 
her of the coming Christ ; from thence she departed into the hill 
country of Judaea to visit Elisabeth ; and thence they go up to Beth- 
lehem in Judaea to have themselves enrolled, a journey which is not 
improbable to have taken place, and that for the cause that is given, 
namely, that Joseph was of the house and lineage of David. It ap- 
pears probable that no Roman law required the people of Nazareth, 
or of any other city or neighborhood, to leave their own locality to 
have their names enrolled in the census list. But still there might 
have been various causes to bring a man and his wife even from 
Nazareth to Bethlehem, and the desire of adding their name to a gen- 
ealogical list traceable to the royal stock of David would not be like- 



* See Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. Cj-renius. But Cyrenius is doubtless from Greek 
form for Quirinus. 

f Samson or Samuel, Judges XIII. 5: I Sam. I. 11, or both. 



BEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 63 

ly to be the least ; for we know that the Jews as well as other Asiatic, 
and even European, peoples, take great pride in tracing their pedi- 
gree and preserving their genealogy. Indeed so strong is this desire 
for having a genealogy to exhibit, tracing pedigree back to what is 
regarded as a respectable stock, that it is very certain there are 
many genealogical lists that are not entirely correct. In Matthew, 
althousfh it is said that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it does not 
say that Joseph and Mary lived there ; nor does it mention what 
brought them there. 

While, in Matthew, wise men, or Magi, are represented as com- 
ing from the East to Jerusalem, guided by a star, on the occasion 
of the birth of Christ, and enquiring, where is he that is born King 
of the Jews ; for we have seen his star in the East, and are come 
to worship him? — in Luke those that come are shepherds, who 
were in the same country, Palestine, abiding in the field, keeping 
watch over their flock by night. The Magi, or wise men, were 
a caste of priests, especially peculiar to Media, Persia, and Bactria, 
etc., but not at all to Palestine ; the shepherds wei'e peculiar to 
Palestine, and common to it with other countries ; and their occupa- 
tion is, and has always been, not sacred but secular. Also, while the 
Magi come to Jerusalem and enquire about the infant king, whose 
star they had seen in the East, by which they occasion so much 
anxiety to Herod and the people of Jerusalem, the shepherds go 
direct to Bethlehem and find Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying 
in a manger. While the Magi, being astrologers, are guided by a 
star from the East to Jerusalem, and thence to Bethlehem, till it 
came and stood over where the young child was — 'the simple shep- 
herds, (having the birth announced to them by one angel which 
gives them the sign : Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling 
clothes and lying in a manger ; and then suddenly with him a mul- 
titude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God 
in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will toward men,) go 
direct to Bethlehem and find even as the angel had told them. 
While in Matthew the Magi have a very important interview with 
Herod at Jerusalem — in Luke's account of the nativity nothino- 
whatever is said of Herod, or Jerusalem, or the star, or the wise 
men. While the Magi find the young child in the house, and on 
beholding him fall down and worship him, and having opened their 
treasures present to him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh — noth- 
ing is said as to the shepherds either worshipping him or presenting 
to him gifts ; the shepherds find him in different circumstances ; 
they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe 
lying in a manger. And while the Magi, being warned of God in a 



64 CBEATOE AND COSMOS. 

dream that they should not return to Herod, depart into their owa 
country another way — the shepherds, when they had seen him, 
" make known abroad the saying that was told them concerning 
the child, and returned, glorifying and praising God for all the 
things that they had heard and seen." " And," according to Mat- 
thew, " when they," L e., the Magi " were departed, behold the 
angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying : Arise, 
and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and 
be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young 
child to destroy him. When he arose he took the young child and 
his mother by night, and fled into Egypt, and was there until the 
death of Herod, that it might be fulfllled which was spoken of the 
Lord by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called my 
son ; " which last expression is not a prophecy, but only a reference 
by the prophet Hosea to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt in 
the time of Moses.* Nothing is said in Luke of this flight into 
Eg3^pt. But there comes hereupon, in Matthew, an account of 
Herod's slaying all the children of and under two years old that 
were in Bethlehem and its coasts, an act of which no mention is 
made in Luke, nor in any other sacred or profane writer except 
those who may have quoted it from the account in Matthew. And 
supposing such a slaughter to have taken place, would it not be 
very likely to have been mentioned by some of the historians of 
that age, — say, the Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote the 
history of Herod's reign, — if not by some of the Roman historians? 
Such an act, as it is represented to have been, would certainly seem 
to have been a fit subject for history. And this act, according to 
Matthew, fulfils a prophecy of Jeremiah, which he spoke with refer- 
ence to the land of Israel being left desolate of the Jews who were 
taken captive to Babjdon, and would not appear to have the slightest 
reference to such a case as this of the reputed killing of the infants of 
Bethlehem. f According to Matthew, ch. I., even Christ was born 
in order that a prophecy might be fulfilled ; for after the angel 
announces in a dream to Joseph the birth of a child, Jesus, which 
was begotten of the Holy Spirit, and enjoins on him to take Mary 
to his wife, it is said: "Now all tliis was done that it might be 
fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying: 
Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and 
they shall call his name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is 
God with us." Now this prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in another 

*See Hosea XL 1. And as to this "round trip" of Joseph with his wife and child, 
as recorded in Matthew, there would appear no improbability in the thing itself if divested 
of collaterals. 

f See Jeremiah XXXI. 15. 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 65 

seven hundred years before Christ is said to have been born.* While 
in Matthew it is said that Joseph knew lier not until she had brought 
forth her first-born son, and called his name Jesus — in Luke this is 
not said ; but according to Luke, oh. L, the angel says to her : 
" The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the high- 
est shall overshadow thee ; therefore also that holy thing which shall 
be born of thee shall be called the son of God." The Christian world 
has scarcely 3'et realized that the Holy Spirit is one and the same 
with the Father and the Son ; and the not understanding this simple 
fact has caused much useless and vexatious controversy and sense- 
less jargon in the church, yea, and much hatred and bloodshed among 
professing Christians. They have scarcely yet come to the understand- 
ing of this further simple fact that angel means messenger, and that 
this messenger is as likely to be a living human being as an idea or 
picture which presents itself to the mind, and communicates to the 
understanding.! In Luke alone an account is given of the circum- 
cision of Christ, cli. n., 21-55, and mention made of the aged Simeon. 
Bat how did the writer of this narrative know the precise words of the 
thanksgiving and prophetic discourse of Simeon, ch. IL, 25-36 ?— for the 
writer speaks in the oratio directa. Also, in Luke alone mention is made 
of the agedprophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, " who departed 
not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night 
and day." In Luke alone mention is made of Joseph and Mary 
going to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover ; of Jesus 
going up with them when he was twelve years old; of his parents 
seeking him among the company on their return home, and, not find- 
ing him, going back to Jerusalem, and finding him, after a three 
days' search, sitting among the doctors in the temple, hearing them 
and asking them questions ; of the surprise that was manifested by 
all at his understanding and answers ; and of his mother saying to 
him : Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us ? Behold thy father 
and I have sought thee sorrowing ; and of his answer to this ques- 
tion : Knew ye not that I must be about my father's^ business : which 
might have suggested to her that her son acknowledged another 
father besides Joseph. Now how did the writer know, himself evident- 
ly not a present witness, the precise words in which Mary addressed 
Jesus in the temple, or in which he answered her? for the writer 
uses the oratio directa. We know that the writer of the third gospel, 
if he received these accounts at all, which he gives us concerning the 

•See Isa. VII., and Smith's B. D., art. "Emannuel." 

t From this it must not be suspected that we are possibly ignorant of the existence of invis- 
ible spiritual intelligences as angels. 

X Christ is called the Son of God, also the Son of Man. See, also, the speech of Paul 
on Mars Hill, Acts XVII. 

Vol. II.— 5 



66 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

youth of Christ, must have received them bj tr9,dition. Hovs^ then 
is it that he mentions so many things which are not mentioned in 
Matthew's account ? We have only these two accounts given of the 
birth and youth of Christ ; in Mark, the account of his life, com- 
mencing with his baptism ; in John after this, for even his baptism 
is not here mentioned. And how is it that in the account in 
Matthew so many things are mentioned which are not mentioned in 
that in Luke ? But how in particular is it that these two accounts 
of the birth and youth of Christ are so totally different that they 
have scarcely anything in common ? If these two accounts were 
received by way of tradition by two disciples and followers of the 
same Jesus, say within one hundred and fifty jeavs after his death, 
how is it that they are so entirely different that if the names Joseph, 
and Mary, and Bethlehem were omitted they would have nothing 
in common ; and that they appear like two different accounts of the 
birth and youth of two different persons ? These are plain questions, 
and (both accounts coming to us with the same authority) since we 
cannot answer them satisfactorily must we not decide both to be of 
the character of allegorical elaborations ? Again, as we know from 
the teachings of natural science that a body cannot occupy more 
than one place at the same time, so we know that the birth of Christ 
could have taken place but in one way. But in these two accounts 
we find two different sets of circumstances almost entirely dissimilar 
to each other related as connected with it. If, for illustration, a 
child is rumored to be born to some distinguished person in Europe, 
say some queen, and the circumstances of the birth are related in 
two different ways by two different persons, say in the states of Ohio 
and Connecticut, both of whom we judge of equal credibility, but 
neither of whom witnessed what he relates ; which of these accounts 
are we to take as the true one? If we judge impartially and fairly 
we shall conclude that the birth, if it did occur, may not have taken 
place in either way in which it has been represented by them, and 
therefore shall have to await fresh information concerning it, in the 
absence of which we may decide the reputed birth not to have 
occurred at all, or the report to have some other meaning than 
what either of the narrations would appear to convey. But, more- 
over, the style of the narratives here, especially in respect to the 
cratio directa, used by one whom all decide nol to have been a present 
witness of what he relates, determines the representation to be uulit- 
eral, or, in other words, allegorical, which, iu the case of the Gospel 
representations, is of equal importance as if it were literal, if it may 
not be found to be of greater importance. 



review of the gospels. 07' 

The subject continued : John's Ministry and Christ's Bap- 
tism. 

According to Matthew, ch. III.: "In those days came John the 
Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judsea, and saying : Repent 
ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was 
spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying : The voice of one crying 
in the wilderness : Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths 
straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and 
a leathern girdle about his loins ; and his meat was locusts and wild 
honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judsea, and all the 
region roundabout Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, con- 
fessing their sins. 

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees 
come to his baptism he said unto them : O generation of vipers, who 
hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? Bring forth there- 
fore fruits corresponding to amendment of life. And think not to 
say within yourselves : We have Abraham to our father ; for I say 
unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto 
Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees ; 
therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down 
and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repent- 
ance ; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes 
I am not worthy to bear ; he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, 
and with fire ; whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge 
his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner ; and he will burn up 
the chaff with unquenchable fire. 

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be bap- 
tized of him. But John forbade him, saying: I have need to be bap- 
tized of thee, and comest thou to me ? And Jesus answering said to 
him : Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all 
righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus when he was 
baptized, went up straightway out of the water ; and, lo, the heavens 
were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like 
a dove, and lighting upon him ; and, lo, a voice from heaven, saying : 
This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." The same ac- 
cording to Mark, ch. I. verses 1-13 : " The beginning of the gospel of 
Jesus Christ, the son of God. As it is written in the prophets : Behold 
I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way 
before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness : Prepare 
ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John did baptize 
in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance unto the 
remission of sins. And there went out to him all the land of Judaea, 



68 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river 
Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel's 
liair, and with a girdle of skin about his loins ; and he did eat locusts 
and wild honey; and preached, saying: There cometh one mightier 
than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to 
unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize 
you with the holy spirit. And it came to pass in these daj's that 
Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized of John in 
Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water he saw the 
heavens opened, and the spirit like a dove descending upon him. 
And there came a voice from heaven, saying : Thou art my beloved 
son, in whom I am well pleased." 

The same according to Liike^ ch. TIL, 1-23 : " Now in the fifteenth 
year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of 
Judaea, and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip 
Tetrarch of Itursea, and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias 
the Tetrarch of Abilene ; Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests • 
the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilder- 
ness. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the 
baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. As it is written in 
the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying : The voice of one 
crying in the wilderness : Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make 
his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain 
and hill shall be brought low ; and the crooked shall be made straight 
and the rough ways made smooth. And all flesh shall see the salva- 
tion of God. Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be 
baptized of him. O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to 
flee from the wrath to come ? Bring forth therefore fruits correspond- 
ing to repentance ; and begin not to say within yourselves ; We have 
Abraham to our father ; for I say unto you that God is able of these 
stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is 
laid unto the root o1 the trees. Every tree, therefore, which bringeth 
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And the 
people asked him, saying : what shall we do then? He answereth 
and saith unto them : He that hath two coats let him impart to him 
that hath none ; and he that hath meat let him do likewise. Then 
came also publicans to be bajjtized, and said unto him : Teacher, what 
shall we do? And he said unto them: Exact no more than that 
which is appointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, 
saying : And what shall we do ? And he said unto them : Do vio- 
lence to no man, neither accuse any falsely ; and be content with' youi 
wages. And as the people were in expectation and all men mused in 
their hearts of John whether he were the Christ or not, John an- 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 69 

Kwering said unto them all : I indeed baptize you with water; but 
one mightier than I cometh, the latehet of whose shoes I am not 
worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and 
with fire ; whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge 
his floor and will gather the wheat into his garner ; but the chaff he 
will burn with unquenchable fire. And many other things in his 
exhortation preached he unto the people. But Herod the Tetrarch 
being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for 
all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he 
shut up John in prison. 

Now when all the people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus 
also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened ; and the 
Holy Spirit descended in a . rodily shape like a dove upon him ; and 
a voice came from heaven vf hich said : Thou art my beloved son, in 
thee I am well pleased." 

The same according to John, ch. I. 6-9, 15, 19-34 : " There was a 
man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a 
witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might 
believe. He Avas not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that 
light. John bare witness of him, and cried, sa3dng : This was he of 
whom I spake, he that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he 
was before me. — And this is the record of John when the Jews sent 
priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou ? And 
he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. 
And they asked him. What then ? Art thou Elias ? And he saith : 
I am not. Art thou that prophet ? And he answered : No. Then 
saith they unto him : Who art thou ? that we may give an answer 
to them that sent us. What say est thou of thyself? He said, I am 
the voice of one , crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way 
of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent 
were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him : Why 
baptrzest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that 
prophet? John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but 
there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is who 
coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes' latehet I am 
not worth}^ to unloose. These things were done in Bethabura beyond 
Jordan, where John was baptizing. 

The next day John seetli Jesus coming unto him, and saith : Be- 
hold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 
This is he of whom I said : After me cometh a man which is preferred 
before me ; for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that 
he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing 
with water. And John bare record saying: I saw the Spirit descend- 



70 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

ing from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew 
him not, but lie that sent me to baptize with Avater, the same said 
unto me : Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and re- 
maining on him, the same is he which baj)tizeth with the Holy Spirit. 
And I saw and bare record that this is the son of God." 

Remarlcs on the Foregoing. 

Thus it is seen the four Gospels have each an account of John's 
ministry, and three of them mention Christ's baptism. Only one of 
the Gospels, as has been mentioned before, has an account of John's 
birth. All these four accounts represent John to be the forerunner 
of Christ, he who should introduce him to the people, and as preach- 
ing the baptism of repentance unto the remission of sins. He ex- 
horts the people to bring forth fruits (good works) corresponding to 
a change of heart and of life for the better ; and he inculcates, espe- 
cialh' in Luke, self-denial, and condescension for the good of others ; 
and benevolence and liberal charity toward all mankind. In this re- 
presentation, however, he may be justly thought to have given too 
little attention to the power of oppressing the people possessed by 
governments, and to the responsibility of government to the people 
governed. 

The publican, for example, Luke IH. 13, is commanded to exact 
no more than that which is appointed him ; but the government is 
not commanded not to levy too much. And the soldiers, verse 14, 
are commanded to be content with their wages, but no command is 
given to government as to whether they shall have this large or 
small, just or unjust. John, therefore, appears to have left too much 
power in the hands of governments, or, in other words, not to have 
put sufficient restraint upon them, whereby they should not oppress 
or deal unjustlj' with the people. But John unsparingij- rebukes the 
hj-pocritical, the vicious, and those who substituted the respectability 
of their ancestors for their being good and doing good themselves ; 
teaching them that " God is able of these stones to raise uj) children 
unto Abraham." John represents himself as baptizing them with 
water unto repentance, but says that one is coming after him who 
shall baptize them with the Holy Spirit. John preached and minis- 
tered baptism as a sign or emblem of regeneration : and regeneration 
itself was the perfecting and perfection to which they attained who 
practised John's doctrine as the result of baptism and repentance, 
and continual good and holy living. L^nderstanding the emblem, 
they realized in themselves its significance, and gradually attained 
to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, a perfect man. 



BEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 71 

All these accounts agree that such a man as John lived, preached, 
and baptized ; and in this agreement they are confirmed by the his- 
tory of Josephus, who also spoke of John the Baptist. 

In Matthew and Mark, Jesus is represented as having come from 
Galilee to Jordan to John to be baptized of him. In Luke, his com- 
ing from Galilee for that purpose is not mentioned ; but after it is 
said that Herod had added to the already large catalogue of his 
crimes this, that he had shut up John in prison. It says : " Now 
when all the people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also 
being baptized, and praying, the heavens were opened ; and the Holy 
Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice 
came from heaven, which said : "Thou art my beloved son, in thee 
I am well pleased." In Matt, it is said : "And Jesus, when he was 
baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the heavens 
were opened unto him ; and, lo, a voice from heaven saying : This is 
my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." According to Mark 
it is : " And straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heav- 
ens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him; and 
there came a voice from heaven, saying : " Thou art my beloved son, 
in whom I am well pleased." Now, as to the enunciation of the 
voice from heaven, given in the direct oration^ we find that no two of 
the narratives agree ; all three differ from each other as to it. 

When the speech, or the verbal expression of a person is repre- 
sented in the oratio directa, by two, three, or a greater number of 
writers, it has necessarily to be given, not only in the same words, 
but these words must occupy exactly the same relative position in 
the sentence or sentences of each, in order to show that they repre- 
sent truly the original speech or expression. For example, if two, 
three, or four reporters take down the same speech in full from an 
orator as he delivers it, in order for them all fairly to represent the 
speech, we expect them to have the wording and the relative position 
of the words in the sentences exactly the same in each and all. But 
when we find the speech or verbal expression of another given in the 
direct oration by several writers, none of whom, we know, witnessed 
it himself, and all of whom differ from each other as to it, we cannot 
possibly tell which of them sets forth the true original ; and, for the 
lack of more light on the subject, are led, perhaps, to conclude that 
none of them does ; or rather, as in the cases we are especially deal 
ing with, that they are intended to be allegorical. This allegorical 
character of the Gospel representations will appear more clear as we 
proceed. 

We have seen that in the three cases of the baptism of Christ by 
John the Spirit, in the shape of a dove, did not descend upon him 



72 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

until after he had come up out of the water, that is, after being 
baptized. We see also in Matt., ch. III., verse 15, that on Jesus pre- 
senting himself for baptism John recognized him, and forbade him 
saying : I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 
Here then arises a difficult question, which has long exercised Biblical 
scholars, and has not yet been determined by them, namely, how we 
are to reconcile that recognition with what John subsequently asserts 
(John I., 33), saying: "I knew him not, but he that sent me to 
baptize with water the same said unto me : Upon whom thou shalt 
see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, the same is he 
which baptizeth Avith the Holy Spirit." Here appears a contradic- 
tion ; but would the difficulty be removed by supposing that John, 
on Jesus presenting himself, intuitively recognized him from his 
appearance corresponding to the idea he had preconceived of the 
expected Messiah? Luke I., 36, however, makes John to be cousin 
of Jesus. To the Gospel's idea of Jesus Christ, doubtless, John 
and his baptism first gave rise. 

The Christian system of religion as represented in the Gospels is 
well adapted to monarchical forms of government. It takes great 
pains to represent Jesus as a king. It connects with the Gospel 
system ; weaves into it, as it were, a great many of the ideas of roy- 
altjr ; inculcates submission to the last degree to ruling powers ; as 
represented, too, in the humility, of the example of Jesus ; and rather 
favors illiteracy and ignorance in the mass of its professors, — at least, 
as it is generally understood, — and perhaps, also, in its ministers, 
than the light of science and education. These facts may partly 
tend to show us the source from whence proceeded the elaborate 
system of the Christian religion, as represented in the New Testa- 
ment ; or rather the character of the government, and the manners 
and customs with respect to that government, which prevailed in 
those countries where this system originated. 

But if the New Testament, as to its main subject, be not wholly 
literal in signification, it has still a deep figurative or allegoric mean- 
ing designed to symbolize the truly good man's or true Christian's 
life, and in this sense representing reality. It will be seen that in 
collating and comparing the different accounts, setting forth the same 
events, we only glance at a few of the principal points of agreement 
or disagreement between them, leaving to our readers the privilege ' 
of exerting their powers in comparing them further, which we hope 
they will avail themselves of. 

The Subject Continued : The Genealogy of Christ. 
According to Matthew^ ch. I., 1-18 : " The book of the generations 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 73 

of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham : Abraham 
beo-at Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his 
brethren, and Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar, and Phares 
be^-at Esrom, and Esrom begat Aram, and Aram begat Aminadab, 
and Aminadab begat Naasson, and Naasson begat Salmon, and Salmon 
begat Booz of Rachab, and Booz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat 
Jesse, and Jesse begat David the King, and David the King begat 
Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias, and Solomon begat 
Roboam, and Roboam begat Abia, and Abia begat Asa, and Asa begat 
Josaphat, and Josaphat begat Joram, and Jorara begat Ozias, and 
Ozias begat Joatham, and Joatham begat Achaz, and Achaz begat 
Ezekias, and Ezekias begat Manasses, and Manasses begat Anion, 
and Amon begat Josias, and Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, 
about the time they were carried away to Babylon ; and after they 
were brought to Babylon Jechonias begat Salathiel, and Salathiel be- 
gat Zorobabel, and Zorobabel begat Abiud, and Abiud begat Eliakim, 
and Eliakim begat Azor, and Azor begat Sadoc, and Sadoc begat 
Achim, and Achim begat Eliud, and Eliud begat Eleazer, and Eleazer 
begat Matthan, and Matthan begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Joseph, 
the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. 
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen genera- 
tions ; and from the carrying away into Babylon to Christ are four- 
teen generations." 

The same according to Luke III., 23, to end of chapter : " And 
Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was 
supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which was 
the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son 
of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph, 
which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which 
was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son 
of Nagge, which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Matta- 
thias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, 
which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joanna, which was 
the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the 
son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri, which was the son of 
Melchi, Avhich was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, 
which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er, which 
was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the 
son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of 
Levi, which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which 
was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Joram, which was the 
son of Eliakim, which was the son of Melea, which was the son of 
Menan, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Na- 



74 



CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



than, which was the son of David, which was the son of Jesse, which 
was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the 
son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson, which was the son of 
Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, 
which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda, which was 
tlie son of Jacob, which was tlie son of Isaac, which was the son of 
Abraham, whiclr was the son of Thara, wliich was the son of Nachor, 
which was the son of Saruch, whicla was the son of Ragau, which 
was the son of Phalec, which was tlie son of Heber, which was the 
son of Sala, which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Ar- 
phaxad, which was the son of Sem, wliich was the son of Noe, which 
was the son of Lamech, which was the son of Mathnsala, which was 
the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of 
Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Enos, 
which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was 
the son of Grod." The following pedigree will exhibit more con- 
cisely the successive generations as given in the two Evangelists. 



ACCORDING TO MATTHEW". 



o 



Abraham . . 
Isaao .... 
Jacob .... 
Judali .... 
Phares . . . 
Esrom . . . 
Aram [Ram] 
Arminadab . 
Naassoii. 
Salmon. 
Booz. 
Obed. 
Jesse. 
David. 



Eliud. 

Eleazer. 

Mattban. 

Jacob. 

Joseph. 

Jesus Christ. 



Solomon. 

Roboam. 

Abia. 

Asa. 

Josaphat. 

Jo ram. 

Ozias. 

Joatham. 

Achaz. 

Ezekias. 

Manasses. 

Amon. 

Josias. 

Jechonias. 

Salathiel. 
Zorobabel. 

Abind. 

Eliakim. 

Azor. 

Sadoc. 

Aohim. 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. 



Adam . . . 
Seth .... 
Enos . . . 
Cainan . . 
Maleleel . . 
Jared . . . . 
Enoch . . , 
Matbuselah 
Lamech . . 
Noe .... 
Sem .... 
Arphaxed . 
Cainan . . , 

Sala 

Heber . . . , 



[Peleg.] Phalec . 
Ragau . 
Saruch . 
Nachor . 



Thara. 



Abraham. 
Isaac. 
Jacob. 
Judah. 
Phares. 
Esrom . . , 
Aram |Ram 
Aminadab , 
Naasson . . 
Salmon . . 
Booz .... 
Obed .... 
Jesse .... 
David . . . 



Nathan . 



. Mattatha . 
. Menan . , 
. Melea . . 
. Eliakim . , 
. Jon am . . 
. Joseph , . , 
. Juda. 
. Simeon. 
. Levi. 
. Mathat. 
. Jorim. 
. Eliezer. 
. Jose. 
. Er. 

. Elmodara. 
!z;Cosam. 
I Addi. 
S Melchi. 
Neri. 



Salathiel. 
Zorobabel 



g'Rhesa. 
EiJoanna. 
"Juda. 
Joseph. 

• Semei. 
Mattathias. 

• Maath. 

• Na^ge. 
. Esli. 

. Naum. 
. Amos. 
. Mattathias, 
. Joseph. 

. Janna. 



Melchi. 

Levi. 

Matthat. 

Heli. 

Joseph. 

Jesus Christ 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 75 

Remarhs on the Preceding. 

These are the only genealogies of Christ found in the Gospels, 
there being none given in Mark and John. 

It is seen that the genealogy in Matthew is reckoned back only 
as far as Abraham, while that in Luke is reckoned back to Adam. 
The names in the two tables are the same between Abraham and 
David, these two included. But while in Matthew, Christ's geneal- 
ogy is traced to David through Solomon ; in Luke it is traced to the 
same stem through Nathan, another son of David. There is appar- 
ently a point of connection in the two genealogies, answering to the 
time of the Jewish captivity in Babylon in the names of Salathiel and 
Zorobabel, that are common to both. But that the connection is only 
apparent is seen by the fact that in Matthew Salathiel is the son of 
Jechonias, while in Luke he is put down as the son of Neri ; and 
while in Luke Rhesa is the son and successor of Zorobabel, through 
whom descends Christ, in Matthew Abiud is the son and successor ot 
the same Zorobabel, through whom Christ is descended. Between 
David and the Babylonish captivity,and between that point and Jesus 
Christ, the genealogical lists are entirely different. The number of 
generations between David and Christ, these two included, is, accord- 
ing to Luke, 43 ; and, according to Matthew, 28. All the connection 
that appears to be in the two genealogies to that extent is that 
one named Zorobabel is son to one named Salathiel, who, according to 
both, lived about the same time ; but the Salathiel of each list has a 
different father, and the Zorobabel of each list a different son, 
through whom Christ descends, than the other has. But besides 
these main differences, there are others which claim our attention 
in these genealogies of Christ. The most remarkable of these is the 
total discrepancy between them both and that of Zerubabel in the 
Old Testament (I Chrou. IIL, 19-24). In this last, of seven sons of 
Zerubabel not one bears the name, or anything like the name of 
Rhesa or Abiud ; and of the next generation, not one of them bears 
the name, or any thing like the name of Eliakim or Joanna, which 
are in the corresponding generations in Matthew and Luke. Rhesa 
is in fact not a name at all, but it is the Chaldee title of the princes 
of the captivity ; and its appearance in the text may be due to the 
ignorance of some early Christain Jew. The next great difference 
is in the number of generations between the two genealogies. The 
division in Matthew into three fourteens gives only 42 ( but in real- 
ity 41 only are in the text), while in Luke, from Abraham to Christ, 
inclusive, 56 is reckoned; or, which is more to the point, since the 
generations between Abraham and David are the same in both gen- 



76 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

ealogies, while, in Matthew, 28 are reckoned from David to Christ, 
in Luke are reckoned 43. But in the second tessarodecade, com 
mencing with Solomon and ending with Jechonias, three generations 
of kings are omitted, — Ahaziah Joash, Amaziah, — a leap by which 
the number of generations in this division is fourteen, and in the 
last tessarodecade,, beginning with Salatheil and ending with Christ, 
instead of fourteen, there are only thirteen generations mentioned. 
There is another important discrepancy, a chronological one, which it 
is necessary to notice here. In both the genealogies there are but 
three names between Salmon and David, — Booz, Obed, Jesse ; — but, 
according to the commonly received chronology, from the entrance 
into Canaan (when Salmon was come to man's estate) to the birth 
of David was 405 years, or from that to 500 years and upwards. 
Now for about an equal period, from David to the captivity, Luke's 
genealogy contains twenty names. This, therefore, determines 
either the chronology or the genealogy to be more or less wrong; 
or would they both be? Do not these genealogies, therefore, consid- 
ered as literal, present to us an apparently obscure page, histori- 
cally inconsistent in themselves taken singly, and contrary to each 
other and to the Old Testament history ? Which of them then shall 
we select as of literal interpretation ? One is as much so as the 
other, and, thej^ who are desirous to do so may accept both. The 
meaning understood, it is seen, they were posited as a basis for the 
allegorical representation. 

Jesus tempted by the Devil. 

According to Mattheiv, ch. IV., 1-12 : " Then," that is, immediately 
upon having been baptized, " was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the 
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty 
days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungered. And when 
the tempter came to him he said : If thou be the son of God, com- 
mand that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said : 
It is written : Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh 
him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the tem- 
ple, and saith unto him : If thou be the son of God, cast thyself 
down ; for it is written : He shall give his angels charge concerning 
thee, and in their hands the}^ shall bear thee up, lest at any time 
thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him : It is writ- 
ten again : Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the 
devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth 
him all the kingdoms of the world and the glor}- of them ; and saith 
to him: All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 77 

worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him : Get thee hence, Satan ; 
for it is written : Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only 
shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels 
came and ministered unto him." According to Mark^ ch. I., 12-13 : 
" And immediately," that is, on having been baptized, " the Spirit 
driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilder- 
ness forty days, tempted of Satan ; and was with the wild beasts ; 
and the angels ministered unto him." According to Luke, ch. IV.. 
1-13 : " And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jor 
dan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days 
tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing ; and 
when they were ended he afterwards hungered. And the devil said 
unto him: If thou be the son of God, command this stone that it 
be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying : It is written, that 
every man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. 
And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed him all the 
kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto 
him : All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them ; for that is 
delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou, there- 
fore, wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said 
unto him : Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written : Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And he 
brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and 
said unto him. If thou be the son of God cast thj^self down from hence ; 
for it is written : He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee ; 
and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash 
thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering, said unto him : It is 
said : Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil 
had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

The account of the temptation in the wilderness is recorded in three 
Gospels. They all agree that on having been baptized and pronounced 
by the voice from heaven to be the son of God, Jesus was led by the 
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Matthew and 
Luke represent him to have fasted forty days ; as in Matthew : " And 
when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an 
hungered ;" ace. to Luke : "Being forty days tempted of the devil ; and 
in those days he did eat nothing ; and when they were ended he after- 
wards hungered." In Mark nothing is said as to his fasting forty days ; 
the expression there being : " And he was there in the wilderness forty 
days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts, and the angels 
ministered unto him." In John nothing is said as to this particular temp- 



78 CBEATOR ANH COSMOS. 

tation, or the fast of forty days. Neither Matthew nor Luke — the first 
said to have been one of the twelve apostles, the second not represented 
as being one of them, — could have witnessed what they here relate ; for 
Christ is not represented to have chosen his Apostles until after this 
temptation. Both these and Mark must therefore have learned by 
hearsay, if they learned at all, what they relate to us here concerning 
the forty days of temptation and fasting ; and we must all allow that 
hearsay is not the kind of evidence required to establish the fact of a hu- 
man being having fasted forty days and forty nights without eating any- 
thing during that time. Would this not be designed to teach us that we 
should deny the lusts of our flesh and worldly lusts, and practise fasting, 
as far as we are able to bear it, in order to keep our bodies in subjection, 
and not allow the flesh to acquire the dominion over our lives? Would 
it not be designed to teach us that we should practise prayer also with 
fasting in order to maintain an humble and a contrite spirit, and the bet- 
ter to be able to resist the temptations of our inferior nature, and the as- 
saults of our invisible adversary ? In Mark the particular kinds of temp- 
tation to which Christ was subjected by the devil, are not specified, but 
in Matthew and Luke they are. The first temptation which Satan makes 
use of is that which one would suppose the carnal appetite would 
urge upon a hungrj^ man, to whom for sanitary purposes food was 
forbidden. " If thou be the son of God command that these stones 
be made bread," (as ace. to Matt.) " If thou be the son of God com- 
mand this stone that it be made bread, (as ace. to Luke.) Obtain 
bread and satisfy your appetite, let the result be what it may ; this 
is the suggestion of the carnal appetite, a strong temptation of the 
devil. But there is a difference in these two expressions in Matt, 
and Luke, which are represented to have been uttered by Satan, and 
given in the direct oration. And as each of these is set forth as the 
original expression of Satan in this particular temptation, we have 
two expressions, each purporting to be the original. Which then 
shall we select as the one Satan made use of ? Also, the order of the 
answers of Christ to the second and third temptation is inverted in 
Matthew and Luke ; that is, the second in order in Matthew is the 
third in Luke ; and conversely. According to Matthew, second temp- 
tation ; " Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and sett- 
eth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him : If thou be 
the son of God cast thyself down ; for it is written : He shall give 
his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear 
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus 
said unto him : It is written again : Thou shalt not tempt the Lord 
thy God." According to Luke this is the third temptation : " And 
he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the 



REVIEW OP THE GOSPELS. 79 

temple, and said unto him : If thou be the son of God cast thyself 
down from hence ; for it is written : He shall give his angels charge 
over thee, to keep thee ; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, 
lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus 
answering said unto him: It is said: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord 
thy God." The proposals of Satan in this second temptation, as 
well as the answers of Christ to them, are different in the two 
gospels, although given in the direct oration. And, therefore, as they 
both come to us with the same authority for originality, and not 
knowing which to select as the original questions and answers, we 
cannot conclude cither as of literal import, but require to consider 
what the meaning may be. Would not the lesson designed to be 
taught us in this second temptation be that we shall not tempt 
the Lord our God, by voluntarily or inconsiderately doing irrational 
things, which almost invariably result in less or greater loss to us? 
Man is possessed of reason, which it behooves him to make use of in 
all the circumstances and conditions of life. The better he uses it 
the more real gain in every good thing he has. The more he abuses 
it the more loss he sustains of what is good, the more unhappy and 
vile he becomes, and the more unhappiness and vileness he creates 
in all those connected with him. In connection with the right use 
of reason, the exercise of strong unwavering faith in the power and 
benevolence of the Deity is always exceedingly beneficial, and pro- 
ductive of good results in those who exercise it. Third temptation, 
according to Matthew : " Again the devil taketh him up into an 
exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the Kingdoms of the 
world, and the glory of them ; and saith unto him: All these things 
will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith 
Jesus unto him: Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written: Tliou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." . Ac- 
cording to Luke this is the second temptation : " And the devil 
taking him up into an higli mountain showed unto him all the king- 
doms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto 
him : All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them ; for 
that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If 
thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus an- 
swered and said unto him: Get Is'hee behind me, Satan; for it is 
written : Thou shalt worship the Lord thy -God, and him only shalt 
thou serve." In this case also the proposals and answers in the two 
gospels, relating to the same temptation, are somewhat different. 
But is not this designed to teach us that we should worship the Lord 
our God, and him only serve, to the exclusion of all worship of 
worldly things, and to the non-submission or enslavement to them ? 



80 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

True, we could not live out of the world ; but while living in it we 
should not be of it. The world and the things of it are for our use 
and our profit, not for our abuse and our worship. Worldly objects 
should not be sought after to such an extent or in such a way that 
the seeker has to worship either the world or them in order to 
obtain them. The time is coming, and now is, when they that 
worship the Father will worship him in spirit and in truth ; for he 
seeketh such to worship him. No object is to be worshipped to 
gratify our self-love ; nor yet any visible ' or conceivable worldly 
object. " What," we hear one say, " there is an object which my 
heart is set upon, which I have long and earnestly sought to obtain. 
I plainly see that in order to obtain it I shall have to seek it longer, 
and that at the expense of my time, of my self-respect, and in viola- 
tion of my allegiance to God. The acquisition of it would doubtless 
give me a rise in the eyes of the world, make me a conspicuous 
object among my fellow-men, so that I, in my turn, should have 
bestowed upon me a share of the applause and the admiration of 
the world. Now that I have gone so far in pursuit of it, shall 
I not go the whole length to obtain it ? " Many such alluring 
objects this world presents ; and many, many there are so foolish, 
so silly as to be tempted and allured by them ; having been obtained 
by one at the expense of being obliged to worship them or wor- 
ship for tliem, or at the expense of the seeker's allegiance to God 
being violated, they are curses rather than blessings, and bring with 
them trouble and chagrin rather than happiness and joy. It is never 
too late to reform one's self in such a course, and the sooner the 
better. All the objects which the world possesses belong naturally 
to all mankind equally. No one has a natural right to a monopoly 
of them ; and if all men would act rightly and justl}' towards each 
other, each one would obtain and possess his proper share without 
being compelled to worship for them ; and if one's lot happened to 
be small or humble, he would nevertheless be contented with it, and 
happy in the possession of it, and would not, if it were large, be 
puffed up with pride on account of it. The world contains no object 
more noble, more precious, than man ; he is lord of this lower crea- 
tion ; and is it reasonable that he should make himself a slave to that 
wliich by right he has the dominion over ? — that he should worship 
that, or for that, which is only for his use? The intelligently 
humble, god-fearing man, though he may be poor as to worldly pos- 
sessions, and rank low in the esteem of mankind, is nevertheless 
more truly rich, and infinitely more happy and contented than is the 
proud pampered worshipper of the world, of its wealth and its 
fashions. 



review of the gospels. 81 

The Call op the Apostles. 

According to Matthew^ IV. 18, 22 : " And Jesus, walking by the 
sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, 
his brother, casting a net into the sea ; for they were fishers. And 
he saith unto them : Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 
And the}'- straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going 
on from thence he saw other two brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, 
and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending 
their nets ; and he called them ; and they immediately left the ship 
and their father, and followed him." Ace. to Mark., ch. I. 16-21 : 
" Now, as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, and An- 
drew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. 
And Jesus said unto them : Come ye after me, and I will make you 
to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets 
and followed him. And when he had gone a little farther thence 
he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also 
were in the ship mending their nets. And straightway he called 
them, and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired 
servants and went after him." Ace. to Luke., V. 1-11 : " And it 
came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word 
of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships 
standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and 
were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, 
which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little 
from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the 
ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon : Launch 
out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And 
Simon answering, said unto him : Master, we have toiled all the 
night and have taken nothing; nevertheless at thy word I will let 
down the net. And when they had this done, they enclosed a great 
multitude of fishes ; and their net brake. And they beckoned unto 
their partners which were in the other ship, that they should come 
and help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they 
began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' 
knees, saying : Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. 
For he Avas astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught 
of the fishes which they had taken. And so were also James and 
John the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And 
Jesus said unto Simon : Fear not ; from henceforth thou shalt catch 
men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook 
all and followed him." Act. to John, ch. I., verse 35 to end of chap- 
ter : " Again, the next day after, John stood, and tvA^o of his disciples; 
Vol. II.— 6 



82 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and looking upon Jesus as he walked he saith : Behold the Lamb of 
God ! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed 
Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto 
them : What seek ye ? They say unto him : Rabbi (which is to 
say, being interpreted Teacher), where dwellest thou? He saith 
unto them : Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt and 
abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour, (4 p. m.) 
One of the two disciples which heard John speak and followed him 
was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother 
Simon, and saith unto him: We have found the Messias, which is, 
being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus ; and 
when Jesus beheld him, he said: Thou art Simon, the son of Jona; 
thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. 

The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth 
Philip, and saith unto him. Follow me. Now Philip Avas of Beth- 
saida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathaniel, and 
saith unto him : we have found him of whom Moses in the law and 
the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And 
Nathaniel said unto him : Can there any good thing come out of 
Nazareth ? Philip saith unto him : Come and see. Jesus saw Na- 
thaniel coming to him, and saith of him : Behold an Israelite indeed, 
in whom is no guile! Nathaniel saith unto him: Whence knowest 
thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip 
called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathan- 
iel answered and saith unto him : Rabbi, thou art the son of God ; 
thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him : 
Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? 
Thou shall see crreater things than these. And he saith unto him :' 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see the heaven open, 
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
man." 

* Remarks on the Preceding. 

The accounts in Matthew and Mark of the calling of Peter and; 
Andrew, James and John, do not differ materially. In both of them 
Jesus is represented as walking hj the sea of Galilee, and seeing 
two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the sea, he bids 
them to follow him, which they immediately do. And going on a 
little farther he saw two other brothers, James and John, in a ship, 
mending their nets ; whom he also calls to follow him, which they 
immediately do, leaving their father Zebedee in the ship, and, accord-; 
ding to Mark, with the hired servants. The command of Christ to 
Peter and Andrew, given in the direct oration, which, according to 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 83 

Matthew is " follow me, and I will make you fishers of men ; " and 
according to Mark : " Come ye after me, and I will make you to 
become fishers of men," is not worded precisely alike in both. The 
account in Luke, however, differs considerably from those in Matthew 
and Mark. Here the calling of Peter and James and John (the 
name of Andrew is not mentioned in this narrative) is associated 
with the taking of the first miraculous draught of fishes. Christ, 
who in the two preceding narratives is represented as walking by the 
sea of Galilee, and sees Simon and Andrew in the act of fishing, and 
James and John in the ship mending their nets, is here first introduced 
to us as standing by the same lake and seeing two ships drawn up 
to shore, the fishermen being apart from them, washing their nets ; 
he enters into one of them, which was Simon's, and asks Simon to 
row out a little from the land : he sits down, and teaches the people 
out of the ship. When he had left off addressing the people he tells 
Peter to row out into the deep and let down his nets for a draught ; 
but Simon answered him : We have toiled all the night and hav^e 
taken nothing ; nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. 
Having done this they enclose a great multitude of fishes, and the 
net brake. (Here it is implied that there were others with Simon 
Peter in the ship, helping him to fish.) They now, oppressed with 
a great load of fishes, beckon to their partners that are in the other 
ship to come and assist them in securing the fish. And they come, 
and they fill both the ships, so that they begin to sink. Peter, see- 
ing this, falls down at Jesus' knees, saying : Depart from me ; foi -I 
am a sinful man, Lord. " For he was astonished, and all that 
were with him at the draught of the fishes which they had taken ; 
and so were also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were 
partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon : Fear not, from 
henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their 
ships to land they forsook all and followed him." Here Jesus ad- 
dresses Peter alone, not in the sense of a call to follow him, but in 
the way of a prediction indicative of his future manner of life ; but, 
" they, when they had brought their ships to land, forsook all and 
followed him." The circumstuiices under which these disciples 
follow Jesus are represented here as so different from those under 
which he calls them to follow hin in the narratives of Matthew and 
Mark that these can hardly be called different accounts of the same 
event. And yet they all so manifestly refer to the same event as 
evidently to declare its character. But would not this representa- 
tion, at least in part, be symbolical of the success which would attend 
those who would give their lives and labors to the winning of souls 
to truth and salvation? The circumstances under which these disciples, 



84 CREATOR AND COSMOS, 

or at least some of them, begin to follow Jesus are in John represented 
as different from anything that precedes. Some of the disciples, are 
here represented as originally followers of John the Baptist, and from 
following him they began to follow Jesus. Of the four we have 
mentioned in the preceding narratives only two here are mentioned 
by name, Andrew and Peter ; and there are two others mentioned 
here in the same connection that are mentioned in the preceding 
narratives, namely, Philip and Nathaniel. "Again, the next day 
after, John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus 
as he walked, saith : Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disci- 
ples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus." Then ensues a 
conversation between these two disciples of John and Jesus on his 
seeing them following him. They ask him where he abides ; he tells 
them " come and see ; " and they came, and abode with him that day, 
for it was about the tenth hour, or late in the afternoon. One of these 
two disciples that heard John speak, and followed Jesus, was Andrew, 
Simon Peter's brother, the same who, according to Matthew and 
Mark, was called from being a fisherman ; the name of the other is 
not mentioned. He first finds his own brother Simon, and says to 
liim : We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, Christ. 
And he brought him to Jesus ; and when Jesus beheld him he said ; 
Thou art Simon, the son of Jona ; thou shalt be called Cephas, 
which is by interpretation, Peter. This accordingly appears to be the 
first interview which took place between Christ and Peter, although 
according to the first three narratives, he called Peter from being a 
fisherman ; and the inference is here that Peter was not the other one 
of John's disciples with Andrew that followed Jesus. Nothing is here 
said as to Peter and Andrew being fishermen. Andrew is actually said 
to have been a disciple of John the Baptist, and to have been with John 
when the latter was exercising his ministry. This was not in Galilee ; for 
it is said in John I. 43, that " The day following, that is, following that 
on which he met with Andrew and Peter, Jesus would go forth into 
Galilee." So that he must have met with Andrew and Peter in some 
otherpartof the country than Galilee ; most probably south of there, in 
the neighborhood of the Jordan, and beyond, or on the east side of that 
river where John happened to be then baptizing, is meant. But in 
the other three narratives the first interview of Christ with Andrew 
and Peter, and from whence they began to follow him as disciples, is 
represented to have been at the sea of Galilee, in Galilee, or the lake of 
Gennesaret, according to Luke, which means the same. The circum- 
stances then under which Peter and Andrew begin to follow Jesus 
are represented in John as altogether different to what they are in the 
other three narratives, and in Luke as different from what they are 



REVIEW OP THE GOSPELS. 85 

in the two preceding ones, or in that of John. And in fact the two 
first narratives, those in Matthew and Mark, liave yet enough of 
dissimilarity to render their purport hteral at least doubtful. These 
two accounts seem, however, as if they might have been copied the 
one from the other, although the transcription was not effected ver- 
hatim. That in Luke seems indeed to be peculiar, and this in John 
appears altogether unique. For see, for example, how in this narra 
tive this one expression is used " Come and see," first by Christ to 
the two disciples of John that followed him ; then by Philip to Na 
thaniel. In this narrative in John, as we have noticed, an account 
is given of the call of two disciples not mentioned in any of the other 
narratives, so far as we have yet examined them. " The day following," 
that is, following that of the interview with Peter, "Jesus would go 
forth into Gralilee, and findeth Philip and saith unto him : Follow 
me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 
Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him : We have found him of 
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write : Jesus of Naza- 
reth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel asks : Can there any good thing 
come out of Nazareth? Philip says unto him: Come and see. 
Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, and said : Behold an Israelite, 
indeed, in whom is no guile ! Nathaniel asks him : Whence knowest 
thou me ? Jesus answered and said to him : Before that Philip call- 
ed thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel 
answered and saith unto him : Rabbi, thou art the son of God ; thou 
art the king of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him : Because I 
said to thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou ? Thou 
shalt see greater things than these. And he saith to him : Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the 
angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man." 
Notice how often the verb to find (iopiirxuv^ is used in this narrative. 
The dissimilarity of these four narratives with respect to the conver- 
sion to follow Jesus of the particular disciples mentioned in them 
plainly indicates their unliteral character and sets us to seek what 
their meaning isi. But may not these representations be prophetic 
indications of the manner of increase of the Christian Church in va- 
rious stages of its history; first by ones or twos picked up or found, 
as it were stray fish taken by an angler ; and then by large additions, 
as indicated by the net-full, which was the case after the conversion 
of Constantino, and the substitution of Christianity for paganism as 
the established religion of the Roman empire ? 

The Call of Matthew. 
Ace. to Matthew, IX. 9-14 : " And as Jesus passed forth from thence 



86 CREATOR AISTD COSMOS. 

(that is from the place where he had just cured the paralytic) he saw 
a man named Matthew sitting at the place of the receipt of custom ; 
and he saith unto him : Follow me. And he arose and followed him. 
And it came to pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house (that is Mat- 
thew^s), behold many piablicans and sinners came and sat down with 
him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it they said unto 
his disciples : Why eateth your teacher with publicans and sinners ? 
But when Jesus heard that he said unto them : They that be whole 
need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn 
what that meaneth : I will accept mercy and not sacrifice ; for I am 
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Ace. to 
Mark, ch. II. 14-18 : " And as he passed by he saw Levi, the son of 
Alphceus, sitting at the place of the receipt of custom, and said unto 
him: Follow me. And he arose and followed him. And it came to 
pass that as Jesus sat at meat in his house many publicans and sinners 
sat also together with Jesus and his disciples ; for there were many, 
and they followed him. And when the Scribes and Pharisees saw 
him eat with publicans and sinners they said unto his disciples : How 
is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners ? When 
Jesus heard it he saith unto them : They that are whole have no need 
of a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the right- 
eous, but sinners to repentance." Ace. to Luke, V. 27-33 : " And 
after these things he Avent forth and saw a publican named Levi sit- 
ting at the place of the receipt of custom ; and he said unto him: 
Follow me. And he left all, rose up and followed him. And Levi 
made him a great feast in his own house ; and there was a great com- 
pany of publicans and of others that sat down with them. But the 
Scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying : Why 
do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners ? And Jesus answer- 
ing said unto them : They that are whole need not a physician, but 
they that are sick ; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to 
repentance." 

Remarks on the Preceding. , 

There is a great degree of similarity in the wording of these three 
narratives ; there are also differences in them. The command of 
Jesus to the publican — Follow me — is the same in all three cases 
(which agreement may or may not have belonged to the original 
gospels, or have been the arbitrary work of transcribers or copyists 
in after times); but the question which the Pharisees are represented 
as putting to his disciples, as well as the answer of Jesus to them, is 
somewhat different in each case, which ace. to Matthew, is, — Why, 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 87 

eateth your teacher with publicans and sinners ? But when Jesua 
heard it he said unto them : They that be wliole need not a physi- 
cian, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that means ; 
I will accept mercy and not sacrifice ; for I am not come to call the 
righteous, but sinners to repentance." Ace. to Mark, they say: 
"How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? " 
And Jesus answering said unto them: "They that are whole need 
not a physician, but they that are sick ; I come not to call the right- 
eous, but sinners to repentance." All these questions are more or 
less different from each other, no two of them being worded pre- 
cisely alike ; and it is just so with the answers. When we speak of 
these questions and answers differing from each other in each case 
we speak with reference to the Greek as well as the English form of 
expression, that is, the form of expression in the original Greek and 
in the authorized English Bible. These differences in the direct 
oration^ it is plain, prevent us from understanding any- part of this 
story more than another as having a literal signification, for the ques- 
tion and answer in each case being put before; us as the original, and 
they all differing from each other respectivel}^ we know that at least 
there must be some of them unliteral, and we, not. knowing which 
one to select as the true original, have to recognize them all as of 
unliteral signification, and to seek to discover the intended meaning. 
But would not this allegorical representation' indicate prophetically 
the free presentation of the gospel religion to all classes and condi- 
tions of mankind, which is here represented as brought to them into 
their house by Christ and his apostles, who symbolized the true and 
faithful ministers of that religion ? And may it not have further 
indicated that the gospel religion was intended for all mankind, and 
adapted for them, not knowing any distinction in its application 
between Pharisees and publicans, Jews 'and Gentiles ? Would it 
not have been designed to indicate the humility of the gospel religion 
putting to rebuke all pharisaic pride and exclusivsness, and break- 
ing down the barrier which these had raised between the classes of 
mankind ? 

But there is another remark to be made with respect to the sub 
ject now under our consideration, that while in Matthew's narrative 
the publican that was called from the receipt of custom by Jesus is 
called Matthew ; in Mark's he is called Levi,. the son of Alphaeus ; 
and in Luke he is. called Levi. This may appear to indicate the 
order of tlie subject of the story ; for we have it not explained in 
any other place that the publican called Matthew in the first Gospel 
is identical with the one called Levi, the son of Alphseus, in the 
second, or with the one called Levi, in the third. And, moreover. 



■B8 CEEATOE AND COSMOS. 

in all the lists of the twelve or eleven apostles we have given in the 
New Testament, the name Levi is not once mentioned, but the name 
Matthew is counted among them. But the circumstances of the call 
of this publican are so similar in the three narratives of it as pretty 
plainly to shovy that they mean to point to the same event. 

The Choosing and Names of the Twelve Apostles. 

Ace. to Matthew, ch. X. : " And when he had called unto him his 
twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast 
them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of dis- 
ease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these : The first, 
Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother ; James, the 
son of Zebedee, and John, his brother ; Philip and Bartholomew ; 
Thomas, and Matthew, the publican ; James, the son of Alphseus, 
and Lebbseus, whose surname was Thaddaeus ; Simon the Canaanite, 
and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent 
forth, and commanded them, saying, &c.," to the end of chapter. 
Ace. to Mark, ch. III. 13-19 : " And he goeth up into a mountain, 
and calleth unto him whom he would, and they came unto him. 
And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he 
might send them forth to preach ; and to have power to heal sick- 
ness, and to cast out devils. And Simon he surnamed Peter ; and 
James the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, and he 
named them Boanerges, which is, sons of thunder ; and Andrew and 
Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and Jarnes, 
the son of Alphseus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon, the Canaanite, and 
Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him. Ace. to Luke, VI. 12-17: 
" And it came to pass in those days that he went up into a mountain 
to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it 
was day, he called unto him his disciples : and of thepi he chose 
twelve, whom also he named apostles ; Simon, whom he also named 
Peter, and Andrew, his brother, James and John, Philip and Bar- 
tholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus, and 
Simon, called Zelotes, and Judas, the brother of James, and Judas 
Iscariot, which also was the traitor." Ace. to Acts, I. 12-13, which 
is given as the list of the names of the apostles after the crucifixion 
and ascension of Christ ; " Then returned they unto Jerusalem from 
the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath-day's 
journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper 
room, where abode both Peter and Andrew, James and John, Philip 
and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphseud, 
and Simon Zulotes, and Judas, the brother of James." 



BEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 89 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

These lists, doubtless, are meant to be equivalent to each other. 
For it may be assumed tliat the Simon Zelotes of Luke and the 
Acts is identical with Simon the Canaaiiite of Matthew and Mark ; 
and it may, 1 think, be as safely assumed that Lebbeus or Thad- 
deus of Matthew and Mark is the same with Judas the brother 
of James of Luke and the Acts. I noticed in a painting of the 
"Lord's Supper" by an Italian artist that St. Thaddeus and St. 
Jiimes the Less bore a striking resemblance to the Savior Jesus ; and 
in Matt, XIII., .55, 56, among the brothers of Jesus are mentioned 
James and Judas. James the Less is, I believe, recognized as first 
presiding elder of the church at Jerusalem after the crucifixion, and 
author of the excellent "Epistle of James." The typical char- 
acter of the apostles will become more clear as we proceed. 

A BEVIEW OP THE MIRA.CLES OF ChRIST IN CHRONOLOGICAL 

Order as they are set forth in the Four Gospels, 
Compared and Examined. 

Miracle No. 1. Christ turns water into wine at Cana of Galilee^ 
John, ch. II., 1-11: "And the third day there was a marriage in 
Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus 
was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they wanted 
wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him : They have no wine. Jesus 
saith unto her : Woman, what have I to do with thee ? Mine hour 
is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants : Whatsoever 
he saith unto you do it. And there were set there six waterpots of 
stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two 
or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them : Fill the waterpots 
with water. And they filled them to the brim. And he saith unto them : 
Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they 
bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was 
made wine, and knew not whence it was (but the servants which 
drew the water knew), the governor of the feast called the bride- 
groom, and saith unto him : Every man at the beginning doth set 
forth good wine ; and when men have well drunk, then that which is 
worse ; but thou hast kept the good wine \uitil now. This beginning 
of miracles (literally, signs) did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and mani- 
fested forth his glory ; and his disciples believed on him. 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded in only one of the Gospels. John, the ascribed 



90 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

writer of this Gospel, is represented in Church history as the same 
with the beloved disciple, which, doubtless, is faithful to the idea 
intended. It is a fact, however, that no MS. of the New Testament is 
extant, which dates within the first three centuries. Some of the oldest 
extant were copied from others which date from within this period ; 
but no MS. as j-et, can be placed farther back than the time of 
Constantine. The original copies of the New Testament, which may 
have existed before the year 150 or 170 A. D., seem to have soon 
perished. History affords us no ti'ace of the Apostolic originals ; and 
it is certainly remarkable that in the controversies at the end of the 
s »cond century, which frequently turned upon disputed readings of 
Scripture, no appeal was made to the Apostolic originals. Tatian, 
who lived about 170 A. D., wrote a harmony of the four Gospels. It is 
probable that the idea of a Christian canon parallel and supplemen- 
tary tQ the Jewish canon, was first projected and realized, at or a 
little before this period.* After this time, the Christian Scriptures 
multiplied very fast ; for in the time of the Diocletian persecution, 
A. D, 303, copies of them were sufficiently numerous to furnish a 
special object for persecutors, and a characteristic name to renegades, 
who saved themselves by surrendering the sacred books. It is prob- 
able, however, that this Christian canon was. based upon some 
scanty records which dated from, or very near the time of the first 
founders of the faith. Thus, it was brought to its present shape not 
earlier than the year 100 A. D., but probably, at a. somewhat later 
period.f This is how the matter really stai^jds historically with 
respect to the Gospels, and the authority of the New Testament. 
But the common belief is, that, of the writers of the four Gospels, 
two, Matthew and John, or the writers of the first and fourth, were 
eye and ear-witnesses of what they relate, being disciples, and conse- 
quently companions of Christ; and that the ascribed writers of the 
second and third, or Mark and Luke, being not of the immediate 
disciples of Christ, did not themselves witness what they relate, but 
relate it upon the testimonj^ of others. We think, therefore, it will 
be more intelligible to the majority of our readers,. if we examine 
the miracles in the light of the common belief, that is, assuming 
throughout, for the sake of illustration, the common belief with 
regard to the writers of the Gospels to be correct. 

Now, if, as it is stated, the disciples of Jesus were present with 



* The New Testament is said to liave been composed in the cities of Alexandria, Antioch, 
Rome, and Ephesus. 

t As a convenient book of reference and for farther light on this subject see the History of 
the new Testament given in the unabridged Bible dictiou.ary of Wm. Smith, LL.D., classical 
examiner of the University of London. 



REVIEW OP THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 91 

him at the performance of this miracle, and, on account of it, believed 
on him, does it not seem strange that it is not mentioned in any of the 
Gospels, except in John ? And would it not seem natural to think 
that the tradition of it would be common among the disciples and 
followers of Christ, so that thereby it should find its way into some 
of the other Gospels ? For the establishment of the fact of the per- 
formance of a miracle, or the production of a sign, as this and most 
of the other commonly designated miracles are literally called in the 
original, it would certainly appear necessary that there should be 
two or more credible witnesses of it, who would relate the circum- 
stances of its performance in the same language, or, if not in exactly 
the same words, yet without any mutual contradiction. The Mosaic 
law, which was not set aside by Christ in this respect, ordained, that 
in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word should be estab- 
lished ; and should not this be especially so in respect to the miracles 
of Christ, most of which are represented as interferences with the 
ordinary course of nature or the controlling and governing of nature, 
to the production of certain results in nature. This matter of suffi- 
cient evidence would be especially required in the case of the miracles 
we are proceeding to examine; for although the world, with its 
empires, kingdoms and historians, his own nation, with its Scribes 
and Pharisees, and learned host, were actively moving at the time 
he is said to have lived; yet we find no mention made of Christ or 
his miracles except by those who were his professed followers, or, in 
other words, Christians.* By no other writer of the Jews or Gen- 
tiles, his contemporaries or observers, or successors of a hundred 
years, is mention made of Christ, except by the Roman historians, 
Pliny the younger, and Tacitus, in about the last quarter of the 
first century ; the former of whom makes mention rather of the 
sect of Christians, than of Christ ; the latter rdakes mention of both 
in his relation of the fire of Rome, under Nero. In speaking of the 
Christians, Tacitus says : " They derived their name and origin from 
Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, had suffered death by the 
sentence of tlie procurator, Pontius Pilate." The historian Suetonius 
also mentions the fact of the Christians being put to death by Nero, 
which is a confirmation of that fact as related by Tacitus. Tacitus, 
however, at the time he wrote, in speaking of Christ, could not have 
spoken from personal experience, but only from reports which had 
come down to him.f Tiiere is a passage in the Jewish history of 
Josephus, which mentions Christ, acknowledges that he was the 
Messiah, and hesitates to say whether he should be called a man, 

* Concerning the obscurity which overhangs tlie snbject of tlie birth of Clirist and the 
origin of Cliristianity,— See for example, Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cent. I. chap. III. 

t Would Tacitus have obtained this information from some Governmental documents? 
It is said the facts of the trial and crucirt.xion of Jesus were communicated by Pilate to 
the Roman Senate. -Justyn Martyr, in a letter to the emperor Antoninus Pius, appeals 
to the Acts of Pilate to corroborate his testimony as to Christ, but under this emperor 
he yet underwent martyrdom. Tertullian tells the Senate to consult their commentaries. 



92 cicEator akd cosmos. 

who had done so many wonderfuL works. But this jiassage is 
said by modern critics to have been interpohited into the text 
of Jo.sephus, between the time of Origen and that of Eusebius, 
or some time in the third or in the beginning of the fourth cen- 
tury.* The miracles, on the whole, have to stand or fall with the 
evidence which the Gospels afford us concerning them. And the 
testimony of one writer, who is not known to have witnessed the per- 
formance of the miracle himself, is certainly, we must all allow, 
hardly sufficient to establish the fact of a miracle, in the common 
acceptation of the term, having been wrought. This disposes, there- 
fore, of the first miracle, but does not affect the allegoric meaning of 
the representation. Would not this allegorical representation be 
designed to teach us that God favors the institution of honorable 
marriage, and also lends his assistance in providing for the industrious 
poor, who considerately engage in that respectable bond ? 

Miracle 2. Christ first casts the traders out of the temple at Jeru- 
salem^ John, ch. II., 13—18 : " And the Jews' Passover was at hand, 
and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those 
that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money 
sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove 
them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen ; and poured 
out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables ; and said unto 
them that sold doves : Take these things hence ; make not my 
Father's house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remem- 
bered that it was written : The zeal of thine house hath eaten 
me up." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This account of the first casting out of the traders is found only 
in John. It is not to be confounded with another similar event which 
is represented to have taken place about three years afterwards, and 
recorded in the three first Gospels. We do not know that John, 
the ascribed narrator, witnessed this event, as it is not said 
whether or not be began to accompany Jesus until after this event 
took place, or, if he did, that he was one of those disciples that ac- 
companied Jesus to Jerusalem on this occasion. His testimony 
alone, however, even were he a witness of it, would it be sufficient 
to establish its authenticity? The unreasonableness of supposing 
that Jesus, a single man, could drive out the occupants of tlie temple 
with a scourge of small cords which he had made for the pur- 
pose; pour out the changers' money and overthrow the tables, all 



* See Millman's Gibbon's Rome: Vol. II., page 10, Note 36 at bottom, with explanation by 
Dr. Millman. The silence of Josephus concerning Jesus appears, to say the least, 
strange; but even though he had had knowledge of Jesus, the ignorninj' of the punish, 
ment to which the latter was subjected, the vilest to which the Roman government 
subjected men, would be likely to have restrained him from mentioning his countryman 
in any such connection, more especially if he entertained a good opinion of him. 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 93 

against their will, is plainly apparent, although faith may still accept 
it as fact. Would not this representation of the cleansing of the tem- 
ple by Jesus be designed to indicate the purgation of the Jewish and 
all other religious systems of their idols, their superstitions, and their 
unrighteous and unholy practices by the purifying and refining doc- 
trines of the gospel, and the introduction and substitution of Christ's 
religion in their stead ? The driving them out with a scourge of small 
cords (verse 15) would indicate the gentle means which Christianity 
employs for the propagation of its doctrines, the protection of its 
interests, and the government of its fold. 

Miracle 3. Se cures the nobleman's son, at Capernaum, John IV., 
46-54: "So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he had 
made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son 
was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out 
of Judeea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he 
would come down and heal his son ; for he was at the point of death. 
Then said Jesus unto him ; Except ye see signs and wonders ye will 
not bolieve. The nobleman saith unto him : Sir, come down ere my 
child die. Jesus saith unto him : Go thy way, thy son liveth. And 
the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he 
wen': his way. And as he was now going down his servants met 
and told him, saying : Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them 
the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him : yes- 
terday at the seventh hour the fever left him; so the father knew 
that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him : Thy son 
liveth ; and himself believed and his whole house." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is found recorded only in John. It does not say, however, that 
any special miracle was wrought in this case. It only implies 
that the effectual change for the better which took place in tlie 
child at the seventh hour was caused by the will of Christ that it 
should be so. Jesus did not come to the child, but the cure was 
effected, though he was at a distance from the subject of it. The 
man believed the word that Jesus said to him, went his way, and 
found his child whole. Would not this representation be designed 
to show us that wherever we are we should trust firmly in God and 
thus doing, rest well assured that He watches over us for our safety 
and preservation. If we are in difficulty, alone anywhere, far from 
any human being, who, if he were near, might lend a helping hand , 
if we are thus in the wilderness, on the ocean, or in the wilds of an 



94 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

American, or any other forest, we should never despair so long as 
life remains to us ; we should pray to Grod, and be well assured that 
he hears our prayers, and trust to him unwaveringly, who alone is 
able to help us, and will make everything result for the best to us. 
If we are in sickness, sunk very low, and begin to see that there is 
not much prospect of us recovering our wonted health and strength, 
or if we have any that is near and dear to us in a like condition, we 
should never despair, but continually trust unwaveringly in God, 
who, although we do not see him, yet sees us, and may, even 
at the last moment, pronounce the word and we shall be healed. 
Distance will not prevent God from seeing us and hearing our pray- 
ers. This we should always rest assured of, that he is ever and 
everywhere present to see, hear, and help those who trust in him, 
and whose hearts are right in his sight. 

Miracle 4. He causes the first miraculous draught of fishes. Luke, 
oh. V. 1-11 : " And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon 
him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and 
saw two ships standing by the lake ; but the fishermen were gone 
out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one 
of them, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust 
out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people 
out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking he said unto him : 
Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. 
And Simon answered and said unto him : Master, we have toiled all 
night, and have taken nothing ; nevertheless at thy word I will let 
down the net. And when they had this done they enclosed a great 
multitude of fishes, and their net brake. And they beckoned unto 
their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come 
and help them. And they came and filled both the ships, so that 
they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' 
knees, saying : Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For 
he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the 
fishes which they had taken.*' 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This miracle is recorded only in this place. Luke, the writer, 
cannot be said to have witnessed it, he being not one of the immediate 
disciples of Christ. All tlie evidence, therefore, whicli we shall find 
brought forward by Luke in proof of the miracles is open to this objec- 
tion ; that he was not an eye or ear-witness himself of what he relates, 
and could have obtained it only from others by tradition written or oral. 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 95 

We have had occasion before to pass in review this miracle when 
treating of the call of the apostles; and, as we there remarked, 
would not this representation be designed to indicate the success 
that would attend those who would devote their lives to the 
winning of souls to the truth, to the conversion of men from sin 
to holiness, from ignorance to knowledge and wisdom, from darkness 
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, from the ways of 
iniquity and wickedness to the ways of honesty and uprightness of 
life ? While working faithfully and industriously in the cause of 
God they should not despair if for a time they meet with difficulty 
and repulse, and have no apparent success. They are still sowing 
seeds, which will by and by spring up (perhaps in their absence^, 
and bear fruit unto life. They may toil all night with no perceptible 
good result ; but let them toil on, nothing doubting, even when the 
day has come, and they may be assured that good results will ulti- 
mately crown their labors. It may also indicate the rate at which at 
certain periods of her history people should come in byconversion to 
' the Christian Church. 

Miracle 5. He cures a demoniac at Capernaum, Mark, I. 23-28: 
" And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit ; 
and he cried out, saying : Let us alone ; what have we to do with 
thee, Jesus of Nazareth ? Art thou come to destroy us ? I know thee, 
who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying : 
Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit 
had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And 
they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among them- 
selves, saying : What thing is this ? What new doctrine is this ? 
For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they 
do obey him." And Luke, IV, 33-38: " And in the synagogue there 
was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with 
d loud voice, saying : Let us alone ; what have we to do with thee, 
lesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us ? I know thee 
who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, sajdng : 
Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had 
thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. And 
they were all amazed and spake among themselves, sa3dng: What a 
word is this ! for Avith authority and power he commandeth the un- 
clean spirits, and they come out. And the fame of him went out 
into every place of the country round about." 

RemarTcs on the Preceding. 

This miracle is found recorded in two of the Gospels, that of 



96 CREATOR AND COSMOS, 

Mark and that of Luke. Mark, according to Church history, was 
a convert of Peter, and wrote liis Gospel at Rome in compliance 
with a request of the converts there, who, not content with 
having heard Peter preach, pressed ]\rark, liis disciple, to com- 
mit to writing a liistorical account of what he (Peter) had delivered 
to them.* It also sets down Mark the Evangelist as the same 
with John, whose surname was Mark, mentioned in Acts XII. 
i2-25 ; but Grotius maintains the contrary. Ancient Christian wri- 
ters agree in making Mark the Evangelist the interpreter of the Apos- 
tle Peter. Some explain this word to mean that the office of Mark 
was to translate into the Greek tongue the Aramaic discourses of the 
Apostle ; whilst others adopt the view that Mark wrote a Gospel 
which conformed more exactly than the others to Peter's preaching, 
and thus "interpreted" it to the Church at large. Thus, opinions 
differ, but nothing certain is known as to the writer of the second 
Gospel. This one thing, however, appears certain, that he was not 
a present follower of Christ, altliough some ancient writer has raised 
the suspicion that it was he who is represented in his Gospel alone, 
as the young man having the linen cloth wrapped about his body, 
Avho followed Jesus on the night of his arrest. This however is 
merely a moot arising from the fact of the circumstance being related 
in Mark's Gospel. But concerning this miracle, which we are con- 
sidering, we must allow it would not be a very easy matter even for 
eye-witnesses to give clear and satisfactory evidence of the casting 
of an invisible spirit by one human being out of another, an act 
which, we can conceive, could only be recognized in its effects, im- 
mediate or otherwise, upon the bearing and conduct of the individ- 
ual acted upon. But in this case there is a remarkable coincidence 
between the two narratives as to what the man with the unclean 
spirit said to Jesus, and the words that Jesus addressed to him, which 
would indicate that both accounts came from the same source to the 
writers, and that one of the accounts may have been copied from the 
other. Here the man with the unclean spirit speaks, saying : " Let 
us alone. What have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth ; art 
thou come to destroy us ? I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One 
of God." It implies, however, that it was the unclean spirit or de- 
mon in the man, and not the man himself, that spoke ; for it says: 
" Jesus rebuked him, saying : Hold thy peace, and come out of him ; 
and when the unclean spirit or demon (according to Luke) had torn 

* See Kitto's History of the Bible, Art. "Mark." 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 97 

him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him." And further 
on, in Mark I. 34, it says : " And he healed many that were sick of 
divers diseases and cast out many demons, and suffered not the de- 
mons to speak because they knew him." Also, Luke IV. 40-41. 
" Now, when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with 
divers diseases brought them unto him ; and he laid his hands on 
every one of them, and healed them. And demons also came out of 
many, crying out and saying : Thou art Christ, the Son of God. 
And he rebuking them, suffered them not to say that they knew him 
to be Christ." We must all allow these to have been strange phe- 
nomena, events such as few now-a-days, learned or unlearned, would 
believe to have taken place, unless they witnessed them themselves, 
with their eyes and ears. The idea is distinctively of a human being 
possessing and exercising the power of casting out of another human 
being an invisible and intelligent being or beings which had its or 
their abode therein. We have shown in the former part of our work 
that if all is matter, all is also spirit, and that nothing exists in 
the universe but spirit. Hence man is a spirit, a great or master 
spirit, if he will, and in or with that spirit, it is here implied, many 
other spirits, invisible, thoiigh intelligent, bad or good, may have 
their abode. The Primitive Christians, and indeed, to a great ex- 
tent, the ancients, conceived themselves as surrounded and assaulted 
on eveiy side by these invisible and intelligent bad spirits, or demons. 
But we do not know that they conceived themselves, as they ought 
to have done, to be controlling or superior spirits, whose duty, as 
well as privilege and interest, it was to keep those inferior spirits 
in subjection, not to be led or governed by them, but by reason 
to lead and govern them. We all carry about with us an infe- 
rior nature, which necessarily adheres to us as long as we are in 
this world. The tendency of this nature is to draw us downward, 
to make us depraved and corrupt, and to deprive us of the good use 
of our reason by enslaving us to itself. If we yield to it for a single 
moment, it acquires a dominion over us, and the more we give way 
and yield to its seductions, the more dominion it acquires over us by 
bringing us into subjection to our affections and desires ; so that in 
order to retain control and command of his carnal nature, man has to 
exercise his reason ariglit, and to crucify the flesh, with its affections 
and lusts. This probably is what gave rise to the idea of demons, or 
invisible evil spirits ; mankind being always disposed to attribute to 
other agencies, even invisible ones, the troubles which they experience 
in themselves, arising from their weakness their foibles, and their in- 
bred proneness to sin ; arising, we say, in the main, from each one's 
own carnal nature, which, though they may not have conceived it, 
Vol. II.— 7 



98 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

has its intelligence of a certain kind ; for all nature and every part 
of it has its intelligence. We may, however, remark that if people 
experience trouble or inconvenience from what they reasonably sup 
pose unfavorable spirits affecting them externally or otherwise, they 
should, generally speaking, look upon this experience as an omen 
most favorable to them, indicating that they have taken a step in the 
right direction in the way of godliness ; and should endeavor not to 
allow these unfavorable influences to impede them in their progress 
to perfection. If men have a painful experience in such a way, it 
should, arise to them from their well-doing, and not from their evil- 
doing. It is a well-known fact that human beings all have an influ- 
ence on each other, and that this influence, when exercised volun- 
tarily, is more or less effective, according to the relative power of 
mind of the one that is exercising the influence, and the one that is 
the subject of his influence. Men in this way are to a certain extent 
made to participate in each other's thoughts and feelings, even with- 
out verbal intercommunication ; and hence, how important it is that 
men should will good to each other in order that all may participate 
in good thoughts and feelings. The holier and better disposed the 
man, the better will be his general influence upon his fellow-men, as 
well as his particular influence upon individuals ; and if he unites 
great strength of mind and of will to holiness and pray erf uln ess of 
heart, and a good disposition towards mankind, his influence for good 
will not only be very effective in general, but also when brought to 
bear in particular cases. And why could not Jesus Christ (say any 
such good and holy man as he is represented to have been) have 
wrought great and good effects upon the sick, and those who con- 
sidered themselves troubled with evil spirits, merely b}^ bringing to 
bear upon them his good and holy influence? The humble, intelli- 
gent, and holy spirit that is of God, really makes the proud sj^irit of 
the devil ashamed of itself, and the demons to skulk awaj' and hide 
themselves. 

It is a well-known fact, too, that there are many in the world in 
our own day called ventriloquists, and others who do not go by that 
name, who exercise such power over the minds of their fellow-men. 
, as to make them believe that they hear voices speaking to them from 
the air, and from other places where it is evident that no human be- 
ing is present. In fact there is no end to such miracles as are wrought 
by ventriloquists, mesmerizers, &c., of our own day. By his art the 
skilful ventriloquist can so modify his own voice as to make it ap- 
pear to the hearers to proceed from anj^ distance, in any direction, 
and from another than himself. We take the following illustration 
from " Dick's Works : " 



•REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 99 

"M. St. Gill, the ventriloquist, and his intimate friend returning 
from a place whither his business had led him, sought for shelter from 
an approaching thunder-storm in a neighboring convent. Finding 
the whole community in mourning, he inquired the cause, and was 
told that one of their body had died lately, who was the ornament 
and delight of the whole society. To pass away the time he walked 
into the church, attended by some of the religious, who showed him 
the tomb of their deceased brother, and spoke feelingly of the scanty 
honors they had bestowed on his memory. Suddenly a voice was heard, 
apparently proceeding from the roof of the choir, lamenting the situa- 
tion of the defunct in purgatory, and reproaching the brotherhood with 
their lukewarmness and want of zeal on this account. The friars, as 
soon as their astonishment gave them power to speak, consulted to- 
gether, and agreed to acquaint the rest of the community with this sin- 
gular event, so interesting to the whole society. M. St. Gill, who wished 
to carry on the trick a little farther, dissuaded them from taking this 
step, telling them that they would be treated by their absent breth- 
ren as a set of fools and visionaries. He recommended to them, how- 
ever, the immediately calling the whole community into the church, 
where the ghost of their departed brother might probably reiterate 
his cornplaints. Accordingly all the friars, novices, lay brothers, and 
even the domestics of the convent were immediately summoned and 
called together. In a short time the voice from the roof renewed its 
lamentations and reproaches, and the whole convent fell on their faces, 
and vowed a solemn reparation. As a first step they chanted a De 
profundis in a full choir, during the intervals of Avhich the ghost oc- 
casionally expressed the comfort he received from their pious exercises 
and ejaculations on his behalf. When all was over, the prior entered 
into a serious conversation with M. St. Gill, and on the strength of 
what had just passed sagaciously inveighed against the absurd incredu- 
lity of our modern skeptics and pretended philosophers on the article 
of ghosts or apparitions. M. St. Gill thought it high time to disabuse 
the good fathers. This purpose, however, he found it extremely 
difficult to effect until he had prevailed upon them to return with 
him into the church, and there be eye-witnesses of the manner in which 
he conducted this ludicrous deception." " Had," says Dr. Dick, "the 
ventriloquist in this case not explained the cause of the deception, a 
whole body of men might have sworn with a good conscience, that 
they had heard the ghost of a departed brother address them again 
and again in a supernatural voice." But to return to our immediate 
subject we may remark that the casting out of evil spirits in some such 
way as that we have recorded under the head of the miracle we are 
reviewing, appears certainly no more incredible to take place, though 



100 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

it come not to us attested by eje or ear witnesses of it, than those 
things commonly regarded as " wonders " which we so often experi- 
ence. Good men, men of God, should be deemed as competent to 
perform wonders as other men. 

Miracle 6. Christ heals Peter s mother-in-law of a fever at Caper- 
naum, Mark I. 29—31 : " And forthwith when they were come out of 
the synagogue, the}' entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, 
with James ai:d John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, 
and anon they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the 
hand, and lifted her up ; and immediatel}^ the fever left her, and she 
ministered unto them." Matt. VIII. 14, 15 : " And when Jesus was 
come into Peter's hoase, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a 
fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her ; and she' 
arose and ministered unto them." Luke IV. 38, 39: "And he arose 
out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's 
wife's mother was taken with a gTeat fever, and they besought him for 
her. And he stood over lier and rebuked the fever, and it left her ; 
and immediately she arose and ministered unto them." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded in three Gospels, that of Matt., of Mark, and of 
Luke. The narratives, although not worded exactly alike, do not 
contradict each other in terms. They do contradict each other, 
however, as to the time of the performance of the miracle, Mark and 
Luke placing it immediateh^ after the healing of the demoniac in the 
synagogue ; Matthew, who does not mention the healing of this de- 
moniac, placing it after the healing of the Centurion's servant ; while 
in Luke it is placed before this event. Compare time of Luke IV. 
38, with Luke VIL 1-10. In Mark, it seems to imply or say that 
Simon and Andrew, with James and John, were in the house when 
tlie miracle was performed. And would it not appear strange if the 
writer of the fourth Gospel was present, as it seems to say he was. 
that he has not mentioned the miraculous event ■? This contradiction 
with respect to the time of the performance of the miracle, together 
with the fact than none of the writers witnessed it himself, for we 
have seen before that Mark and Luke were not of the immediate 
followers of Christ, nor Avas Matthew called from the receipt of cus- 
tom to follow him till some time after the event we are considering 
now is said to have taken place — * prevents us from concluding the 
accounts of this miracle as of literal signification, and incites us to the 



* See, with respect to the time of 5Iattbew's call, JIaTk 11. 14; Jfatt. IX. 9; Luke V. 27, and 
compare it with the time of the performauce of this miracle: Matt. Till. 14, 15. 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: TKE MIRACLES. 101 

discovery of its true meaning. Peter and James and John are all 
said or implied in the narrative to have been present at the time when 
the miracle was wrought ; but we have writings in the New Testa- 
ment ascribed to these in which it is not mentioned ; and it is left 
to be mentioned by three writers who could have learned it only 
through report ; and these contradict each other as to the time of it. 
Still it is not imptobable that such an occurrence as the one here 
represented may have often taken place. As we have stated before, 
every human being has an influence upon others, and the better and 
holier the one is, the better and more effectual for good is one's in- 
fluence. This goodness and holiness of character which inevitably, 
not exclusively, springs from, and is connected with the knowledge 
of the true God, and faith in him, enables the individual possessing 
it to exert a very effectual influence for good upon the object he sets 
himself to benefit. And may it not have been so that some good man 
of the early Christians on entering the chamber of a sick female friend 
sympathizing deeply with her in her affliction, and greatly desiring to 
benefit her, acted on the nervous system of the invalid by the strength 
of his will, imparted to her his revivyfying and energising holy influ- 
ence, and enabled her, sympathizing as she was reciprocally as friend 
with friend to arise and " minister to them." There seems no improba- 
bility in the supposition that such occurrences have taken place, and, 
as we shall see more clearly as we proceed, the Spirit, though One, infi- 
nite in essence and intelligence, has gifts various and different. One 
human being has one faculty, another has another, and so the powers, 
the genius, the talents of various individuals are various ; and the bet- 
ter and more effectual for good will be the acquired powers of him who 
lives nearest and is most faithful to God in all truth, holiness, and 
righteousness ; for he will continually advance in wisdom and know- 
ledge nearer to perfection. May not the representation be designed 
to be a prophetie indication of the excellent effects which would flow 
from the promulgation of the gospel of truth to a world helpless in 
ignorance, and sick with sin ? 

Miracle 7. Christ heals a leper in Galilee, Mark I. 40-45 : " And 
there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him 
and saying to him : If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And 
Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touclied him, 
and saith unto him : I will, be thou clean. And as soon as he had 
spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was clean- 
sed. And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away and 
saith unto him : See thou say nothing to any man ; but go thy way ; 
show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things 
that Moses commanded for a testimonj'- unto them. But he went 



102 CEEATOR AKD COSMOS. 

out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, 
insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but 
was without in desert places; and they came to him from every 
q^uarter." Matthew VIII. 2-5 : " And behold there came j leper and 
worshipped him, saying : Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me 
clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying : I 
will ; be thou clean ; and immediatel}^ his leprosy was cleansed. And 
Jesus saith unto him; See thou tell no man, but go thy way, show 
thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a 
testimony unto them." Luke Y. 12-15 : "And it came to pass when 
he was in a certain city, behold a man fall of leprosjs who, seeing 
Jesus, fell on his face and besought him, saying : Lord if thou wilt, 
thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand and touched 
him, saying : I will, be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy 
departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man ; but go and 
show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing according as 
Moses commanded as a testimony unto them." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded in three Gospels : they differ somewhat in respect 
to the address of the leper to Christ, and also in respect to the second ' 
address of Christ to the leper, given in the direct oration. The narra- 
tives do not agree with respect to the events Avhich precede and follow 
the miracle, or, in other words, with respect to the time of it ; in 
Matthew it being placed in order much before the healing of Peter's 
wife's mother, while in Mark and Luke it is placed in order much 
after that event. These differences, together with the fact that 
neither of the narrators witnessed himself what he relates, (for the 
call of Matthew to follow Jesus is recorded in ch. IX, the next suc- 
ceeding the one containing this account,) prevent us from under- 
standing this representation as of literal interpretation and should 
stimulate us to discover its allegoric meaning. How frequently do 
the feats of jugglers, and even dreams and visions, bring before men's 
eyes spectres in human and other forms apparently in all sorts of 
circumstances, states and conditions, and going through many meta- 
morphoses and transformations, as it were, in their presence. Would 
it be any wonder then that such phenomena would sometimes appear 
to the early Christians which would give them the idea of one per- 
forming miracles, but miracles in which there was no more reality 
than in the feats of a juggler, a vision, or a dream? Such circum- 
stances may have given rise to the representations of some of the 
reputed miracles of Jesus, especially in the case of some of those we 
have yet to consider. But on such a supposition the question natu- 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 103 

rally suggests itself, who or what caused the appearances in the im- 
aginations of those who believed they saw them as real ? This ques- 
tion may perhaps be best answered by asking another ; who or what 
causes the dreams and visions which occur to one's mind asleep and 
awake? — for the mind, even when in a state of conscious activity in 
the day time, often experiences visions ; and there are some minds 
more susceptible of them than others. And who or what causes the 
appearances which our imagination conceives as real, and which we 
believe to be produced by the feats of a juggler operating his art in 
the room with us ? The early Christians were chai-acteristically un- 
educated, weak-minded, and consequently superstitious men ; such, 
in the main, we have reason to believe the first professors of Chris- 
tianity were; and such in the main were the Christians for two or 
thi-ee centuries after Christianity first took its rise ; and of such a 
character would some Christian churches have the great mass of 
their votaries to be now. It is well known how easy such minds are 
to be operated upon by those who understand them ; everything is 
mystery to them, and they are susceptible of all sorts of impressions ; 
one central or controlling mind, having gained their confidence, 
moulds the mass, instils into them the opinions he wishes to have 
them imbibe, and operates so on their imagination that he eventually 
makes them believe what he pleases. Especially if such an one have 
the power and tact which we see some men of modern times wielding, 
causing for the time a strong impression in vast and intelligent as- 
semblies of the appearances they present as realities, he is almost 
sure to produce a lasting conviction of the reality of such appear- 
ances in the minds of the ignorant and superstitious who trust in his 
honesty. There is no reason why any art or science may not be put 
to a good use ; yea, and many arts that are used for bad purposes 
may be made, if only those who exercise them will, to subserve the 
good. Nor is there any valid reason why the true and righteous 
man, the faithful and true servant of God, may not employ any art 
or faculty, natural or acquired, he may possess, Avhether it be other- 
wise called ventriloquism, jugglery, or any other name, in furthering 
the cause of truth and righteousness among mankind. But these 
arts should be used only for that purpose, and their use for the pur- 
pose of deceiving others, or for aggrandizing the one who exercises 
them, should be universally discountenanced, detested and deprecated. 
The good and prayerful man, who is active in God's cause, and trusts 
to God for help, will be assisted by him in his worthy efforts ; he is 
a worker together with God in advancing the cause of truth and 
righteousness in the world, and God is a co-worker with him in the 
doing of this work. If a large class of mankind who are popularly 



104 ' CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

looked upon as bad men, — if we may so speak, as the agents of Sa- 
tan, — ^perform in the eyes of the intelligent community such wonders, 
is it anything strange that the servant of Grod who is interested and 
active in his Master's cause, especially if he be possessed of some 
peculiar power, or art, or gift, whether natural or acquired, should 
perform signs and wonders quite as astonishing in the eyes of the 
ignorant, the weak-minded, and superstitious, but infinitely more 
beneficent in their design and effect, as will appear to all men of 
sense ? Some such gifted men there doubtless are now, and have 
always been in the Christian Church. John the Baptist, we may 
believe, was one of these, a real historical personage, and one of the 
greatest of the prophets. But even he was only one of the instru- 
ments which Deity made use of in the accomplishment of his pur- 
poses. These instruments for the accomplishment of the purposes 
of Deity among mankind spring up in the course of the ages among 
mankind themselves. The}^ are sure to do their work ere they leave 
this earthly scene ; and nothing can prevent it. But it is high time 
for all to disabuse their minds of the idea of a miracle being a work 
which interferes with or sets aside the order and course of nature, 
which of itself is a stupendous miracle, and produces an astonishing 
effect in it, contrary to its normal or ordinary action, in accordance 
with the will of a human being. A miracle, as the word means, is 
merely a " wonder" (and what is a wonder to one man, we know, 
may not be such to another,) a " sign " indicative of something else- 
The Greek word which is mostly used in the New Testament and 
translated miracle into our version is ir^astov, literally "sign." And 
may not this vision or allegorical representation of the cleansing of 
the leper have been designed to indicate the cleansing and purifying 
effects which the doctrines of the Gospel of truth and holiness should 
have upon a world diseased with the leprosy of sin ? 

Miracle 8. Christ heals the Centurion's servant at Capernaum, 
Matt. VIII. 5-13 : " And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, 
there came unto him a Centurion, beseeching him, and saying: Lord, 
my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 
And Jesus saith unto him : I will come and heal him. The Centu- 
rion answered and said : Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest 
come under my roof ; but speak the word only and my servant shall 
be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under 
me ; and I say to this man : Go, and he goeth and to another : Come, 
and he cometh ; and to my servant : Do this, and he doeth it. When 
Jesus heard it, he marvelled and said to them that followed : Verily 
I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. 
And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and westj 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 105 

and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the king- 
dom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out 
into outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 
And Jesus said unto the Centurion : Go thy way ; and as thou hast 
believed so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the 
self-same hour." Luke VII, 1-11 : " Now when he had ended all 
his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. 
And a certain Centurion's servant who was dear unto him was sick 
and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him 
the elders of the Jews beseeching him that he would come and heal 
his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him in- 
stantly, saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this: For 
he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus 
went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, 
the Centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him : Lord, trouble 
not thyself; for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under 
my roof; wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto 
thee ; but say in a word and my servant shall be healed. For I also 
am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers ; and I say 
unto one : Go, and he goeth ; and to another : Come, and he cometh; 
and to my servant : Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard 
these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said 
unto the people that followed him : I say unto you : I have not 
found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, re- 
turning to the? house, found the servant whole that had been sick." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is found recorded in two gospels. First, the two narratives 
disagree as to the time of the performance of the miracle, in Matthew 
it being placed in order before the healing of Peter's mother-in-law ; 
in Luke, it being placed in order long after that event. Second, they 
differ as to the way in which the event ifrepresented as having taken 
place in the two. According to Matthew, the Centurion comes him- 
self to Jesus, on the latter having entered into Capernaum, and en- 
treats him in behalf of his sick servant ; upon which Jesus very 
promptly volunteers to come and heal him. But hereupon the Cen- 
turion with equal promptness remonstrates, saying that he was not 
worthy such a good and eminent person as Jesus should come under 
his roof, and asks him to speak the word only, and his servant shall 
be healed. At the same time he proclaims his own power and au- 
thority in such a manner as would lead one to suppose that he ex- 
hibited very little modesty. And Jesus on hearing this wondered 



106 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and said to those^that followed him : "Verily I say unto you, I have 
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that 
many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down 
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But 
the children of the kingdom slaall be cast out into outer darkness, 
where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." It appears from this 
last that the Centurion is not a Jew ; and the discourse otherwise rep- 
resents the rejection of the Jews for unbelief, and the- acceptation or 
incoming of the Gentiles, into the new order of things which was now 
beginning to be brought about. Ace. to Luke, the Centurion does not 
himself come to Jesus at all, but sends to him the elders of the Jews, 
beseeching him to come and heal his sick servant, which, after they had 
faithfully represented to him the worthiness of the man in whose 
behalf they had made the request, he consents to do. And on his 
way thither, when he was now not far from the house, the Centurion 
sent yet friends to him, saying unto him : " Lord, trouble not thyself 
for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof, wher- 
fore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee : but say in a 
word, and my servant shall be healed. He then goes on as before, ace. 
to Matt., — this time however having his friends his mouthpiece, — and 
pi-ochiims his own power and authority. This discrepancy in the 
two narratives of the same event is alone sufBcient to show the un- 
literal character of either of them. Add to this, and to the discrepancy 
as to the time of the performance of the miracle,that neither of the nar- 
rators witnessed himself what he relates, (for the call of Matthew did 
not take place till after this event : See Matt. IX, 9.) and we have 
a state of things presented which would render it exceedingly 
unreasonable in us to conclude either of these accounts as repre- 
senting the performance of a miracle in the common acceptation of 
that term. But would not the representation have been designed to 
indicate prophetically the future acceptation of the Grentile world to 
participation in the Christian system which was now begun to be 
inaugurated ? » 

Miracle 9. — He raises the widotv''s son at Nain, Luke VII. 11-17 : 
" And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called 
Nain ; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. 
Now, when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold there was a 
dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a 
widow; and much people of the city was with her. And when the 
Lord saw her he had compassion on her, and said unto her : Weep 
not. And he came and touched the coffin, and they that bare it 
stood still. And he said : Young man, I say unto thee, arise. And 
he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And he delivered him 



EEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. r 107 

to his mother. And there came fear on all, and they glorified God, 
saying : That a great prophet is risen up among us ; and that God 
hath visited his people." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is found recorded in one gospel only, in Luke. The raising 
of a dead man to life we must all allow would be an act of great 
power, so great, indeed, that we at once hesitate to believe that such 
an act is possible for a human being to perform ; and when we are 
informed of a man having accomplished it, we are disposed to believe 
it only on full and unquestionable evidence. Such evidence we 
hardly possess of the miracle under consideration ; the only account 
of it we have being from an informant, who could have learnt of it 
only by tradition. And would it not seem strange if the event took 
place that none of the disciples who accompanied Jesus at the 
time he is said to have wrought the miracle, (for it is said in the 
narrative that many of his disciples were with him, and much people, 
the writers of the first and fourth gospels, as well as the writers of 
some of the epistles, being reckoned among the disciples of Christ,) 
that none of them ever once mention this miracle? The event, 
however, which gave rise to this story may possibly have been of 
the nature of a dream or vision ; and to weak and superstitious 
minds, or minds that are susceptible of them, visions sometimes 
appear in the daylight, leaving an impression upon them as of real 
occurrences. And may not some visionary representation, that 
is, in some such way as is here represented, have forcibly impressed 
the mind of some of the early Christians with the idea of their seeing 
a dead man raised to life, and containing a prophesy indicating some- 
thing as to the Christian Church? Or would not the allegory 
represent the revival which Christianity would effect in the masses 
of the youth from the blindness and death of superstition and sin to 
the life of true knowledge and godliness ? 

Miracle 10. He stills the tempest on the sea of Gralilee, Matt. VIII. 
23-27 : " And when he was entered into a ship his disciples followed 
him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch 
that the ship was covered with the waves ; but he was asleep ; and 
his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying ; Lord, save us : 
we perish. And he saith unto them : Why are ye fearful. ye of 
little faith. Then he arose and rebuked the wind, and the soa ; and 
there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying ; "• What 
manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him ? " 
Mark IV. 35-41: " And the same day, when the even w/,s oome, 
he saith unto them ; Let us pass over unto the other side. Aud 



108"' CItlOATOR i^ND COSMOS. 

when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he 
■was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. 
And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the 
ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the 
ship, asleep on a pillow; and they awake him, and say unto him: 
Master, carest thou not that we perish ? And he arose and rebuked 
the wind, and said unto the sea : Peace, be still. And the wind 
ceased and there was a great calm. And he said unto them. Why 
are ye so fearful ? How is it that ye have no faith ? And they 
feared exceedingly, and said one to another : " What manner of 
man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him ? " Luke 
VIII. 22-26 : " And it came to pass on a certain day that he went 
into a ship with his disciples; and he said unto them: Let us go 
over to the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. And 
as they sailed he fell asleep ; and there came down a storm of wind 
on the lake, and the}^ were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. 
And they came to him, and awoke him, saying : Master, master, we 
perish. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the 
water ; and they ceased, and there was a calm. And he said unto 
them: Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, 
saying one to another : What manner of a man is this ! For he 
commandeth even the winds and the water, and they obey him." 

Remarks on the Preceding, 

This is recorded in three of the Gospels. The call of Matthew 
not taking place till after this event is represented to have occurred 
neither writer can be said to have witnessed it. Also, the expres- 
sion of the disciples to Jesus and his admonitory question to 
them, given in the oratio directa differ in the three narratives. In 
Matt, it is : " Lord save us, we perish. And he saith unto them ; 
Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith ? " In Mark it is : " Master, 
carest thou not that we perish ? And he said unto them : Why are 
ye so fearful ? How is it that ye have no faith ? " And in Luke it 
is: "Master, master, we perish." And he said unto them : " Where 
is your faith? " Now supposing all of these narratives to represent 
the same real occurrence (for they all come to us with equal 
authority for originality), we find that some of them must report 
wrongly. Which of them then should we select to represent the 
original expression of the disciples to Christ, and of him to them ? 
This we are unable to determine. If, however, we could affirm the 
three narrators, or two of thein, to have witnessed it themselves, 
some, notwithstanding the difference of expression in the direct 
oration^ might be inclined to believe in the account of a literal 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 109 

occurrence. But, as before remarked, we have no ground for 
suspecting, and no authority for saying that either of the narrators 
witnessed himself what he here relates. 

Or, to those who believe in a particular man, Jesus Christ, as 
represented in the gospels, the following arguments might appear 
likely. There may have happened to spring up a storm of wind as 
Christ and his company of disciples were crossing in their little 
vessel the sea of Galilee. This lake, 'tis true, is but narrow, some 
five or six miles wide at its widest part ; but still there would be no 
improbability in the Saviour, when the vessel was at some distance 
put from the shore and the disciples rowing for the other side, 
reposing himself on a pillow in the hinder part of the vessel, and 
falling asleep. A storm of wind arising suddenly, the ship would 
be tossed about on the waves, which alarming the disciples for fear 
of the vessel being wrecked, they would wake up their Lord and 
master in the hinder part of the ship. The storm soon abating, and 
the sea becoming calm on his awaking, the disciples would be under 
an impression that it had become so in obedience to his will or com- 
mand. Again, whirlwinds have doubtless in all ages occasionally 
passed over the surface of the eastern countries ; and if one of those 
squalls overtook a vessel on the lake, it would give it a violent 
shaking, — perhaps sink it, — and soon pass over, leaving the sea calm. 
If one of those happened to pass over the lake while the Saviour of 
the world, and his little devoted band of disciples were out sailing 
in their little craft, and they to survive it, the suddenness of the 
squall giving the Saviour scarcely time to wake up from his pillow, 
and its passing immediately away on his waking up, would leave 
the disciples under an impression that their beloved master had 
saved them from a watery grave. 

Moreover, and on the other hand, considering Christ in the light 
of a wonder-worker, that is, in the light of a spiritual medium who 
had the power of affecting variously the minds of men, it would not 
be unlikely that while outsailing with his disciples on the sea of Galilee, 
he would impress them with a sense of his power, affect their minds 
in such a way as they would believe that a storm was raging, and the 
waves rolling all around them, although no storm actually raged at 
the time. Considering Christ in such a light, he would have the 
power of affecting their minds variously, and this would be one of 
the effects he would be likely to produce, while, with composed coun- 
tenance and closed lips, apparentlj- enjoying his repose on his pillow ; 
and a suitable word spoken by him when he had opened his eyes 
would impress them with a sense of his great power in stilling the 
winds and the waves. It is to be presumed there are many now-a- 



110 CBEATOE AND COSMOS. 

days, if we only knew them who have the faculty of producing similar 
effects on the minds of their fellow-men. And it is said there are 
many men who can mesmerise their fellows, notwithstanding the -will 
and effort of the latter to resist their influence ; and that there are 
many who can make others believe they hear different voices speak- 
ing to them from different directions at the same time, where it is 
evident no human being is; and that there are many who can make 
others believe they see real human beings and other objects, where 
if they examine they will soon discover that there is nothing, and 
will have to conclude that what they thought a human being or 
something else was merely a picture formed in their own mind, an 
illusion of their own imagination ! Yea, and that there are manj-who 
can make others believe they hear sounds and noises, — perhaps 
as of winds, musical instruments, etc., — coming to their ears from 
different directions, and producing sometimes the most discordant 
sounds, sometimes the most delightful and harmonious music, and 
sometimes as of the noise of a rushing and mighty wind, which will 
come, and continue for a little while, and pass away. Some of our 
readers will from their experience doubtless understand these things 
better than others. What wonder then that some such an effect as 
their believing they heard and were tossed and rocked by a mighty 
wind while they were sailing in their little vessel on the lake of 
Tiberias, should have been produced in the disciples' mind by 
Jesus, the master of the assembly. 

But would not the design of this allegorical representation be to 
indicate the state of the Christian Church in the future ? There was 
the little vessel, the ark, the Church, tossed about by evil and 
adverse influences upon the waves of a turbulent world ; and there 
was the pilot in the vessel, representing the Church's acknowledged 
governor, who would steer the vessel safely through, and keep it from 
sinking, when tossed at times by the world's adverse winds upon its 
boisterous waves ? As Christ and the Fatlier is one, so each true 
disciple of Christ is one with him, possessed of, and actuated by the 
spirit of Christ ; and so long as the true spirit of Christ is largely in 
the Cliurch so long will the vessel, though rocked by storms, ride 
safely over the most turbulent waves of the world. 

Miracle 11. He cures the demoniac of Gradara, Matt. VIII, 28—31: 
" And when he was come to the other side into the country of the 
Gergesenes there met him two possessed with devils coming out of 
the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 
And behold they cried out saying : What have we to do with thee, 
Jesus, thou son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before 
the time ? And there was a good way off from them a herd of many 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. Ill 

swine, feeding ; so the devils besought him saying : If thou cast us 
out suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto 
them : Go. And when they were come out they went into the herd 
of swine ; and behold the whole herd of swine ran violently down a 
steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. And they that 
kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every- 
thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. And, 
behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw 
him they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts." 
Mark V. 1-20 : " And they came over unto the other side of the sea, 
into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of 
the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an 
unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs ; and no man 
could bind him, no, not with chains ; because that he had been often 
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked 
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces ; neither could any 
man tame him. And always night and day he was in the mountains 
and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But when 
he saw Jesus afar off he ran and worshipped him and cried with a loud 
voice and said : What have I to do with thee, Jesus, son of the Most 
High God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. For he said 
unto him : Come out of the man, unclean spirit. And he asked him. 
What is thy name? And he answered, saying : My name is legion ; 
for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not 
send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto 
the mountain a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils 
besought him, saying : Send us into the swine, that we may enter 
into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean 
spirits went out and entered into the swine ; and the herd ran vio- 
lently down a steep place into the sea (they were about two thou- 
sand) and were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine 
fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out 
to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus, and see 
him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion, sitting and 
clothed, and in his right mind ; and they were afraid. And they 
that saw it told them how it befel him that was possessed with the 
devil, and concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to 
depart out of their coasts. And when he was come into the ship he 
that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might bfl 
with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him : Go 
home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath 
done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed 
and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had don*" 



112 . CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

I'or liim : and all men did marvel." Luke VIII. 26-40 : " And they 
arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. 
And when he went forth to land there met him out of the city a cer- 
tain man which had devils a long time, and wore no clothes, neither 
abode in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried 
out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said : What 
have I to do with thee, Jesus, son of God most High ? I beseech 
thee torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to 
come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught* him ; and he 
was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands 
and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.) And Jesus asked 
him, saying ; What is thy name ? And he said legion ; because 
many devils Avere entered into him. And they besought him that 
he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was 
there a herd of many swine feeding on the mountain ; and they be- 
sought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he 
suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man and entered 
into the swine : and the herd ran violently down a steep place into 
the lake and were choked. When they that fed them saw what was 
done they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. 
Then they went out to see what was done ; and came to Jesus, and 
found the man out of whom the devils were departed sitting at the 
feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind ; and they were afraid. 
They also which saw it told them hy what means he that was pos- 
sessed of the devils was healed." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is found recorded in three Gosples, but with this important 
difference, that in the narrative in Matthew two demoniacs are men- 
tioned, while in the corresponding one in Mark and Luke respective- 
ly there is only one. There is this difference also, that in Matthew 
the miracle is said to have been performed in the country of the Gerge- 
senes, in Mark and Luke in that of the Gadarenes. It may, however, 
be safely presumed that the same place is meant, or that the two 
appellations have reference to the same locality, from the circum- 
stance that the miracle is represented in all as taking place when 
Christ and his disciples landed on the other side, after being tempest- 
tossed on the sea of Galilee. And they likewise all agree as well in 
other respects as that the outcast devils entered into the herd ot 
swine, which ran violently down a steep place into the sea and were 
dj-owned. Also, these three accounts are put down in the best 
reference Bibles as referring to the same miracle. The improba- 
bility of two demoniacs, which, according to the representation, 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 11-^ 

we may conceive as exceedingly fierce, wild and wicked men, dan- 
gerous to each other and to the whole community, being found at 
large, associated together, as accoi'ding to Matthew, is at once 
apparent. The improbability, too, of such a man as is represented in 
Mark and Luke abiding naked in the mountains and in the tombs, 
crying and cutting himself with stones, and repeatedly breaking the 
chains and fetters with which he had been bound, and to all appear- 
ance without the means of supporting life, is almost equally appar- 
ent. Also, considering the accounts in Mark and Luke, which agree 
in mentioning only one demoniac, we find that in other respects 
they differ from each other. According to Mark the demoniac ad- 
dresses Jesus thus : " What have I to do with thee, Jesus, son of the 
Most High God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not." 
And Jesus asked him : " What is thy name ? " And he answered 
him saying ; " My name is legion, for we are many." Ace. to Luke 
the demoniac says : " What have I to do with thee, Jesus, Son of 
God Most High ? I beseech thee torment me not." And Jesus asked 
him saying : " What is thy name ?" And he said " legion," because 
many devils were entered into him. And ace. to Matthew the two 
demoniacs address Jesus in still a different way : " What have we to 
do with thee, thou Son of God. Art thou come hither to torment 
us before the time ? " Strictly speaking these last mentioned differ- 
ences in the narration of the same event in the oratio directa, are 
sufficient to show these accounts, as not literally significant; for 
coming to us with the same authority as original accounts of the 
same event we would not know which of them to accept as the true 
original, or whether either of them was the original, and therefore 
should have to recognize them all as unliteral. But would not this al- 
legorical representation be designed to symbolise the future operation 
of the true Christian Church ? The circumstance of the spirits being 
represented as made by Jesus to go out of the men or man would in- 
dicate the salutary effect of the holy influence of the true Christians of 
all ages in purifying the hearts and reforming the lives of the unclean 
and unholy. And the further circumstance of the unclean spirits be- 
ing permitted to enter into swine would indicate that the evil and 
depraved, when left to themselves, if they persisted in their evil course 
would go on from bad to worse till they should be helplessly lost. They 
are left to themselves and they choose to add sin to sin, one diabolical 
malign, and impure affection to another, till, having reached the climax 
of wickedness, they rush headlong into the depths of ungodliness and 
despair, and perish in the gulf of perdition. Is it not lamentable 
that man, the only rational creature, the highest of the animal 
creation, being left free to act, should choose the evil course and 
Vol. IL— 8 



114 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

debase himself to the level of the lowest of the scale of the animal 
creation, when, if he had chosen and pursued the good course, he 
might have become equal to, or higher than the angels of heaven. 

Miracle 12. He cures a man of the Palsy at Capernaum, Matt. IX. 
1-8 : " And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into 
his own city. And, behold, they brought unto him a man sick of 
the palsy, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the 
sick of the palsy : Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. 
And, behold, certain of the Scribes said within themselves ; this man 
blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said: Wherefore 
think ye evil in j'our hearts ? For whether is it easier to say : Thy 
sins be forgiven thee, or to say : Arise and walk? But that ye may 
know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins : (then 
saith he to the sick of the palsy :) Arise take up thy bed and go 
unto thine house. And he arose and departed to his house. But 
when the multitudes saw it they marvelled, and glorified God, which 
had given such power unto men." Mark II. 3-13 : " And they came 
unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 
And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they 
uncovered the roof where he was ; and when they had broken it up, 
they let down the bed wherin the sick of the palsy lay. When 
Jesus saw their faith he said unto the sick of the palsy ; Son, thy 
sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the Scribes sitting 
there and reasoning in their hearts : Why doth this man thus speak 
blasphemies ? Who can forgive sins but God only ? And immedi- 
ately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned among 
themselves he said unto them : Why reason ye these things in your 
hearts ? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy : Thy 
sins be forgiven thee, or to say ; Arise, and take up thy bed and walk ? 
But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to 
forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy) : I say unto thee arise 
and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And imme- 
diately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them .all,, 
insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying : We 
never saw it on this fashion." Luke V. 18-27 : " And, behold, men 
brought in a bed a man which was taken with the palsy ; and they 
sought to bring him in and lay him before him. And when they 
could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the 
multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through 
the tiling with his couch in the midst before Jesus. And when he 
saw their faith he said unto him : Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. 
And the Scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying : Who is 
this that speaketh blasphemies ? Who can forgive sins but God 



KEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIKA(;LES. 115 

alone ? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he, answering, 
said unto them : What reason ye in your hearts ? Whether it is easier 
to say: Thy, sins be forgiven thee, or to say: Rise up and walk? 
But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon the 
earth to forgive sins (he said unto the sick of the palsy) : I say unto 
thee, arise, and take up thy couch, and go unto thine house. And 
immediately he rose up before them and took up that whereon he 
lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying Grod ; and they were 
all amazed and glorified God ; and were filled with fear, saying : 
We have seen strange things to-day." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This miracle, it is seen, is recorded in three Gospels. It is known 
that all three accounts are meant to be of the same event from the cir- 
cumstance that the call of Matthew, to follow Jesus, is mentioned in 
each Gospel immediately succeeding the account of this miracle. There 
is, however, a difference in the way in which the representation is 
given in the three. In Matthew it is stated simply that one sick of the 
palsy, was brought to Jesus lying on a bed, &c. In Mark and Luke it 
is said that when, by reason of the crowd, they could not approach 
Jesus with the palsied man, they went up on the house-top, (their 
houses being flat roofed in Palestine), uncovered the roof, and let 
him down in the midst, before Jesvis. He, seeing their faith, and 
sympathizing with the paralytic, ordered him to arise, take up his 
bed, and carry it to his house, which the recruited man is said to have 
done forthwith. The expression of Jesus to the sick man in pro- 
nouncing his sins forgiven, set forth in the direct oration, is different 
in each. According to Matthew, it is : "■ Son, be of good cheer, thy 
sins be forgiven thee." According to Mark, " Son thy sins be for- 
given thee." And according to Luke : "Many thy sins are forgiven 
thee." The three accounts differ also as to all the other expressions 
of Jesus, as those to the Pharisees and the paralytic, which each 
reader may notice in the text for himself. All these differences 
mentioned together with the fact of the want of evidence, plainly 
demonstrate these accounts as not of literal signification and 
sets us to find out its allegoric meaning. But may there not have 
been some event which gave rise to the representation, an event, 
likely, of the nature of a dream or vision, indicating something 
with respect to the Christian Church, and which he who conceived 
it, believed to be real? It is a fact, however, that all human beings 
possess the power of influencing each other for good or for evil, 
and their influence on each other corresponds to a great extent 



116 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

with their moral character. The good and holy man will have 
a good and holy and energising influence upon his neighbor, and vice 
versa. Also, the will and desire of the good and holy man are 
seconded by God, for they are in accordance with His will, and 
God is a co-worker with him. Is it altogether improbable then 
that the life-imparting and energising influence of some good 
and intelligent men among the early christians may have produced 
astonishingly good effects upon certain invalids, such as this 
paralytic is represented to have been ? Some people believe 
themselves invalids when they really are not ; but the condition in 
which they imagine themselves often springs from indisposition to 
activity, sheer laziness, if we may so speak, on their own part, a 
morbid state of their bodily and mental faculties. And might not 
this reputed paralytic have been one of this large class of persons 
that now exist, and, doubtless have always existed in the world ; 
who, having heard of the great and beneficent wonder-worker before, 
believing what he said to him now, and taking courage at his com- 
mand, springs to his feet, and carries his bed to his house. This lat- 
ter hypothesis may, in a measure, correspond with the ideas of those 
who believe in a particuhir man, Jesus Christ, who is represented in 
the Gospels. But in consideration of the trouble which the bearers 
of this paralytic are represented to have taken in bringing him to 
Jesus, would not this allegorical representation have been designed 
to teach us that we should leave nothing undone in the way of prayer 
and supplication to God, and in every other way which may bring 
them benefit, in behalf of our afflicted friends and neighbors ? 
Aside from what takes place in the course and operations of nature, 
and by the art and operations of man, tlie domain of miracles is the 
region of the mind. All will confess that this universe around us, 
the course and operations of nature, is to us a stupendous miracle, yea 
an infinity of stupendous miracles, which we cannot and dare not 
begin to explain. 

Miracle 13. Se restores to life Jairus' daughter at Capernaum. 
Matt. IX. 18-19, 23-26. " While he spake these things unto them, 
behold there came a certain ruler and worshipped him, saying : My 
daughter is even now dead ; but come and lay thy hand upon her, 
and she shall live. And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his 
disciples. — And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the 
minstrels and the people making a noise, he said unto them : Give 
place, for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him 
to scorn. But when the people were put forth he went in and took 
her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame of it went 
abroad into all that land." . Mark V. 22-24, 35-43 : " And behold 



KBVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 117 

there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name ; and 
when he saw him he fell at his feet, and besought him greatly, saying : 
My little daughter lieth at the point of death ; come and lay thy 
hands on her, that she may be healed, and she shall live. And Jesus 
went with him, and much people followed him and thronged him. — 
While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the Synagogue's 
house, certain, which said: Thy daughter is dead, why troublest thou 
the master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was 
spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue : Be not afraid, only 
believe. And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter and 
James, and John, the brother of James. And lie cometh to the house 
of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that 
wept and wailed greatly. And when he was come in he saith unto 
them : Why make ye this ado and weep ? The damsel is not dead, 
but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had 
put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, 
and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was 
lying. And he took the damsel by the hand and said unto her : 
Talitha cumi, which is being interpreted: Damsel, I say unto thee, 
arise. And straightway the damsel arose and walked ; for she was 
of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great 
astonishment. And he charged them straitly that no man should 
know it, and commanded that something should be given her to 
eat." Luke VIII. 41-43, 49-56 : "And behold, there came a man, 
named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue ; and he fell down 
at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house ; 
for he had only one daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay 
a-dying. But as he went the people thronged him. — While he yet 
spake there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, say- 
ing to him: Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the master. But 
when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying: Fear not, believe only 
and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house he 
suffered no man to go in, save Peter and James and John, and the 
father and mother of the maiden. And all wept and wailed her; but 
he said : weep not ; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And thej'' laughed 
him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, 
and took her by the hand, and called, saying : Arise. And her spirit 
came again, and she arose straightway, and he commanded to give 
her meat. And her parents were astonished ; but he charged them 
that they should tell no man what was done." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This miracle is recorded in three Gospels. Neither of the narrators 



118 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

witnessed it himself ; for it is said, both in Luke and Mark, that he 
suffered no man to be present but Peter and James and John, and the 
father and mother of the damsel. And would it not seem strange 
that, although we have writings in the New Testament ascribed to 
two of these disciples who are said to have been present at the perform- 
ance of the miracle, and one of whom it is said wrote the fourth Gos- 
pel, not one of them mentions it ? The raising of a human being from 
the dead to life we must all allow would be an act of supernatural 
power ; and, if we should hear of such a thing having been done by 
any man, we should require very complete and satisfactory evidence 
of it before we should credit it. Now, how do we account for the 
write/ of the fourth Gospel, not to speak of the others who are 
said to have been present at the miracle, not mentioning it, and that 
three writers, who did not witness it at all, mention it in very simi- 
lar language ? Also those expressions which are here in the oratic 
directa are different in the different narratives. As, for example, ac- 
cording to Matthew, the ruler addresses Jesus thus : " My daughter 
is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall 
live." According to Mark, it is : " My little daughter lieth at the 
point of death ; come and lay thy hands on her that she may be 
healed, and she shall live." Now, which of these expresssions Jarius 
made use of, or whether he made use of either of them, we cannot 
tell ; such a predicament does the oratio directa put us in. Again, 
according to Matthew, when Jesus comes into the house, he says : 
" Give place, for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth." According to 
Mark : " Why made ye this ado and weep ? the damsel is not dead, 
but sleepeth." And according to Luke : "Weep not; she is not dead, 
but sleepeth." Now, which of these expressions Jesus made use of 
on his entrance to that house of mourning, we cannot tell ; and for 
all these reasons we cannot conclude these accounts as of literal sig- 
nification. But would not this allegorical representation have been 
designed to teach us that when any of our friends or neighbors are 
in a dying state we should, together with using every other means for 
their amelioration, never give up hopes of them, but should persist in 
prayer to God for their recovery, until they are evidently beyond 
hope ? Or, that if any of our friends or neighbors are in a state of 
sinning, we should use, together with our precept and example to 
them, our prayers to God in their behalf? And this we should 
persist in doing, and not be put off with the idea of our troubling 
the master. We should eternally besiege and compass the throne of 
grace as the importunate widow did the unjust judge, until we 
eventually have become the instruments of effecting in them a 
change of heart and a reformation of life. 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 119 

Miracle 14. Matt. IX. 20-23. He cures a woman of a bloody issue, 
at Capernaum. — " And behold a woman which was diseased with an 
issue of blood twelve years, came behind him and touched the hem 
of his garment ; for she said within herself: if I may but touch his 
garment I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when 
he saw her he said : Daughter, be of good comfort ; thy faith hath 
made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour." 
Mark V. 25-34 : " And a certain woman which had an issue of blood 
twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and 
had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew 
worse, when she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched 
the hem of his garment. For she said : If I may touch but his clothes 
I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was 
dried up ; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 
And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out 
of him, turned about in the press and said : Who touched my clothes ? 
And his disciples said unto him : Thou seest the multitude throng- 
ing thee, and sayest thou : Who touched me ? And he looked round 
about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing 
and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down 
before him and told him all the truth. And he saith unto her : 
Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace and be whole 
of thy plague." Luke VIII. 48-48 : " And a woman having an issue 
of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, 
neither could be healed of any, came behind all and touched the bor- 
der of his garment ; and immediately her issue of blood staunched. 
And Jesus said : Who touched me ? When all denied, Peter and 
they that were with him said : Master, the multitude throng thee 
and press thee, and sayest thou : Who touched me ? And Jesus 
said : Somebody hath touched me ; for I perceive that virtue is gone 
out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came 
trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before 
all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she 
was healed immediately. And he said unto her : Daughter, be of 
good comfort : thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is found recorded in three Gospels. Of the three narrators, 
only Matthew, the ascribed writer of the first Gospel, could be sup- 
posed to have witnessed it, as his call to follow Christ is recorded 
before in the same chapter. But these three accounts come to us 
with the same authorit}'- for originality. Now there is some difference 



120 CREATOR AKD COSMOS. 

between the accounts in the expressions of Jesus to the woman on 
being cured of her plague. According to Matt, it is : " Daughter, 
be of good comfort ; thy faith hath made thee whole : " According to 
Mark : " Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace 
and be w^hole of the plague : " According to Luke : " Daughter, be 
of good comfort ; thy faith hath made tliee whole ; go in peace." 
There are also some other slight differences in the expressions Christ 
is represented to have made use of on this occasion, both in the 
Greek and English, in the latter of Avhich the general readers can 
notice them for themselves. In each of the three narratives Jesus 
attributes the result to the woman's own faith, and it is here intimated, 
as in other similar cases, that as one believes a thing to be, so it is to 
him. Would not this allegorical representation have been designed 
to show us that we should continually exercise firm faith in the 
power and goodness of God, as" well as perform the requisite acts ? 

Miracle 15. He restores to sight two Hind men^ at Capernaum, 
Matt. IX. 27-31 : " And when Jesus departed thence two blind men 
followed him, crying and saying : Son of David, have mercy on us. 
And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him ; 
and Jesus saith to them : Believe ye that I am able to do this ? They 
said unto him : Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying : 
According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened ; 
and Jesus straitly charged them saying : See that no man know it. 
But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all 
that country." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is found recorded only in Matthew. That the writer witnessed 
what he here relates is not said. Tlie improbability, however, of 
two blind men being abroad in tlie country associated together, and 
of their being able, though blind, to follow^ Jesus on the way is 
at once apparent. Would not this allegorical representation have 
been designed to foreshow the taking away of the blindness of super- 
stition and ignorance from both Jew and Gentile, as an effect of the 
proiTiulgation of the true Christian doctrine ? 

Miracle 16. Christ heals one possessed of a dumb spirit at Caper- 
naum, Matt. IX. 32-34 : " And as they went out, behold, they 
brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the 
devil was cast out the dumb spake, and the multitudes marvelled, 
saying: It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said : He 
casteth out devils through the prince of the devils." Luke XI. 14 : 
" And he was casting out a devil, a.nd it was dumb. And it came 
to pass when the devil was gone out the dumb spake, and the people 



EEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 121 

wondered. But some of them said: He casteth out devils through 
Beelzebub, the chief of the devils." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is found recorded in two gospels, and in both places it 
seems only to be mentioned casually. But according to Matthew it 
was the man that was dumb ; and according to Luke it was the 
devil by which the man was possessed that was dumb ; but as both 
of them agree that the man spoke when the devil was cast out, the 
inference is that his dumbness resulted from his being possessed of 
the devil. Would not this allegorical representation have been 
designed to indicate the good effects of true Christian doctrine upon 
a world distempered and lethargic with moral and physical disease, 
resulting from superstition, ignorance, and sin ? But the man being 
brought to a realizing sense of his true condition by the light of 
the knowledge which the gospel affords him, speaks out, and the 
people wondered at the good effects produced in him, which they 
also beg^in to realize in themselves through his influence. The 
Pharisees, however, allege that he casts out the devils through the 
prince of the devils ; but in the sequel it is satisfactorily proved 
that this is effected by the spirit of God. (See Luke XL 17-27.) 

Miracle 17. He cures the infirm man of Bethesda, at Jerusalem, 
John V. 1-9 : " After this there was a feast of the Jews ; and Jesus 
went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market 
a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five 
porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, 
halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel 
went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water ; 
whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was 
made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was 
there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus 
saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, 
he saith unto him : Wilt thou be made whole ? The impotent man 
answored him : Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, 
to put me into the pool : but while I am coming, another steppeth 
before me. Jesus saith unto him : Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 
And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, 
and walked ; and on the same day was the Sabbath." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded only in Jolin. Whclhqr or not the writer wit- 
nessed it is not intimated. It must be conlcssed, however, that the 



122 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

story of that miracle appears at least as probable as that of the 
healing virtues of Bethesda's waters in the same narrative; for 
here it is said that, " an angel went down at a certain season into 
the pool, and troubled the water : and whosoever then first after the 
troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatever dis- 
ease he had." One part of the narrative literally considered, appears 
just as probable and as improbable as the other. And if it be true 
that the diseased Jews used to assemble there periodically,each invalid 
anxiously expecting and preparing himself to be the first to step in after 
the moving of the waters by the angel, it only shows into what a pitiable 
condition of superstition and ignorance the Jews of that day were sunk. 
But for the sake of illustrating to those who believe in a particulai 
man, Jesus Christ, we will, for a moment, suppose the representa- 
tion real. Is it then probable that the invalid, having heard of 
Christ before, had considerable faith in the goodness of his character, 
and in His power to work miracles, and hoped that he might, when 
He would come the way, do some good for him ? And then the 
benign aspect of Jesus when present answering in a degree his 
expectations and his hopes : the words which Jesus speaks to him, 
accompanied by his vivifying and energizing influence upon his dilapi- 
dated system, strengthens his faith and increases his energy, so that 
he believes himself a new man, and springs to his feet at the command 
of the world's Saviour, takes up his bed, as the one cured of the 
palsy, and travels away with it to his house. And may he not have 
been one of that large class who are not really in as bad a condition 
as they imagine themselves to be, and would have others believe they 
are ? This man, as the restored paralytic, is made to undergo quite 
a protracted examination of the Jews as to the agent and manner of 
his healing on the Sabbath-day. 

But would not this allegorical representation have been designed 
mainly to teach the superstitious Jews and all like them, who are 
over punctilious about the keeping of the Sabbath-day, the incon- 
sistency and wickedness of pursuing such a course to the neglect of 
the weightier matters of the law, charity and beneficence to the sick, 
the afflicted, and the poor ; grace, mercy, and truth to all mankind ? 
In fact, are not all these representations of healing on the Sabbath- 
day pointedl}^ designed to show that great and universal truth that 
the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath ? When 
men live aright they will spend the Sabbath and every other day 
well. 

Miracle 18. He ewes a man ivitTi a withered hand, in Judsea, Matt. 



REVIEW OP THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 123 

XII. 10-13: "And, behold, there was a man which had his hand 
withered. And they asked him, saying : Is it lawful to heal on thie 
Sabbath-days ? that they might accuse him. And he said unto them : 
What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and 
if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath-day, will he not lay hold on it, 
and lift it out ? How much then is a man better than a sheep ? 
Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath-days. Then saith 
he to the man: Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth j 
and it was restored whole, like as the other." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded only in Matthew. That the writer witnessed the 
transaction is not alleged or intimated, but this allegorical represen- 
tation is evidently designed to teach the same kind of lesson as the 
one we have examined immediately before, namely, that the Sabbath 
was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 

Miracle 19. He cures a blind and dumb demoniac, at Capernaum. 
Matt. XII. 22, 23 : There was brought unto him one possessed with 
a devil, blind, and dumb : and he healed him, insomuch that the 
blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were 
amazed, and said : Is not this the Son of David ? But when the 
Pharisees heard it, they said : This fellow doth not cast out devils, 
but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils, &c. 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded only in this place. Tliat the writer witnessed it 
is not stated. Were it not that this demoniac is represented as blind 
as well as dumb, we would conclude this representation to be only 
a repetition of that which we examined under the head of No. 16, 
the account of which is found in Matt. IX. 32, 33, and Luke XL 14. 
In both cases the account of the miracle is followed by the same 
argument of the Jews as to Christ's casting out devils through Beel- 
zebub the prince of the devils, and his refutation of that argument. 
Would not this allegorical representation have been designed to 
indicate the good effects which would be produced by the knowledge 
and enlightenment which the gospel would afford to a benighted 
world, by which, realizing their condition, men would speak out their 
experience as well as see their state ? And should i^ not teach God's 
children that they should be eternally active, as far as lies in their 
power, in doing deeds of charity and beneficence to suffering 
humanity ? 



124 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Miracle 20. He feeds five thousand at Decapolis. Matt. XIV. 15- 
21 : " And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying : 
This is a desert place, and the time is now past ; send the multitude 
away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. 
But Jesus said unto them : They need not depart ; give ye them to 
eat. And they say unto him : We have here but five loaves, and two 
fishes. He said : Bring them hither to me. And he commanded 
the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and 
the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and 
gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 
And they did all eat, and were filled : and they that had eaten were 
about five thousand men, besides women and children." Ace. to 
Mark. VI. 34-45 : " And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, 
and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as 
sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. 
And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, 
and said: This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 
send them away that they may go into the country round about, and 
into the villages, and buy themselves bread : for they have nothing 
to eat. He answered and said unto them. Give ye them to eat. And 
they say unto him : Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth 
of bread, and give them to eat ? He saith unto them : How many 
loaves have ye ? go and see. And when they knew, they say : Five, 
and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by 
companies on the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hun- 
dreds and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and 
the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the 
loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them : and the 
two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and 
were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, 
and of the fishes. And they that had eaten of the loaves were about 
five thousand men." Luke IX. 12-18 : " And when the day began 
to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him : Send the 
multitude away, that they ma}' go into the towns and country round 
about, and lodge, and get victuals : for we are here in a desert place. 
But he said unto them : Give ye them to eat. And they said : We 
have no more but five loaves and two fishes ; except we should go 
and buy meat for all this people. For they were about five thousand 
men. And he said to his disciples. Make them sit down by fifties in 
a company. An9. they did so, and made them all sit down. Then 
he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, 
he blessed them, and brake, and gave the disciples to set before the 
multitude. And they did eat, and were all filled : and there was 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 125 

taken tip of the fragments that remained to them twelve baskets." 
John VI. 5-15 : " When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a 
great multitude come unto him, he saith unto Philip : Whence shall 
we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him : 
for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him : Two 
hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every 
one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon 
Peter's brother, saith unto him : There is a lad here, which hath 
five barley loaves, and two small fishes : but what are they among so 
many? And Jesus said: Make the. men sit down. Now there was 
much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about 
five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves : and when he had given 
thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that 
were set down ; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. 
When they were filled he said unto his disciples : Gather up the 
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gath- 
ered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of 
the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that 
had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that 
Jesus did, said: This is of a truth that prophet that should come 
into the world." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

We find this miracle recorded in the four gospels. Not being of 
the number of the immediate disciples of Christ, we can hardly sus- 
pect that Mark and Luke could have witnessed it ; and as to Matthew 
and John, the two who, according to the generally received opinion, 
might probably have witnessed it, these two we find differ most in 
their narratives of it ; their differences are indeed such as to indicate 
designed variations in narrative of the same event by two narrators. 
For example, these two vary as to tlie place of the miracle. Matthew 
locating it in a desert place, John upon a mountain ; as to the number 
that were fed, Matthew having it five thousand men, besides women 
and children, John five thousand men. They vaiy as to tlic con- 
ference between Christ and his disciijlcs relative to the multitude 
and the procuring of food for tlieni, Matthew representing a general 
conversation between Christ and the disciples concerning it, in whicli 
the disciples first address their inquiries to Christ ; John representing 
a particular conversation between Christ on llie one side, and Pliilip 
and Andrew on the other, in wliicli Christ first addresses his inquiry 
to Philip : " Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat ?" They 



126 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

vary in narrative as to the sort of the food, Mathew having it five 
loaves and two fishes, John five barley loaves and two small fishes. 
But what is most ominous of all, and most indicative of the nature 
of the representation of the miracle, is that just twelve baskets full 
of fragments should be left of the miraculously multiplied food after 
the meal ! Why not more or less than the number twelve ? Truly 
the producer must not only have known the exact numljer he was to 
provide for, but have measured the extent of their appetites, and the 
capacity of the twelve baskets that were to be filled after the repast. 
If of literal interpretation this event must have been altogether 
miraculous ! 

But would not this allegorical representation have been designed 
to prefigure the order and manner in which the Christian Church 
should be established and carried on ? There was the Church's ac- 
knowledged Head, the central figure of the group, supplying spiritual 
life by His doctrine and example, as found in the gospel, to mankind 
through the instrumentality of His apostles, the true ministers, or 
rather missionaries, of the Christian Church. The number that were 
present and partook of the repast, five thousand, five being in pro- 
phetic language a limited, imperfect number, would indicate that the 
number of mankind which would enter the Christian Church, and 
accept of Christianity in any age would be limited. While twelve, 
being the number of the Church, a perfect number (cf the twelve 
tribes of Israel, the twelve apostles, the twelve stars on the woman's 
head, and the twelve gates of the new Jerusalem, Revelation) indi- 
cates that the gospel was designed and is amply sufficient for all 
mankind ; and six being the half of twelve, and five being less than 
six, the five thousand mentioned as partaking of the feast would 
perhaps indicate that at no age of the world would quite half the 
number of mankind be really Christians. There is still, it is seen, 
ample work for true Christian men who desire to be active in tlie 
cause of God, in the conversion to true and genuine Cliristianity of 
what remains to make up the large number of five-twelfths or over 
of the human race, a number which has never yet been enrolled as 
acknowledged Christians, and which it will yet take time and earnest 
activity for Christianity to attain. But when shall come the hap[)y 
age when five-twelfths of tiie human race shall be real and true 
Christians ? Such a state of things is certainly much to be desired 
and sought after. 

Miracle 21. Jesus walks on the Sea of G-alilee, Matthew XIV. 22- 
34 : " And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a 
ship, and to go before him to the other side, while he sent the mul- 
titudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went 



KEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 127 

up into a mountain apart to pray ; and whe^n the evening was come, 
he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, 
tossed with waves : for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth 
watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And 
when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled 
saying: It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway 
Jesus spake unto them, saying : Be of good cheer ; it is I ; be not 
afraid. And Peter answered and said: Lord, if it be thou, bid me 
come unto thee on the water. And he said : Come. And when 
Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go 
to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid ; and 
beginning to sink, he cried, saying ; Lord, save me. And immedi- 
ately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto 
him. O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? And when 
they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that 
were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying : Of a truth thou 
art the Son of God." Mark VI. 45-53 : " And straightway he con- 
strained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go to the other side 
unto Bethsaida, while he sent awa}'' the people. And when he had 
sent them away, he departed unto a mountain to pray. And when 
even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone 
on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing ; for the wind was 
contrary unto them : and about tlie fourth watch of the night he 
Cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by 
them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed 
it to be a spirit, and cried out, for they all saw him, and were troubled. 
And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them: Be of 
good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid. And he went up unto them into 
the ship ; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in them- 
selves beyond measure, and wondered. For they considered not the 
miracle of the loaves : for their heart was hardened." John VI. 15- 
22: " When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come by force 
to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. 
And when even was come, his disciples went down unto the sea, and 
entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And 
it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to thera. And the sea 
arose by reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed 
about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on 
the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship : and they were afraid. 
But he saith unto them : It is I ; be not afraid. Then they willingly 
received him into the ship : and immediately the ship was at the 
land whither they went." 



128 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This miracle is recorded in three Gospels. It is found in all 
three immediately following the account of the feeding of the five 
thousand ; and it may seem strange that it is not recorded in that 
position in Luke also, where an account is given, as well as in the 
others, of the "miracle of the loaves." If any of the writers could he 
supposed to have witnessed it they would be Matthew and John ; and 
on the supposition that they did witness it their narratives would be 
expected to coincide in the main. These narratives, however, are 
such as to show that they are designed to be varying representations 
of the same event. In Matthew and Mark, Christ is represented as, 
after the feeding of the five thousand, constraining his disciples to get 
into the ship and set sail for the other side, while himself sends the 
multitude away and departs into a mountain to pray ; and as, when the 
evening has come, which doubtless means night, being still there alone 
on the land, while the ship is now on the midst of the sea, tossed with 
the waves for the wind was contrary. In John he is represented as 
going apart into the mountain to conceal himself from the multitude 
(the five thousand he had just fed) because he perceived they were 
about to take him by force and make him a king ; and the disciples 
are represented as, when the evening was come, going (of their own 
accord) down to the sea, entering a ship, and setting sail for the 
other side. Now, it is plain, there is considerable difference between 
his delibeiately constraining the disciples to get into the ship, sending 
the multitudes away, aftid going into the mountain, apart, for the 
purpose of praj^er ; and, as is represented in John, leaving the 
disciples and the multitudes to take care of themselves, while he 
makes his escape as best he can into the mountain, to avoid being 
made a king of by the multitude that he had banqueted on the 
products of land and sea. The story, as in John, might indeed be 
termed plausible. 

Again, all three narrators represent Jesus as coming to the disci- 
ples walking on the water, while the vessel is tossed with the waves : 
in Matt, and Mark as coming at the fourth watch ; in John Avhen 
they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs (three, or 
three and a half miles). According to all the accounts the disciples 
are afraid when they see him approaching the vessel, walking on the 
water ; and in each case he is represented as removing their fears by 
an expression of encouragement and comfort, at the same time iden- 
tifying himself to them. In Matt, this is : " Be of good cheer ; it is I 
be not afraid. " In Mark it is the same ; but in John, " It is I , 



KEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MrRACLES. 1^9 

l)e not afniid," is the expression. The first part of the expression in 
Matt, and Mark "Be of good cheer" (Greek dafjlirs) is not in John. 
This difference in the direct oration it is seen might or might not 
prevent us from accepting either of these narratives as literally sig- 
nificant. But the narratives do not agree as to what took place 
immediately before his entering the ship. According to Matt. Peter 
answered him and said: " Lord if it be thou, bid me come unto thee 
on the water," And Jesus said: " Come. " And when Peter was 
come down out of the ship he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 
But when he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid, and beginning 
to sink, he cried, saying : " Lord save me. " And immediately 
Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto 
him : " O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? " And 
when they Avere come into the ship the wind ceased. Then they 
that were in the ship came and worshipped him saying : " Of a truth 
thou art the Son of God." But in the other two narratives, that of 
Mark and of John, there is no mention made of Peter. In Mark, 
immediately after the announcement " It is I, " he went up unto 
them into the ship, and the wind ceased. And according to John, 
immediately after this announcement "It is I," "then they willingly 
received him into the ship ; and immediately the ship was at the 
land whither they went." Thus it is seen the accounts in Matt. 
and John are so different as to be almost wholly unlike two dif- 
ferent accounts of the same event from two different witnesses of 
it. Would not the moral of the allegory be to teach us that we 
should firmly trust in God in seasons of adversity, and not neglect to 
work (at the oars) in the performance of all our duties ; that while 
we cultivate the true faith we should also exercise good works ? 

Miracle 22. Se heals the daughter of the woman of Canaan, near 
Tyre, Matt. XV. 22-28 : " Then Jesus went thence and departed 
into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of 
Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying : 
Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David : my daughter is 
greviously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. 
And his disciples came and besought him saying. Send her away; 
for she crieth after us. But he answered, and said : I am not sent 
but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and 
worshipped him, saying: Lord help me. But he answered and said: 
It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. 
And she said; Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which 
fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered, and said unto 
Vol. 11.— 9 



130 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

her : O woman, great is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. 
And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. " Mark 
VII. 24-31 : " And from thence he arose, and went into the borders 
of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have no 
man know it ; but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, 
whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him and came 
and fell at his feet : the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by 
nation ; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out 
of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her : Let the children first 
be filled : for it is not meet to take the children's bread and to 
cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him : Yea, 
Lord ; yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. 
And he said unto her,: For this saying go thy way ; the devil is gone 
out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house she 
found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This miracle is recorded m two Gospels. Matthew being reckoned 
of the number of the immediate disciples of Christ would be the 
one, if either, that might be supposed to have witnessed it, but 
that he did is not intimated. We have dealt hitherto with some 
cases of the alleged casting out of devils or unclean spirits, and 
have seen how difficult it must be to conceive such a case as the 
casting of an invisible spirit out of a human being. We have seen 
that such an act could only be recognized in its effects upon tbe 
•character and conduct of the subject of the influence. We have 
seen that all good and holy men and women have a good, a 
purifying and au energising influence upon those who surround 
them, and whom they set themselves to benefit; and the better 
and holier one is, the better and more effectual one's influence. 
We have seen, too, that the natural and acquired powers and gifts 
of human beings are various, one possessing one gift, genius, or 
talent, another another, and so these varying as the people are nu- 
merous. Is it then an improbable case that the holy and energising 
influence of some good, intelligent, and prominent man among the 
early Christians, the disciples of John the Baptist, when brought 
steadily and powerfully to bear upon a female possessed of a bad 
temper, of impure habits and unholy affections, should have availed 
to work in her the beginning of a complete change of heart and life, 
which gradually and in due time was perfected ? For God always 
seconds the prayers and assists the efforts of the good and holy man 
who is active in his cause, and he will bring to perfection that change 
of moral character which by his assistance is happily begun. The 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 131 

gospel represents the Saviour's doctrine as being that salvation was 
of, and primarily and especially for the Jews. And would not this 
SyrophcBnician woman with her depraved offspring, crying to be 
cleansed and healed, represent in the allegory all the outside or Gen- 
tile world earnestly expecting admission into the Christian Church, 
which they obtained upon their renunciation of their old idolatry and 
evil habits, and their profession of the true Christian faith, and 
practising a new manner of life? 

Miracle 23. He heals a deaf and dumb man, at Decapolis, Mark, 
VII. 31—37 : " And again departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon 
he came into the sea of Gralilee through the midst of the coast of De- 
capolis. And they bring unto him one that was dumb, and had an. 
impediment in his speech, and they beseech hira to put his hand upon 
him, and he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers 
into his ears, and he spit and touched his tongue. And looking up 
to heaven he sighed, and saith unto him : Ephphatha, that is, be 
opened : and straightway his ears were opened and the string of his 
tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that 
they should tell no man ; but the more he charged them so much the 
more a great deal they published it ; and were beyond measure as- 
tonished, saying : He hath done all things well, he maketh the deaf 
to hear and the dumb to speak." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded only in Mark. The circumstance or event 
which gave rise to this representation may perhaps have been a 
dream or a vision, which last may occur to the mind that is sus- 
ceptible of it, as well in its waking moments in the broad daylight, 
as in the time of sleep in the hours of night. Occurring to the mind 
in the state of sleep, the mental representation is called a dream or 
vision ; occurring in the waking moments Avhen the mind is active, 
it is called a vision. These mental representations are sometimes so 
well defined, complete and impressive, setting forth so faithfully all 
the parts and characters of a state or condition, change of state or 
condition, progression or action with respect to persons or things, or 
both, and also accompanied sometimes with appropriate words in the 
language of the person to whom they are revealed, t^iat the miud, 
especially the superstitious and ignorant mind, is apt to think them 
real. And may not this dream or vision, or allegory (for the reader 
may have it which of these he thinks best, ) have indicated some- 
thing in particular with respect to the Christian Church ? Would 



132 CREATOR AiSD COSMOS. 

not the opening of the ears have indicated that mankind was about 
to have communicated to them the doctrines of the Gospel which 
they would understand ; and the loosening of the tongne after the 
opening of the ears that on having heard and learned these doctrines 
men would be disposed to speak boldly and freely in defence of 
them, and in communicating them to others "^ 

Miracle 24. H& feeds four tJiousand, at Decapolis, Matt. XV. 32-39 : 
" Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said : I have compas- 
sion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, 
and have nothing to eat : and I will not send them away fasting, lest 
they faint by the way. And his disciples saj unto him : Whence should 
we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude ? 
And Jesus saith unto them : How many loaves have ye ? And the}" said : 
Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to 
sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, 
and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the 
disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: 
and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. 
And they that did eat were four thousand men, besides women and 
children. And he sent away the multitude, and took ship and came 
into the coasts of Magdala." Mark VIII. 1-9 : " In those days the 
multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called 
his disciples unto him, and saith unto them : I have compassion on 
the multitude, because they have been with me now three days, and 
have nothing to eat : and if I send them away fasting to their own 
houses, they will faint by the way : for divers of them came from far. 
And his disciples answered him : From whence can a man satisfy 
these men with bread here in the wilderness? And he asked them : 
How many loaves have ye? And they said, seven. And he com- 
manded the people to sit down on the ground : and he took the seven 
loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set 
before them ; and they did set them before the people. And they 
had a few small fishes : and he blessed, and commanded to set them 
also before them. So they did eat, and were filled : and they took 
up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. And they that 
had eaten were about four thousand : and he sent them sway." 

Remarhs on the Preceding. 

This miraculous account is recorded in two Gospels, Matthew and 
Mark. If either of the Avriters witnessed the transaction this one 
would naturally be supposed to be Matthew, but that he did so does 
not happen to be indicated. Also, the two accounts differ with re- 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 133 

spectto some of the expressions of Jesus to the disciples, and of them to 
Him, given in the direct oration. For example, according to Matt., Jesus 
says : " I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with 
me now three days, and have nothing to eat ; and I will not send them 
away fasting, lest they faint by the way." And according to Mark : 
"I have compassion on the multitude, because they have been with 
me now three days, and have nothing to eat : and if I send them 
away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way ; foi 
divers (different ones) of them came from far." And again accord 
ing to Matt., His disciples say unto him : " Whence should we have 
so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude ? ' 
And according to Mark they say : " From whence can a man satisfj 
these men with bread here in the wilderness?" Now we do not 
know which of these expressions to select as the original ones uttered 
by Jesus and the disciples, or whether any of them be the original 
or originals. Moreover the narratives do not quite agree as to the 
number that was fed, which according to Matt, was four thousand 
men, besides women and children, and according to Mark about four 
thousand. This allegorical representation sets forth the same thing 
in relation to the Christian Church which a prophetic dream or vis- 
ion might have done. There is the number four (four thousand fed) 
which is understood to denote world-wide extension,having reference, 
perhaps, to the Roman Empire, often in Scripture spoken of as the 
world, but which bears only a small proportion to the size of the 
whole world as now known, (cf. the four beasts of Daniel, Dan. VII., 
united at last in one, the Roman Empire, the four winds, the four 
corners of the earth, the four living creatures upholding the throne 
of Deity, and the New Jerusalem lying four-square : See Book of 
Revelation.) And, also, the number seven, denoting completeness, 
perfection, which symbolizes variously the Deity in relation to the 
world, and in his providential dealings with it (cf. the stone having 
seven eyes, Zech. III. 9 ; the lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, 
the seven spirits of God ; the seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials, 
seven thunders : and the beast having seven heads and ten horns, 
ten being understood as a world number a little over the square of 
three, and the combination indicating that the complete spiritual and 
temporal power were united in one, or in other words, that the 
earthly being or combination which the symbol represented, assumed 
and exercised the prerogatives of Deity together with that of an earth- 
ly power : See Book of Revelation.) The seven loaves would here 
indicate 'then that Christianity was designed to be amply sufficient 
for, and adapted to all mankind ; the four thousand that the whole 



134 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Roman Empire would be converted to it, at least nominally, which 
is known to have been accomplished within the first twelve centuries 
after the preaching of John the Baptist. And the seven baskets full of 
fragments taken up would still indicate Christianity to be amply suffi- 
cient, designed, and adapted for the rest of the world outside of the Ro- 
man Empire. Should not this be an encouraging incentive to the faith- 
ful and true missionaries of Christianity, not of the Romish, the Greek, 
or the Reformed Church in particular, but of true and living Christ- 
ianity, to concentrate and continue their efforts for the spread of the 
gospel in its true light, and the conversion of the heathen world to 
its doctrines ? 

Miracle 25. He gives sight to a blind man, at Bethsaida. Mark 
VIII. 22-26 ; " And he cometh to Bethsaida ; and they bring a blind 
man unto Him, and besought Him to touch him. And he took the 
blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town ; and when he 
had spit on his eyes and put his hand upon him he asked him, if he 
saw ought. And he looked up and said : I see men, as trees, walk- 
ing. After that he piit his hands again upon his eyes, and made him 
look up; and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he 
sent him away to his house, saying : Neither go into the town, nor 
tell it to any in the town. 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded in Mark alone, and therefore it is seen we have 
no evidence that the account is to be understood literally. But the 
allegory is designed to indicate something with regard to the Church's 
future. The taking of the blind man by the hand and leading him 
out of'the town by Jesus would indicate that the doctrines of the 
Gospel were to be communicated to men by peaceable means, that men 
were to be led, not driven, into a belief of them, won to the Gospel in- 
telligently and freely on their part, and not dragooned into a profession 
of certain dogmas and doctrines, as was practised so largely by the 
Church of Rome, nor forced by penal statutes, as was done by the 
Reformed churches. His coming to his sight gradually, first being 
able to see men as trees walking, and then being able to see clearly, 
would indicate that men need to be taught and study for themselves 
for some time before they have attained perfection in the knowledge 
of the truth. 

The Transfiguration. 

Although the transfiguration on the mount is not ordinarily reck- 
oned among the miracles, yet so much account has been and is made 
of it that we deem it expedient to give a passing review of it here. 



REVIEW OP THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 135 

According to Matthew XVII. 1-14 : " And after six days Jesus tak 
eth Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into 
an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them : and his 
face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 
And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with 
him. Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus : Lord, it is good 
for us to be here ; if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles ; 
one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet 
spake behold a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice 
out of the cloud, which said : This is my beloved son, in whom I am 
well pleased ; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it they 
fell on their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched 
them and said : Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted 
up their eyes thej'' saw no man, save Jesus only. And as they came 
down from the mountain Jesus charged them saying : Tell the vision to 
no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. And his 
disciples asked Him, saying : Why then say the Scribes that Elias 
must first come ? And Jesus answered and said unto them : Elias truly 
shall first come and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias 
is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him 
whatsoever they wished. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer 
of them. Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them of 
John the Baptist." Mark IX. 2-14 : " And after six days Jesus taketh 
with him Peter and James and John, and leadeth them up into an 
high mountain apart by themselves ; and he was transfigured before 
them; and his raiment became shining exceeding white as snow, so 
as no fuller on earth can white them. And there appeared unto 
them Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And 
Peter answered and said to Jesus : Master, it is good for us to be 
here : and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for 
Moses and one for Elias. For he knew not what to say for they 
were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed them, 
and a voice came out of the cloud, saying : This is my beloved son : 
hear him. And suddenly when they had looked round about they 
saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. And as 
they came down from the mountain he charged them that they should 
tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of Man were risen 
from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves ques- 
tioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. 
And they asked him, saying ; Why say the Scribes that Elias must 
first come ? And he answered and told them : Elias verily cometh 
first, and restoreth all things ; and how is it \\ritten of the Son 
of Man that he must suffer many things and be set at naught. But 



136 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

I say unto you that Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto 
him whatsoever they wished, as it is written of him." Luke IX. 
28-37 : " And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings 
he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to 
pray. And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered, 
and his raiment was white and glistening. And behold there talked 
with him two men which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in 
glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusa- 
lem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep ; 
and when they were awake they saw his glory, and the two men 
that stood with him. And it came to pass as they departed from 
him Peter said unto Jesus ; Master, it is good for us to be here ; and 
let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and 
one for Elias ; not knowing what he said, while he thus spake there 
came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they en- 
tered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud say- 
ing : This is my beloved Son ; hear him. And when the voice was 
past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close and told no 
man in those days any of those things which they had seen. 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

An account of this is found in three Gospels. Neither of the 
narrators witnessed it. Although the ascribed writer of the fourth 
Gospel is represented as one of those three that witnessed it, yet in 
the fourth alone of all the Gospels it is not mentioned. The narra- 
tives differ as to the time of the event. In Matt, and Mark, at the 
opening of the narrative, it is said that " after six days " and in Luke 
" about an eight days after these things," all, be it noticed, reckoning 
from the same point of time, " he taketh Peter and James and John, 
and bringeth them up into an high mountain, &c." Again, the nar- 
ratives differ in their statements in the direct oration ; as, for example, 
Matt, has the voice to speak from the clouds thus : " This is my be- 
loved son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him ; " Mark and 
Luke : " This is my beloved son, hear him." According to Matt., 
Peter said to Jesus : " Lord it is good for us to be here ; if thou 
wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for 
Moses, and one for Elias ;" ace. to Mark and Luke : " Master, it is 
good for us to be here ; and let us make three tabernacles, one for 
thee and one for Moses, and one for Elias." There is more difference 
with respect to the position of the words in the Greek than in the 
English forms of expression here. Now which of these foregoing 
expressions to select as the original ones, or whether there be any 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 137 

of them that represent the original, we cannot detei'mine, and, there- 
fore, in such a state of the case, cannot conclude any of them as of 
literal signification. Still it is not improbable there may have been 
some event of the nature of a dream or vision which gave rise to 
this representation of the transfiguration. In Matthew's account of 
it, Jesus is represented as charging the disciples to tell the vision 
(opapjj?) to no man. Matt. XVII, 9. And in Luke's account, it is 
said Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep; and 
when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that 
were with him, Luke IX. 32, which might mean that they still per- 
ceived the vision in their mind's eye, or reflected upon it. But the 
design of the allegory or vision is to foreshow the exaltation of the 
ideal Christ, the glory which would afterwards accrue to Christ from 
mankind. Has not that design been eminently accomplished ; yea, 
more than that, a person should think, in the great honors and glories 
which have been ascribed to Christ by the Christian Church for the 
last eighteen centuries. Where in the range of history or of human 
experience do we meet with a deified human being, unless it be 
Buddha, that has been honored so highly as the ideal Christ, or 
mankind personified in that ideal, has been. Every man of sense, of 
experience, and of an unbiassed mind, will confess thatit is blasphemy 
to worship a human being known to be such, a sin that will sooner 
or later draw down the displeasure of the Almighty upon the in- 
dividual who knowingly does it, or the nation in which it is prac- 
tised as the national religion.* Take account, if one will, of the 
great Roman Empire in the east and in Africa, whose seat of govern- 
ment was at Constantinople for nearly a dozen of centuries, and let 
one ask himself what is the cause of Mahometanism brooding and 
ruling over it to-day ? What is the cause of the crescent's waving 
where for nearly two thousand years the Roman eagles fluttered in 
the breeze? Or of Unitarianism now being the reigning religion of 
Jerusalem, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, where for so 
long the cross was revered and the ideal Christ was given divine 
honors ? Mahometanism has, indeed its faults, but it does not teach 
the worship of a human being, nor tolerate it, or idolatry, in any 
form. Mahometans revere the memory of Mahomet as a prophet 
and the apostle of God, but they do not pay him divine honors. 
Were there a man to have lived and died as Jesus would appear in 
the Gospels to have done and for the object for which he did it he 
would certainly be worthy of a meed of praise being paid to his 
memory on account of his superlative goodness and love and his ex- 

* There are various opinions as to Christ. We, for our part, incline to leave freedom of 
judgment to all, hoping it will be exercised intelligently. 



138 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

treme self-denial for mankind. The honors, however, that would be 
paid him would be in grateful appreciation of his character of love 
and mercy, and for what he had done for mankind, but they would 
not be of the character of the worship which is due only to the Su- 
preme, infinite, and unknowable God. We will mark the distinc- 
tion which the divine spirit intended to make in this case in our re- 
view farther on of the book of Revelation. We ourself have had 
visions of men in white garments and shining faces, some men of our 
neighbors and acquaintance holding official position in a high branch 
of the Christian Church, men whose character, we knew by experi- 
ence, was not the very highest in the world ! 

Such visions and dreams should not be much thought about, or 
attended to : the young and the old should always exercise their 
reason, and walk in the plain path of duty and of rectitude, and let 
the high ones who spend their time in exercising their powers in in- 
fluencing and deceiving the minds of others take care of themselves, 
and not allow them to gain any advantage over them by their seduc- 
tive schemes. 

Miracle 26. He cures a boy possessed of a devil at Tabor, Matthew 
XVII. 14-26 : And when they were come to the multitude there 
came to him a man kneeling down to him, and saying : Lord, have 
mercy on my son, for he is a lunatick and sore vexed ; for ofttimes 
he falleth into the fire and oft into the water. And I brought him to 
thy disciples and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered 
and said : O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be 
with you ? how long shall I suffer you ? Bring him hither to me. 
And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him ; and the 
child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to 
Jesus apart and said: Why could we not cast him out? And Jesus 
said unto them: Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto 
you : If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed ye shall say unto 
this mountain : Remove hence to yonder place ; and it shall remove, 
and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth 
not forth but by prayer and fasting." Mark IX. 14-30 : "And when 
he was come to his disciples he saw a great multitude about them 
and the scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the 
people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to 
him, saluted him. And he asked the scribes : What question ye 
with them ? And one of the multitude answered and said : Master, 
I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; and 
wheresover he taketh him, he teareth him ; and he foameth and 
gnasheth with his teeth and pineth away. And I spake to thy dis- 
ciples that they should cast him out, and they could not. He an- 



KEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 139 

swered him, and saith : O faithless generation, how long shall I be 
with you ? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And 
they brought him unto him. And when he saw him, straightway 
the spirit tare him ; and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foam 
ing. And he asked his father : How long is it ago since this came 
unto him ? And he said : Of a child : And ofttimes it hath cast 
him into the fire and into the water to destroy him ; but if thou 
canst do anything have compassion on us and help us. Jesus saith 
unto him : If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that 
believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and 
said with tears : Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief. When 
Jesus «aw that the people came running together he rebuked the 
foul spirit, saying unto him : Dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee 
come out of him, and enter no more into him. 

And the spirit cried out, rent him sore, and came out of him ; and 
he was as one dead ; insomuch that many said : He is dead. But 
Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And 
when he was come into the house his disciples asked him privately : 
Why could not we cast him out ? And he said unto them : This 
kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting." Luke 
IX. 37-43 : " And it came to pass that on the next day, when they 
were come down from the hill, much people met him. And, behold, 
a man of the company cried out, saying : Master, I beseech thee 
look upon my son ; for he is mine only child. And, lo, a spirit 
taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out ; and it teareth him, that he, 
foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him. And I be- 
sought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not. And 
Jesus answered and said : O faithless and perverse generation, how 
long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. 
And as he was j'et coming, the devil threw him down and tore him. 
And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and de- 
livered him again to his father." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded in three Gospels, immediately after the account 
of tjie transfiguration. Of the wi-iters, Mark and Luke not being of 
the immediate disciples of Christ, it is Matthew, if any, we sliouUl 
expect to have witnessed it. That he did, however, the narratives do 
not convey. Also, they differ from each other in the address of the 
man to Jesus, and of the latter to the former, willi respect to the 
lunatic, given in the direct oration. Accoi'ding to Matt, it is : " Lord 
have mercy on my son ; for he is lunatic and sore vexed ; for ofttimes 



140 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

he falleth into the fire and into the water. And I brought him to thy 
disciples, and they could not cure him." Then Jesus answered, and 
said : " O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with 
you ? how long shall T suffer you ? Bring him hither to me." Accord- 
ing to Mark it is : " Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which 
hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him he teareth him ; 
and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away ; and I 
spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could 
not." He answereth him, and saith : " O faithless generation, how 
long shall I be with you ? how long shall I suffer you ? Bring him 
unto me." And, according to Luke it is : " Master, I beseech thee, 
look upon my son ; for he is mine only child. And, lo, a. spirit 
taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him that he 
foameth again; and bruising him hardly departeth from him. And 
I besought thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not." And 
Jesus answering, said : " O faithless and perverse generation, how 
long shall I be with you, and suffer you ? . Bring thy son hither." 
It is readily seen from the comparison, that no two of these agree 
exactly in the wording of the addresses on either side ; and as all 
the accounts come to us with the same authority for originality, and 
we do not know which to select as the originals, we have to recognize 
them all as unliteral, and seek their allegorical meaning. Then, ac- 
cording to Matt, and Mark, ensues a colloquy between the disciples 
and Christ as to why they could not cast out the evil spirit ; and he 
informs them, according to Matt., that it was because of their unbe- 
lief ; " for," says he, "if ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye 
shall say unto this mountain : Remove hence to yonder place, and it 
shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you." But after 
all this, he says, according to Matt, and Mark : " This kind goeth 
not out but by prayer and fasting." An intimation, we may believe, 
as to how miracles are effected, namely, by faith. It was in con- 
sequence of the faith of the Father that the cure is represented 
to have been wrought upon the son in the case before us; (Mark 
IX. 23-25.) Faith, we are aware, is often very different from fact. 
A thing we do not actually know, we may believe to be in a certain 
state as long and as firmly as we please, but still it may not be thus 
in fact. There are as many chances in favor of its not being sb, as 
there are in favor of its being so, perhaps more. For example, we 
may believe on faith that an island exists in a certain latitude and 
longitude in the Pacific Ocean without having any evidence of its 
gxistence, but it is just as probable that no island exists there. And 
we may wish that a literal mountain be removed into the depths o. 
Ihe sea, and after we get out of sight of it may firmly believe it has 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 141 

been removed in accordance with our wish, but the mountain still 
stands where it was : and we have a right to our faith. Still faith 
in God for the prevention and removal of evil is doubtless availing. 
And we all know that prayer and fasting are good and effectual 
means for the intemperate, the licentious, and the godless to rid 
themselves of their evil disposition, inordinate and unholy affections, 
(their evil spirits), and to reform their habits and their lives. Fast- 
ing, rationally practised, purifies the affections and the soul : faithful 
prayer ensures the assistance of God ; and if these are properly per- 
sisted in, a cure will doubtless be effected ultimately in the cases in 
which it can be. Firm faith in the power and goodness of God often 
also renders great assistance to the soul, and enables one to do and 
to persist in doing what he would hardly do, did he not exercise this 
faith. Would not this allegorical representation have been designed 
to teach us the importance of faith, of fasting, and of prayer, as the 
most effectual remedies to be employed in such cases as are here 
represented ; and how effectual is the influence of a good and holy 
man to rid others of their vicious tempers and evil dispositions ! 

Miracle 27. He makes a miraculous provision for tribute^ at Caper- 
naum^ Matt. XVII. 24-27 : " And when they were come to Caper- 
aaum they that received tribute money came to Peter and said : Doth 
not your master pay tribute ? He saith ; yes. And when he was 
come into the house Jesus prevented him, saying : What thinkest 
thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or 
tribute ? Of their own children or of strangers ? Peter saith unto 
him : Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him : Then are the children 
free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the 
sea and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up ; and 
when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money ; 
that take, and give unto them for thee and me." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded only in this place. Supposing the narrator to 
have witnessed himself what he here relates, his evidence alone might 
by some be thought to establish the genuineness of the mii-acle, but 
that he did the narrative does not bear. The allegory is doubtless 
designed to teach men that it is their duty to pay taxes in order 
to support the government under which they live, and whicli 
affords protection to their lives and property; and that it is 
the duty of importers to pay the required tax upon the merchandise 
they import from foreign countries ; and that all should exert them- 
selves in making provision for this by operating in tlie busy world, 
which is represented in the allegory by fishing in the sea. It is notice- 



142 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

able there are not many passages in the Gospels whose design is 
to restrain governments from oppressing the people by imposing 
upon them an unjust amount of taxes, or otherwise oppressing 
them and treating them unjustly. Kings and governments of Chris- 
tian countries have often acted as if they did not recognize in 
themselves any responsibilily towards the people they governed. 
It is to be hoped, however, that such, as well as all subordinate 
officials, as collectors of customs and of taxes will henceforth have 
sufficient interest in and love for the people as to do them justice at 
least, and will recognize the facts that if a man does evil he will 
experience the penalty of it in himself; and there is no respect of 
persons with God. 

Miracle 28. He opens the eyes of one that was lorn blind, at Caper 
naum, John IX. 1-41 : " And as Jesus passed by he saw a man that 
was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying : 
Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ? 
Jesus answered : Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents ; but 
that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work 
the work of him that sent me, while it is day ; for the night cometh 
when no man can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light 
of the world. When he had thus spoken he spat on the ground and made 
clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with 
the clay, and said unto him : Go wash in the pool of Siloam (which 
is, by interpretation. Sent); he went, and came seeing. The neighbors, 
therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was born blind, 
said : Is not this he that sat and begged ? Some said : This is he ; 
others, he is like him ; (but he said, I am he). Therefore, said they 
unto him: How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said : 
A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and 
said unto me : Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash; and I went and 
washed, and I received sight. Then said they to him : Where is 
he? He said: I know not. They brought to the Pharisees him that 
aforetime was blind. And it was the Sabbath-day when Jesus made 
the clay and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also ask- 
ed him how he had received his sight. He said unto them: He put 
clay on mine eyes, and I washed and do see. Therefore said some of 
the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the 
Sabbath-day. Others said : How can a man tliat is a sinner do such 
miracles ? And there was a division among them. They say unto 
the blind man again : What sayest thou of Christ, that he hath open- 
ed thine eyes ? He said : He is a prophet. But the Jews did not 
believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight 
until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. And 



KEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 143 

tliey asked them saying : Is this your son, who ye say was born 
blind ? How then doth he now see ? His parents answered them and 
said : We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind : 
but by what means he now seeth we know not, or who hath opened 
his eyes we know not ; he is of age ; ask him ; he shall speak for him- 
self. These words spake his parents, because the}' feared the Jews ; 
for the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he 
was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, said 
his parents: He is of age, ask him. Then again called they the man 
that was born blind and said unto him: Give God the praise; we 
know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said : Whether he 
be a sinner, I know not ; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, 
now I see. Then said they to him again : What did he to thee ? 
How opened he thine eyes? He answered them : I have told you 
already, and ye did not hear ; wherefore would ye hear it again ? 
Will ye also be his disciples ? Then they reviled him and said: 
Thou art his disciple : but we are Moses' disciples. We know that 
God spake unto Moses ; as for this fellow, we know not from whence 
he is. The man answered and said unto them ; Why here is a^ mar- 
vellous thing, that ye knew not from whence he is, and he hath open- 
ed mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners; but if 
any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 
Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes 
of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God he could 
do nothing. They answered and said unto him; Thou wast altogether 
born in sin, and dost thou teach us ? And they cast him out, (excom- 
municated him). Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when 
he had found him he said unto him : Dost Thou believe on the son 
of God ? He answered and said : Who is he. Lord, that I might 
believe on him? And Jesus said unto him; Thou hast both seen him, 
and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said ; Lord, I believe ; 
and he worshipped him : And Jesus said : For judgment I am come 
into this world, that they which see not might see ; and that they 
which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which 
were with him heard these words, and said unto him : Are we blind 
also? Jesus said unto them: If ye were blind ye should have no 
sin ; but now ye say ; We see; therefore your sin remaineth." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This miracle is recorded only in John, and to a superficial eye 
might appear one of the most probable of the whole catalogue of the 
miracles. That the writer was not a present witness of all he here 
relates appears, and therefore the want of evidence is one of 



144 CEEATOE AND COSMOS. 

the reasons for which we pass it as unliteral. The use of the oratio 
directa throughout in the many turns which the narrative takes 
plainly shows its allegoric character. Had the narrative left off at 
the end of the seventh verse of the chapter one might be inclined to 
suspect that what gave rise to the story was a dream or vision; but 
considering the whole chapter one concludes it evidently to be an 
allegory designed to set forth the conversion of the true Christian, 
and his course in life after it : Would not the man born blind 
represent the Jew and Gentile in the blindness of their superstitions 
Avherein they lived and died at and before the time Christ is repres- 
ented to have come ? And as men and nations are judged b}^ the 
laws under which they live, and in the light of the knowledge they 
jDossess or may possess, — and both the Jew and the Gentile not 
knowing any better endeavored to live up to these before Christ 
came, — then neither this man nor his parents had sinned (John IX. 
3), that he should be born blind. But the light of the Christian 
doctrine now beginning to shine through the instrumentality of the 
first teachers of it, the Pharisees (verse 41) seeing this light and 
continuing still in their superstitious practices sinned. Would not 
the application of clay to the eyes of the blind man and the command 
to go wash in the pool of Siloam have truly represented the applica- 
tion of the simple doctrines of the Gospel, (clay being the simplest 
and humblest material, truly representing the simplicity and humility 
of the genuine Christian doctrine, and water as truly representing 
its cleansing effects upon the human heart,) to the superstitious and 
ignorant Jews and Gentiles by the true Christian teachei's? And 
would not the going in obedience to the command, and washing in 
the pool of Siloam indicate an exercise of faith in the promises and 
doctrines of the Gospel, and a disposition to practise its precepts on 
the part of those to whom they became known? Would not the 
occupation also of this blind man, that of begging (John IX. 8), 
have indicated the class of people which would be most inclined to 
listen to the Gospel and upon whom the Gospel would produce the 
greatest and the most radical effects? It is a well known fact that 
from the humbler ranks of life most of the first converts to Chris- 
tianity were made, and that the better educated and richer classes 
never showed much inclination towards it till after the age of Con- 
stantine. When the Church united with the world then they came 
into it in great numbers. And may not that long examination, con- 
sisting of questioning and cross questioning, to which the man and 
his parents were subjected as to the agent and the manner of the 
opening of his eyes, have represented the questioning, the sneering 
and scoffing, the jeering, and tantalising, and persecution to which 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 145 

the true converts to Christianity are, and always have been subjected, 
not only from the Pharisee and Pagan, but also from the perverted, 
or Anti-Christian, wherever and in whatever manner he rules ? 
They that will live godly in this present world, wherever they may 
be, shall have much the same kind of experience as is here repre- 
sented in the case of the enlightened blind man ; in short, they shall 
suffer persecution. But while patiently undergoing such an ordeal 
they are crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts, and are 
living unto God. And may not the casting out (of the synagogue) 
(see verse 34,) of this man by the Pharisees have represented the 
excommunication of the true and humble worshippers of God, not 
onlj'- by Pharisee and Pagan, but by the proud and pampered ecclesi- 
astics called Christian in later times? But let it be known that 
after he was cast out by the Pharisees he was found and recognized 
by Christ (verse 35), which will show that God recognizes all acts 
of self-denial and suffering for his cause; that when for the perfor- 
mance of his duties and the fulfilment of his allegiance to him the 
true Christian is cast out and contemned and persecuted by the world 
he will soon be found and recognized of God. This allegorical re- 
presentation presents to us plainly two sides, the world and God • 
showing that those who are on the side of the world are opposed to 
God, for the friendship of the world is enmity with God ; and that 
those who are on the side of God are opposed to the proud and 
wicked ways of the world ; though they are in the world they are 
not of it; they courageously and patiently fight the battle of God in 
it, never flinching or deserting from their great and loving Master. 
Tlie cure beuig represenceu as periormca on the Sabbath-day would 
indicate the same as before m similar cases. In the allegory Jesus 
would symbolize the pure doctrines of the Gospel, and the worship 
of him would simply indicate a conviction and confession of their 
truth ; for Jesus is a symbol of true doctrine and its communica- 
tion, and God alone is to be worshipped unsymbolized. 

Miracle 29. He heals a woman of an eighteen years infirmity^ in 
Galilee, Luke XIII. 11-17. " And behold there was a woman which 
had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bowed together and 
could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her he called 
her and said unto her : Woman, thou art loosed from thine in- 
firmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was 
made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue 
answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the 
Sabbath-day and said unto the people: There are six days in which 
men ought to work ; in them therefore come and be healed, and not 
on the Sabbath-day. The Lord then answered him, and said : Hvpo- 
VOL. II.— 10 



146 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

crite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath-day loose his ox or 
his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering ? And ought 
not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath 
bound lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the 
Sabbath-day ? And when he had said these things all his adversa- 
ries were ashamed : and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious 
things that were done by him." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded only in Luke. We seek its allegoric meaning; 
the writer not being a present witness of what he relates establishes 
not the narrative's literal import. But may not the healing of that in- 
firm woman, as in tlie allegory, have represented the beneficial effects 
which true Christian doctrine would produce in all ages upon a 
superstitious and sin-sick world? And the long period (eighteen 
years) during which this woman had suffered from her malady might 
have been designed to represent the long period before the introduc 
tion of Christianity, during which the world had suffered from this 
disease. In all these cases in which cures are represented to be 
wrought on the Sabbath-day the design is to show the absurdity and 
wickedness of the Jewish prejudice concerning the keeping of the 
Sabbath ; and the lesson in all cases intended to be taught, is that 
the Sabbath was made or appointed for man, not to be abused, but 
to be used for his benefit. This old iufirm woman may have faith- 
fully represented Judaism. 

Miracle 30. He cures a man of the dropsy, in Galilee, Luke XIV. 
1-6 : " And it came to pass that as he went into the house of one of 
the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath-day that they 
watched him. And, behold, there was a certain man before him, 
which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers 
and Pharisees, saying : Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day ? 
And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and 
let him go, and answered them, saying : Which of you shall have 
an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him 
out on the Sabbath-day ? And they could not answer him again to 
these things." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This miracle is recorded only in this place. Even the narrator 
witnessed it not, and therefore ))eing without evidence to establish 
its literal character, we seek its intended meaning. This allegorical 
representation would appear to have the double object of showing 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 147 

the beneficial effects which true Christianity would produce upon a 
world diseased and bloated with sin ; and the culpableness of culti- 
vating prejudices concerning the Sabbath to the exclusion of the 
performance of the necessary works of charity, and beneficence to 
the needy and the suffering on that day. 

Miracle 31. He cleanses ten lepers, in Samaria, Luke XVII, 11-19 : 
" And it came to pass that as he went to Jerusalem he passed through 
the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain 
village there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. 
And they lifted up their voices and said : Jesus, Master, have mercy 
on us. And when he saw them he said unto them : Go shew your- 
selves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they 
were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, 
turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on 
his face at his feet, giving him thanks ; and he was a Samaritan. 
And Jesus answering said : Were there not ten cleansed, but where 
are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to 
God, save this stranger. And he said unto him : Arise, go thy way ; 
thy faith hath made thee whole." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded only in Luke. The narrator, of course, wit- 
nessed it not, and we think we hear the reader say : " Nor any one 
else," for the statement of ten lepers being associated together at 
large in any country is too glaringly improbable to be for a moment 
credited as of literal significance. " One would hardly accept it as a 
real case," they would say, " upon any amount of evidence, for as 
such it carries so obviously its own refutation upon the face of it." 
But nevertheless would not this allegorical representation have been 
designed to teach us something which is of importance for us to know ? 
Would not the ten lepers (ten being the prophetical world number, 
a little over the square of three) be intended to represent humanity 
at large before the introduction of Christianity, suffering from the 
leprosy of sin and its accompaniments, ignorance of the true God, 
and superstition ? And Jesus is represented in the doctrines of the 
gospel pointing them to the teachers of the truth to be enlightened 
from their ignorance and relieved from their superstition, and by the 
practice of the precepts of the gospel to be divorced from their unho- 
ly practices, and healed from their leprosy of sin. But it proceeds to 
say that " as they went they were cleansed. And one of them, when 
he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glori- 
fied God ; and this man was a Samaritan." And Jesus goes on then 



148 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

to enquire : " Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine ? 
There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this 
stranger." Then he ascribes the healing of this one to his faith, say- 
ing : " Arise, go thy way ; thy faith hath made thee whole." They 
believed the pure doctrines of the gospel, and practised its precepts ; 
were consequently enlightened from their ignorance aiid superstition, 
and became reformed from their sinful practices ; and while the nine 
may have lived soberly and honestly before God in a private way of 
life, the tenth became an active missionary of the gospel, and through 
his efforts to disseminate the truth gave great glory to God. This one 
being a Samaritan might indicate that foreign converts would be 
more zealous than Jewish in the cause of Christianity. The repre- 
sentation is not designed to imply that a man converted to the truth 
cannot serve and glorify God in a private station, but that God delights 
most in those who are most active and efficient in advancing his cause 
of truth and righteousness, be their station what it may. 

Miracle 32. He raises Lazarus from the dead, at Bethany, John 
XI. 13-47 : " Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus, of Bethany, the 
town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anoint- 
ed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose 
brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto him, say- 
ing : Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard 
it, he said : This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, 
that the son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved 
Martha and her sister and Lazarus. AVhen he had heard therefore 
that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he 
was. Then after that, saith he to his disciples : Let us go into Judaea 
again. His disciples say unto him : Master, the Jews of late sought 
to stone thee ; and goest thou thither again ? Jesus answered : Are 
there not twelve hours in the day ? If any man walk in the day he 
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man 
walk in the night he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. 
These things saith he, and after that he saith unto them : Our friend 
Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then 
saith his disciples; Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus 
spake of his death ; but they thought that he had spoken of taking 
rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly : Lazarus is dead. 
And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye 
may believe; nevertheless let us go unto them. Then said Thomas, 
which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples : Let us also go, 
that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came he found that he 
had lain in the grave four days already. Now Bethany Avas nigh unto 
Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off ; and many of the Jews came to 



KBVIEW or THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 149 

Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then 
Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met 
him, but Mary sat in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus : Lord, 
if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that 
even now Avliatsoever thou slialt ask of God, God will give it thee. 
Jesus saith unto her : Thy brother shall rise again, Martha said unto 
him : I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last 
day. Jesus said unto her : I am the resurrection and the life ; he 
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and 
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou 
this ? She saith unto him : Yea, Lord ; I believe that thou art the 
Christ, the son of God, which should come into the world. And 
when she had so said, she went her way and called Mary her sister 
secretly, saying : The master is come, and calleth for thee. As soon 
as she heard that she arose quickly and came unto him. Now Jesus 
was not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha 
met him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and 
comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up hastily and went 
out, followed her, saying ; She goeth unto the grave, to weep there. 
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell 
down at his feet, saying unto him : Lord, if thou hadst been here, 
my brother had not died. When Jesus, therefore, saw her weeping, 
and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the 
spirit, and was troubled, and said : Where have ye laid him ? They 
say unto him: Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews : 
Behold how he loved him ! And some of them said: Could not this 
man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this 
man should not have died ? Jesus, therefore, again groaning in him- 
self, Cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. 
Jesus said : Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that 
was dead, saith unto him : Lord, by this time, he stinketh ; for he 
hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her : Said I not unto 
thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God ? 
Then they took away the stone (from the place) where the dead was 
laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said : Father, I thank thee 
that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always ; 
but because of the people which stand by, I say it, that they may 
believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he 
cried with a loud voice : Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead 
came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face 
was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them : Loose him, 
and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and 
had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. But some of 



150 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things 
Jesus had done. 

Remarhs on the Preceding. 

This miracle is recorded only in this place. The allegorical char- 
acter of the narrative is shown in the use of the oratio directa or 
direct discourse throughout all the turns and phases of the narrative. 
The writer, in order to be an eye and ear-witness of all ho relates, — 
and this he would necessarily have to be if the oratio directa liter- 
ally imports,— would have to be omnipresent, and along with this an 
extraordinarily apt reporter. We find him first knowing the precise 
words which the messenger of the sisters of Lazarus communicates to 
Jesus concerning the sickness of Lazarus, John XL 2; and the 
precise words which Jesus speaks in return, verse 4; the precise 
words which Jesus speaks to the disciples, and they to him. in the 
long conversation which ensued between them on the reception of 
this news, verses 7-15 ; and we find him knowing even the thoughts 
and intents of Jesus, verses 13-15 ; the precise words which Thomas 
uses when speaking to his fellow-disciples about Lazarus, verse 16 ; 
the precise words which Martha speaks to Jesus, and he to her, on 
the occasion of her meeting him on his way to her house, verses 21— 
28 ; the precise words which Martha speaks to her sister in the house 
when she announces to her the arrival of Jesus, verse 28; the precise 
words which the Jews who were in the house spoke concerning Mary 
when they saw her go hastily out on Martha having communicated 
some information to her, verse 31 ; the precise words which Mary 
spoke to Jesus on coming to him, which by the way is represented 
in the English Bible as the same expression which Martha had used 
in speaking to him, but is not exactly the same in the Greek as to 
the words or their relative positions, verse 32 ; the precise words in 
which Jesus asks where they had lain him ; and the precise words of 
the answer they make him to that question, verse 34. The precise 
words of the Jews in their conversation with each other as to the 
disposition and powers of Jesus, verses 36, 37 ; the precise words of 
Jesus on his coming to the grave and commanding them to take 
away the stone ; and the precise words which Martha spoke to him 
in reply, and those again of him in reply to her, verses 39, 40 ; the 
precise words of Jesus in his prayer to his Father, in which he ac- 
quaints the Deity that it is because of the bystanders he addresses 
him in prayer, in order that they may believe that God had sent him, 
verses 41, 42 ; and the precise words of Jesus in his command to 
Lazarus to come forth, verse 43 ; and in his command to the by- 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 151 

stauders to loose him and let him go, verse 44. The design of the 
allegory is doubtless to represent the elevation of humanity from the 
death of ignorance, and superstition, and sin to a life of knowledge, 
of holiness, and of all godliness. All the characters in the allegorical 
drama represent agents in this resurrection. Christ represents the 
true and pure doctrines of the gospel ; the disciples the true minis- 
ters or missionaries of these doctrines ; and Martha and Mary repre- 
sent the female agency which has always been found so favorable 
to the Christian cause, and so instrumental, when themselves civilized, 
and enlightened in truth and genuine Christianity, in the civilization 
and cultivation of men. And the mourning Jews would represent 
mankind coming to a realizing sense of their spiritually dead con- 
dition. But the most efficacious means of this resurrection was to 
be the enlightening, the purifying, and the soul-reviving doctrines 
of the Gospel, which bring men to a knowledge of the true 
God, and teach them to be good and do good. Hence Jesus 
says ; "I" (gospel truth) " am the resurrection and the life; he that 
believeth in me, though he were dead" (meaning dead in ignorance 
and sin ; for if a man had died a natural death he is past believing 
anything) "yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth 
in me shall never die," (meaning the death of superstition, ignorance, 
and sin, not a natural death ; for all men die that). The condition 
in which humanity was at the time of the first promulgation of the 
gospel, is represented by a human body four days dead, and con- 
sequently in the first stage of decay and beginning to stink. Jesus 
crying with a loud voice, '• Lazarus come forth," represents the voices 
of the heralds of the gospel by which the dead in superstition and 
trespasses and sins would be awakened to a sense of their condition, 
and moved to activity in doing good and in living a new life in the 
world. Lazarus comes forth from the tomb bound up in grave-clothes, 
and his face bound about with a napkin, representing how men are 
bound up in their ignorance and superstition, and in their gaudy dis- 
play of vain and empty ceremonial, having no life-imparting energy; 
as it were a veil of superstition and of worldliness thrown over their 
hearts, and bands of superstition and of worldly ceremonial binding 
and restraining them from active energy in the cause of the truth 
and godliness ; and the eyes of their understanding blindfolded, and 
the ears closed, until the sound of the gospel strikes upon their ears, 
and rings the alarm-bell at the door of their hearts, and its unmixed 
truth enlightens the eyes of their understanding. And the agents 
who loose him and let him go, verse 44, represent the true ministers 
or missionaries of the gospel, who free men from the bonds of super- 
stition and of ungodliness by bringing them into a knowledge of the 



152 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

truth, to be good and to do good. The representation of a dead 
man coming forth from the grave unassisted by human hands, while 
bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face bound about 
with a napkin (verse 44) at once shows itself to be unliteral ; for 
how can it be supposed that a dead man could come forth in such a 
condition ? 

Miracle 33. He gives sight to two Mind men, at Jericho, Matt. 
XX. 29-34 : " And as they departed from Jericho a great mulitude 
followed him. And, behold, two blind men, sitting by the wayside, 
when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying ; Have 
mercy on us, O Lord, son of David. And the multitude rebuked 
them, because they should hold hold their peace ; but they cried out 
the more, saying : Have mercy on us, O Lord, son of David. And 
Jesus stood still and called them, and said : What will ye that T shall 
do unto you ? They say unto him ; Lord, that our eyes maj^ be opened. 
So Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes; and im- 
mediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him." Mark 
X. 46-52:^ "And they came to Jericho; and as he went out of 
Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bar- 
timaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side, begging. And 
when he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out, and 
say : Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, 
and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, 
saying unto him : Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, 
casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus an- 
swered and said unto him: What wilt thou that I should do unto 
thee. The blind man said unto him : Lord, that I might receive my 
sight. And Jesus said unto him : Go thy way ; thy faith hath saved 
thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in 
the way." Luke XVHL 35-43 : " And it came to pass that as he 
was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside, 
begging. And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. 
And they tell him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, 
saying : Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went 
before rebuked him that he should hold his peace ; but he cried so 
much the more : Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood 
and commanded him to be brought unto him; and when he was 
come near he asked him, saying : What wilt thou that I shall do 
unto thee ? And he said: tord, that I may receive my sight. 
And Jesus said unto him : Receive thy sight ; thy faith hath saved 
thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, 
glorifying God ; and all the people when they saw it gave praise 
unto God." 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 153 

Remarks on the Precedivg. 

This miracle is recorded in three Gospels. That any of the 
"writers witnessed himself what he relates we are not given to know, 
and thei'efore seek the allegoric meaning. The narratives differ first, 
in that while Matthew has two blind men to have been given sight, 
Mark and Luke have only one ; second, they differ as to the place of 
the miracle, Matthew and Mark having the event to take place as 
Jesus goes out of Jericho, Luke as he comes nigh unto -Jericho, and 
before he enters it. It is known to be the same event which is 
meant to be related in all three, as this narrative is immediately pre- 
ceded and followed, certainly in Matthew and Mark, by a relation of 
the same events ; and in Luke it is so connected with what precedes 
and follows it in narration, and so similarly worded to the narrative 
in Mark, as to leave little doubt that the same event is meant. Also 
Bible interpreters understand the same event to be meant to be re- 
lated, as is shown in the margins of reference Bibles. But, more- 
over, there is sufficient difference in the statements in the direct ora- 
tion in the narratives in Mark and Luke, to show that they cannot 
both be authentic accounts by eye and ear witnesses of the same 
event. It is, however, understood before that Mark and Luke did 
not themselves witness what they relate ; and, besides, this event, 
as related by Matthew, appears altogether improbable to have taken 
place, that two blind men should be found abroad associated together. 
We have dealt with a similar case as found in Matthew IX. 27. 
These then are important differences, first, as to the number of blind 
men to which sight was given ; second, as to the place where the 
operation of giving sight was performed, differences in narratives of 
the same event which, coming to us with equal authority for origin- 
ality, render them all to us nugatory as to their having a literal sig- 
nification. But it is most probable that the design of this allegory 
is to indicate the enlightenment which Christianity by the gospel 
would impart to mankind, now and hitherto blind in ignorance and 
superstition. 

Miracle 34. — He blasts the fig-tree, Mount Olivet, — Matt. XXI. 17- 
22: "And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany, and 
lodged there. Now in the morning, as he returned into the city, he 
hungered. And when he saw one fig-tree in the way, he came to it 
and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it: Let 
no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the 
fig-tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it they mar- 
velled, saying : How soon is this fig-tree withered away. Jesus an- 
swered and said unto them : Verily I say unto you : If ye have faith 



154 CBEATOE Ay:T> COSMOS. 

and doubt not, re shall not only do this which is done to the fig- 
tree, but also if 3'e shall say unto this mountain : Be thou removed, 
and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. And all things, 
whatever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Mark 
XI. 12-15, 20-24 ; " And on the morrow, when they were come from 
Bethany, he was hungry, and seeing a fig-tree afar off, he came, if 
haply he might find anything thereon ; and when he came to it, he 
found nothing but leaves ; for the time of figs was not yet. And 
Jesus answered and said unto it : Xo man eat fruit of thee hereafter 
forever. And his disciples heard it." Here it is related that he 
comes into the city and performs the miracle of casting the traders 
out of the temple, and in the evening again goes out of the city (to 
Bethany implied), whence they return again to the city in the morn- 
ing — " And in the morning as they passed by they saw the fig-tree 
dried up from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith 
unto him : ^Master, behold the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered 
away. And Jesus, answering, saith unto them : Have (the) faith 
of God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto 
this mountain : Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and 
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which 
he saith shall come to pass ; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 
Therefore, I say unto you : What things soever ye desire, when ye 
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." 

Remarks on tlie Preceding. 

This miracle is found recorded in two Gospels. That either of 
the writers witnessed himself what he here relates we are not given 
to understanl, and, tlierefore, seek the meaning intended to be 
conveyed, 'ihcre are important differences in the two narratives. 
According to Matthew, Jesus goes in the evening out of Jerusa- 
lem to Bethany, a distance of nearly two miles, and lodges 
there for the night: and in the morning as he is returning 
with his disciples into the city, being an hungered, and see- 
ing a lone fig-tree at a distance, he goes to see if happily he may 
find some fruit thereon, but finding nothing thereon but leaves, he 
says to it: Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever; and 
immediately the fig-tree withered away. And his disciples, seeing, 
(at once) what was done, marvelled, saying : How soon is this fig- 
tree withered away. Mark has the blasting of the fig-tree to take 
place on the same morning as Matthew has it ; but the disciples, ac- 
cording to Mark, do not recognize it till the next morning after- 
wards. Mark represents him as going from Jerusalem to Bethany 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 155 

with the twelve disciples on the same evening as Matthew does, 
returning to Jerusalem the next morning, and on his way cursin-g 
the fig-tree, his disciples hearing what he says : after remaining in 
Jerusalem that day, going out of the city in the evening — perhaps to 
Bethany is meant, but it is not said, — and on the next morning, as 
they pass on their return to the city, they recognize the fig-tree 
withered from the roots. " And Peter calling to rememhrance saith 
unto him : Master, behold, the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered 
away." And Jesus answers him : " Have faith of God " (not only 
faith in God, as translated in our Bible), " for verily I say unto you 
that whosoever shall say unto this mountain (probably the repres- 
entation means Olivet, the scene of the story) : Be thou removed, 
and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but 
shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he 
shall have whatsoever he saith. Also according to Matthew, Jesus 
says to the fig-tree: " Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for- 
ever " ; but ace. to Mark, it is : No man eat fruit of thee hereafter 
forever. And ace. to Matt., the disci^^les say : " How soon is the 
fig-tree withered away ; " but ace. to Mark, Peter says to him on the 
next morning after that on which the cursing was done, on his 
recognizing the tree withered: Master, behold, the fig-tree which 
thou cursedst is withered away. Moreover, ace. to Mark, the time 
of figs had not yet come, which would render it very inconsistent 
and unreasonable of Jesus to exert his power in destroying a fig-tree 
because it had not brought forth before the proper time. Truly 
the Saviour of the world mi<rht in such a case be said to be exert- 
ing his power inconsiderately, a thing we could not expect. The 
reference of this vision or allegory, is, doubtless, to tlic rejection of 
Judaism for the non-performance of its duties, the non-fulfilment Ox 
its real mission in the presentation of itself as an example of living, 
active godliness to the Gentile world, and in the advancement oi 
the cause of truth among mankind beyond it own limits. And the 
finding of leaves on the tree, and no fruit, might represent the old 
tree of Judaism as covered with the leaves of superstitious obser- 
vances, and of carnal ordinances, but with none of the fruits of living 
faith, active love and godly zeal, namely, good works. Have we 
not too many of these kind of fig-trees represented in the Christian 
churches to day ? And how long ere they have something better 
than leaves to display ? How long ere the Spirit of truth and of 
active godliness shall prevail in them, to the exclusion of all error, 
and pride, and superfluous observances, and carnal ordinances ? 



156 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

How long ere all called Christians shall with one heart and with 
united effort advance the cause of truth (truth, we mean, unmixed 
with error) and of righteousness in the world? It is high time that 
all called Christians should come to the knowledge of this all-impor- 
tant truth, that it is necessary for them to be good and to do good 
themselves, individually and collectively, to advance the cause of 
God in the world. And in this allegory Jesus and his disciples 
would represent gospel truth, and its ministers or missionaries. 

Miracle 35. He casts the traders out of the temple a second time, — 
Jerusalem, Matt. XXI. 12-17 : " And Jesus went into the temple of 
God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and 
overthrew the tables of the monej'-changers, and the seats of them 
that sold doves ; and said unto them : It is written : My house 
shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of 
thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him into the temple, 
and he healed them. And when the chief priests and the scribes 
saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the 
temple and saying : Hosanna to the son of David ; they were sore 
displeased, and said unto him: Hearest thou what these people say? 
And Jesus saith unto them : Yea, have ye never read : Out of the 
mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise." Mark 
XI. 11, 15-20; "And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the 
temple ; and when he had looked round about upon all things, and 
now the even was come, he went out unto Bethany, with the 
twelve." — Here is related the cursing of the fig-tree on the next 
morning — " And they come to Jerusalem, and Jesus went into the 
temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the 
temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the 
seats of them that sold doves ; and would not suffer that any man 
should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying 
unto them : Is it not written : My house shall be called by all na- 
tions the house of prayer ; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 
And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might 
destroy him; for they feared him, because all the people was astonished 
at his doctrine. And when even was come he went out of the city." 
Luke XIX, 45-47: "And he went into the temple, and began to 
cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying unto 
them : It is written : My house is the house of prayer, but ye have 
made it a den of thieves." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 
This second casting of the traders out of the temple is mentioned 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS: THE BIIRACLES. 157 

in three Gospels. Of the writers we already know that Mark and 
Luke are not reckoned among the number of the immediate disciples 
of Christ, so that they may not be suspected to have witnessed it, nor 
are we given to understand that Matthew did, and consequently the 
meaning of the narrative we seek and find in allegory. The 
narratives differ with respect to the time when the event took 
place. Matthew has it to take place on the same day of Christ's 
royal entry into Jerusalem, riding on an ass, and before the 
blasting of the fig-tree, which he has to take place on the follow- 
ing morning. Mark has it to take place on the next day after his roy- 
al entry to the city, and after the blasting of the fig-tree, which last 
event he places on the morning of the same day on which he drove 
the traders out of the temple. In Luke it is not said on which of 
these days he ousted the traders, but the connection might seem to 
imply that it was on the same day of his royal entry. This differ- 
ence as to the time of the event in narratives which come to us with 
equal authority for authenticity at once throws confusion into the 
ranks of the testators, and declares the representation to be unliter- 
al. Moreover, with respect to the expressions Christ makes use of 
to the traders, in Matthew, it is: "My house shall be called the 
house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves ; " in Mark ; 
" Is it not written : W.^ house shall be called by all nations the 
house of prayer ; but ye have made it a den of thieves ; " in Luke : 
It is written : " My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made 
it a den of thieves." Which of these expressions Jesus made use of, 
or whether he made use of either we cannot determine, and there- 
fore cannot conclude any of them as of literal signification. This 
visionary or allegorical representation of the second cleansing of the 
temple is doubtless designed to typify the cleansing and purifying of 
God's Church, which was long trodden under foot and profaned by 
the world, by means of the purifying and refining doctrines of the 
Gospel. Christ there represents the true doctrines of the Gospel, 
and the disciples the active ministers in its promulgation. It also 
sets forth the purpose for which the temple of God is designed, name- 
ly, to be a house for prayer, and for the worship of the true God, and 
not to be used for worldly purposes. As for that particular temple 
at Jerusalem, it remained in the hands of the Jews, until it was de- 
stroyed by the Romans in about the year 70 A. D. ; and therefore 
the allusion in the allegory to the cleansing ot the temple bj Christ 
would be to the overthrowing and eradicating of the old superstitions 
of the Roman Empire, the Jewish among the rest, and their being 
supplanted by the new and true religion which was just began to be 
introduced ; as well as to the reformation and purification of each 



158 CEEATOK AND COSMOS. 

temple in particular by the subversion and destruction of its idols of 
gold and silver and brass and wood, and the using it for the worship 
and praise of God alone. Even if all three narratives exactly agreed 
in every respect as to the casting out of the traders, still the idea of 
their having a literal signification would seem unreasonable. 

Miracle 36. He heals Malchus ear in Grethsemane. Matthew 
XXVI. 50-55 : " Then came they and laid hands on Jesus, and took 
him. And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched 
out his hand and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high 
priest's, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him : Put up 
again thy sword into his place ; for all they that take the sword shall 
perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to my 
Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of 
angels ? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it 
must be ? " Mark XIV. 46-49 : " And they laid their hands on him, 
and took him. And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and 
smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. And Jesus 
answered and said unto them : Are ye come out as against a thief 
with swords and staves to take me, &c. ? " Luke XXII. 50, 51 : 
" And one of them smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his 
right ear. And Jesus answered and said : Suffer ye thus far. And 
he touched his ear and healed him." John XVIII. 10, 11 : " Then 
Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest's 
servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. 
Then said Jesus unto Peter : Put up thy sword into the sheath; the 
cup which my Father hath given me to drink shall I not drink it ? " 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

It is seen that the wounding or cutting off of the ear is mention- 
ed in the four Gospels, but the healing is mentioned in only one 
(Luke), whose writer we are aware, did not himself witness what he 
relates. And would it not seem strange (we are now addressing 
those who have been accustomed to believe in the literality of the 
miracles), that Matthew and John, or the ascribed writers of the first 
and fourth Gospels, being represented as two of the disciples who 
were wont to accompany Jesus, and who, it might naturally and rea- 
sonably be supposed, would be with him just then, do not mention 
it ? In Matthew and Mark, Peter and James and John are in par- 
ticular represented as being with Jesus at the time of this event, and 
the disciples are not represented to have forsaken him and fled till 
after it. And in the other two narratives, those of Luke and John, 
it is implied that the disciples wei'e with him at the time of the event. 
The narrative does not say that the ear which was cut off was put on 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS : THE MIRACLES. 159 

again, only that he (Christ) touched his ear and healed him. And 
even this, though seemingly insignificant when compared with other 
representations of miracles which we have reviewed, would, if of lit- 
eral interpretation, be of a miracle. But because the evidence which 
we have does not undeniably establish the miracle, but rather obvi- 
ates such necessity, it does not follow that the vision or allegory has 
not a design, which is doubtless to set forth the future relation of 
Judaism to Christianity. The ear, in Scripture prophetic language, 
would indicate the hearing, the understanding; and this being repre- 
sented as taken away from the servant of the high priest, who, be it 
noticed, was also his kinsman (John XVIII. 26,), indicated that the 
Jewish people would lack a hearing ear and an understanding heai't 
with respect to Christianity. The healing of the ear indicated that 
Christianity would have the power of remedying that, at least to 
some extent, and would ultimately do so when presented to the Jews 
in its simplicity and purity, by which the Jews would hear and 
accept its doctrines, and become to a lai-ge extent converted to it. 
This should be an encouraging incitement to the faithful and true 
missionaries of Christianity to exert themselves and do all in their 
power for the conversion to the truth of their brethren' the Israelites. 
The servant whose ear was cut off, being the priest's kinsman, indi- 
cates that the Jewish people were meant. And the servants, or hear- 
ers, are those upon whom the priests depend ; without hearers there 
would be no need of priests or priesthood ; but be it noticed that 
the ear was taken away with respect to Christianity, not with respect 
to Judaism, for the servant still remained to the priest. 

Miracle 37. He causes a miraculous draught of fishes, — Sea of Gali- 
lee, John XXI. 1-14: " After these things, Jesus showed himself 
again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed 
he himself. There were together, Simon Peter, and Thomas, called 
Didymus, and Nathaniel of Cana, of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, 
and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them ; I go 
a-fishing : they say unto him : We also go with thee. They went 
forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught 
nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the 
shore ; but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus 
saith unto them : Children, have ye any meat ? They answered him : 
No. And he said unto them : Cast the net on the right side of the 
ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not 
able to draw it, for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple 
saith unto Peter : It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard 
that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat about him (for he was 
naked), and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples 



160 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

came in a little ship (for they were not far from land, but as it were 
two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as 
they Avere come to land they saw a fire of coals, and fish laid there- 
on, and bread. Jesus saith unto them : Bring of the fish which ye 
have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, 
full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three ; and for all there 
was so many, yet was not the net broken. Jestis saith unto them : 
Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him : who art 
thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh andtaketh 
bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third 
time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was risen 
from the dead." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This is recorded onl}^ in John. The design of the prophetic alle- 
gory is to set forth the fatherly and providential care of God over his 
servants who were engaged or would be engaged in founding or ex- 
tending the true Christian Church. It is seen to this day, that God 
provides for bis servants, the true Christian ministers, or missionaries 
for the truth, hj whatever name they are called ; and, indeed, for all 
Avho are devoted to, or engaged in any Avay in his service. Such men 
may have hours and days of darkness, discouragement, and trial ; 
they may suffer deprivations and persecutions and want ; they may 
toil all night and have nothing for their pains ; but such seasons, be 
the}^ short or long, shall have an end ; God will always be near to 
comfort and encourage them; heaviness may remain during the night 
of affliction ; but the morning light of hope, and of returning suc- 
cess, brings to them encouragement and joy. God will always 
make abundant provision for them, provided they are dutiful, in- 
dustrious, and provident themselves, and in ways they may not ex- 
pect ; for besides the nets full, Avhich by God's assistance, they shall 
receive as the result of their honest toil, there will be fish awaiting 
them, ready cooked upon the coals ; and also bread. But we do not 
learn that any further advantage accrues to the impetuous Peters, 
who hastily and inconsiderately throw themselves into a sea of trou- 
bles, in order the sooner to attain their object, than to those who re- 
main in the ship (supposing this to be the ark of truth ; there are 
false, unsafe ships in Avhich they should not remain for a single 
moment, when they can escape safely to land or enter a safe one), 
who reach the dry land as soon, bringing their fish Avith them. Xor 
need they be less energetic and enterprising, less actiA'e in the accom- 
plishments of the good objects they have in view, while they use a 
proper consideration and judgment in all their proceedings. The 



REVIEW OP THE GOSPELS: THE MIRACLES. 161 

missionaries of the truth are expected and called upon to use their 
reason, as well as the men of the world. 

These are about the sum of the recorded miracles of Jesus, and 
the language in which they are given may be called prophetic sym- 
bolism, or allegory. We have given them in chronological order, as 
arranged in the Polyglott, and our best Reference Bibles. 

As TO THE Preliminaries to the Trial; The Trial, Crucifixion, 
Rescjrrection, and Post-Resurrection Appearances of 
Jesus, According to the Four Gospels, Examined and 
Compared from the Original Greek. 

1st. The rulers conspire against Christ ; the woman anoints him ; 
and Judas sells him. He eats the Passover ; institutes his Holij Supper ; 
frays in the garden.,, and^ betrayed with a hiss., is carried to the high 
priest ; is denied of Peter, and arraigned before Pilate. 

Matt. XXVI. 1-6 : "And it came to pass when Jesus had 
ended all these sayings (a discourse which he is represented as 
delivering concerning the final judgment), he said unto his 
disciples : Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, 
and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled 
together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the 
people unto the palace of the high priest, which was called Caiaphas, 
and consulted that they may take Jesus by subtilty and kill him. 
But they said : Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among 
the people." The same ace. to Mark XIV. 1-3 : " After two days 
was the feast of the Passover, and unleavened bread ; and the chief 
priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft and 
put him to death. But they said : Not on the feast day, lest there 
be an uproar among the people." The same ace. to Luke XXII. 1-3 : 
" Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the 
Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might 
kill him ; for they feared the people." That corresponding to the 
same in John XI. verse 47 to end of chapter: "Then gathered the 
chief priests and the Pharisees a council and said : What do we ? for 
this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone all men will 
believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our 
place and nation (something, we may remark, they had already in 
possession before Christ is represented to have come). And one of 
them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto 
them : Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that is it expedient for 
us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation 
tierish not. And this he spake, not of himself, but being high priest 
Vol. II.— 11 



162 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation ; and 
not for that nation only, but that he should gather together in one 
the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that 
day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. Jesus, 
therefore, walked no more openly among the Jews ; but went thence 
into a country near to a wilderness into a city called Ephraim, and 
there continued with his disciples. And the Jews' Passover was nigh 
at hand ; and many went out of the coi;ntry up to Jerusalem before 
the Passover to purify themselves. Then soaght they for Jesus, and 
spake among themselves as they stood in the temple : What think ye, 
that he will not come to the feast? Now both the chief priests and 
the Pharisees had given commandment that if any man knew where 
he was he should show it, that they might take him." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

These accounts do not contradict each other. But it is notice- 
able that we find the writer of the narrative in John knowing exactly 
what the chief priests and Pharisees said in their deliberations con- 
cerning Christ, verses 47, 48 ; the exact words of the speech of 
Caiaphas, verses 49, 50 : that Caiaphas spoke what he did, not of 
himself, but prophetically, that Jesus should die that year, not only 
for the Jewish nation, but to gather together in one the children of 
God that were scattered abroad, verses 51, 52. While these narra- 
tives are immediately preceded in the first three Gospels by the 
prophetical accounts of the destruction of Jerusalem and the last 
judgment, and their place is near the end of these Gospels ; in John 
it occupies a place farther back ; and is immediately preceded by the 
accounts of the raising of Lazarus, and the prophecy of Caiaphas, 
which last two events are, however, only mentioned in John, as we 
have seen ; and the last three verses of John XI. are those which 
may be regarded as directly corresponding to the accounts of the 
other three. These accounts are immediately followed in all cases 
except in Luke by the account of the woman anointing Jesus. 

The Four Narratives Continued. 

Matthew XXXVL 6-14 : " Now when Jesus was in Bethany in 
the house of Simon, the leper, there came unto him a woman having 
an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head 
a;s he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it they had indigna- 
tion, saying : To what purpose is this waste ? For this ointment 
might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus 
understood it he said imto them : Why trouble ye the woman ? for 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 163 

she hath wrought a good work upon me ; for ye have the poor always 
with you, but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured 
this ointment on my body she did it for my burial. Verily, I say 
unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole 
world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a 
memorial of her." According to Mark XIV., 3-10 : " Adn being in 
Bethany, in the house of Simon, the leper, as he sat at meat, there 
came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, 
very precious ; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. 
And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and 
said : Why was this waste of the ointment made? for it might have 
been sold for more than three hundred pence, and given to the poor. 
And they murmured against her. And Jesus said : Let her alone : 
why trouble ye her ? She hath wrought a good work on me. For 
ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may 
do them good ; but me ye have not always. She hath done what 
she could ; she is come aforehand to anoint my body for the burial. 
Verily I say unto you : Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached 
throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be 
spoken of for a memorial of her." That corresponding to the same 
in Luke, ch. VII., v. 36, to the end of chapter : And one of the Pharisees 
desired him that he would eat with him; and he went into the 
Pharisee's house and sat down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the 
city which was a sinner, when she knew that (Jesus) sat at meat in 
the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment; and stood 
at his feet behind him, weejjing, and began to wash his feet with 
tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his 
feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee 
which had bidden him saw it he spake within himself saying : This 
man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner 
of woman this is that toucheth him ; for she is a sinner. And Jesus 
answering said unto him : Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. 
And he saith : Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which 
had two debtors; the one owed him five hundred pence, and the 
other fifty ; and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave 
them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most ? 
Simon answered and said: I suppose that he to whom he forgave 
most. And he said unto hira : Thou hast rightly judged. And he 
turned to the woman, and said unto Simon : Seest thou this woman? 
I entered into thy house ; thou gavest me no water for my feet ; but 
she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs 
of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss ; but this woman since the 
time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil 



164 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

thou didst not anoint ; but this woman hath anointed my feet with 
ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee: Her sins, which are man}-, 
are forgiven ; for she loved much ; but to whom little is forgiven the 
same loveth little. And he said unto her: Thy sins are forgiven. 
And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves : 
Who is this that forgiveth sins also ? And he saitli to the woman : 
Th}^ faith hath saved thee, go in peace." 

The same ace. to Jolm XII., 1-9 : " Then Jesus, six days before the 
Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, 
whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and 
Martha served ; but Lazarus was one of those that sat at the table 
with him. Then took Mary a pound of the ointment of spikenard, 
very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with 
her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. 
Then saith one of his disciples — Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which 
should betray him — Why was not this ointment sold for three 
hundred pence, and given to the poor ? This he said, not that he 
cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and 
bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus : Let her alone, against 
the day of my burying hath she kept this ; for the poor always ye 
have with you, but me ye have not always." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

The narrative is such, as to disposition and wording, in three cases, 
Matthew, Mark, and John, as not to leave any doubt that the same 
event is intended to be described ; and it is so worded in the other 
case, in Luke, as to leave scarcely any doubt, not any indeed to the 
candid and unprejudiced investigator, that it is intended to describe 
the same thing. In Matthew and Mark it stands in connection with 
similar events preceding and following it, immediately after the con- 
sultation of the priests, &c., to kill Jesus, and immediately before 
Judas makes arrangements with the priests- to betray him to them. 
The account in Luke being in the early part of that gospel, eh. VII., 
stands in no such connection of events preceding and following it in 
narration ; for where it would stand in Luke, if in a similar position 
and connection with the account in Matthew and Mark, would be 
immediately after verse 2 of ch. XXII. % but from the similarity of 
the narrative itself to the other two, and the circumstance that Simon 
is the name of the host (Simon the leper in Matthew and Mark), it 
seems quite evident that the same event is intended to be related. 
In John there are nearly six chapters, from chapter XII., 10, to ch. 
XVIII., inserted between this narrative of the Avoman's anointing of 
Jesus, and that of his betrayal by Judas. We remark that to the 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 165 

most superficial reader of the Gospels there nmst a})pear great confu- 
sion in the disposition of the narratives. These narratives which we 
are now reviewing with respoct to the woman's anointing of Jesus com- 
plement each other; for according to iMatthew and Mark tlie woman 
pours the ointment on his head, but according to Luke and John it 
is his feet that she anoints. According to Matthew his disciples were 
indignant that such a waste of oil should have been made ; " which 
miglit have been sold for much, and (the proceeds) given to the poor." 
According to Mark there were some that were indignant ; " for the oil 
might have been sold for more than three hundred pence and given 
to the poor." And according to John it was Judas Iscariot that was 
indignant, asking " why was not this ointment sold for three hundred 
pence, and given to the poor ? " And the reason for his sa} ing so is 
given in verse 6, ch. XII., which, for some cause or none. Christian 
ministers, when reading the text, are wont to repeat with a strong 
emphasis. According to Luke there is no such objection made to 
the use of the oil ; but the host, Simon, observing the liberties which 
his guest allows the woman to take with his person is represented as 
musing thus within himself; " This man, if he were a prophet, would 
have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth 
him, for she is a sinner," which shows the quasi-oraniscience of the 
writer of the fourth Gospel, as we see throughout his necessary om- 
nipresence ; and Christ in response illustrates his meaning by the 
parable of the creditor and debtor. There are other differences in 
these narratives which the readers may notice for themselves, but 
these which we have pointed out are more than sufficient to show 
that they are not of literal interpretation, and may somehow suggest to 
the mind that they were intended to be so, setting forth, as they do, 
an allegoric idea. 

The Four Narratives Continued. 

Matthew XXVI., 14-35 : " Then one of the twelve, called Judas 
Iscariot, went unto the chief priests and said unto them : What will 
ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you ? And they covenanted 
with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought 
opportunity to betray him. Now the first day of the feast of un- 
leavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him : Where 
wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover ? And he 
said : Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him : The master 
saith : My time is at hand ; I will keep the Passover at thy house 
with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed 
them, and they made ready the Passover. Now when the even was 
come, he sat down with the twelve ; and as they did eat, he said : 



166 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

Verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. And they 
were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto 
him: Lord, is it I ? And he answered and said : He that dippeth 
his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The son of 
Man goeth as it is written of him ; but woe unto that man by whom 
the Son of Man is betrayed ! It had been good for that man if he 
had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and 
said: Master, is it I ? He said unto him : Thou hast said. 

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and 
brake it, and gave it to his disciples, and said : Take, eat ; this is 
my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, 
saying : Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the New Testa- 
ment, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. But I say 
unto you : I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until 
that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. 
And when they had sung an h3rmn, they went out into the Mount 
of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them : All ye shall be offended 
because of me this night ; for it is written : I will smite the shepherd, 
and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am 
risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said 
unto him : Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet wil) 
I never be offended. Jesus said unto him: Verily, I say unto thee 
that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 
Peter said unto him : Lord, though I should die with thee, yet wil) 
I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples." The samt 
ace. to Mark XIV., 10-32 ; " And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, 
went unto the chief priests to betray him unto them. And when they 
heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money ; and he 
sought how he might conveniently betray him. 

And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Pass- 
over, his disciples said unto him ; Where wilt thoix that we go and 
prepare, that thou mayest eat the Passover ? And he sendeth forth 
two of his disciples, and saith unto them : Go ye into the city and 
there shall meet yo;i a man bearing a pitcher of water, follow him ; 
and wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good-man of the house ; 
The master saith : Where is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the 
Passover with my disciples ? And he Avill show you a large upper 
room fui-nished and prepared ; there make ready for us. And his 
disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had 
said unto them : and they made ready the Passover. And in the 
evening he cometh with the twelve. And as they sat and did eat, 
Jesus said: Verily, I say unto you, one of you which eateth with me 
shall betray me. And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 167 

him one by one : Is it I ? And another said. : Is it I ? And he an- 
swered and said unto them : It is one of the twelve that dippeth witli 
me into the dish. The Son of Man, indeed, goeth as it is written of 
him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed ; 
Good were it for that man if he had never been born. 

And as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed and brake it, 
and gave to them, and said : Take, eat, this is my body. And he 
took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and 
they all drank of it. And he said unto them : This is my blood of 
the New Testament, Avhich is shed for many. Verily I say unto you : 
I -will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I 
drink it new in the kingdom of God. 

And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the Mount 
of Olives. And Jesus saith unto them: All ye shall be offended be- 
cause of me this night ; for it is written : I will smite the shepherd, 
and the sheep shall be scattered. But after that I am risen, I will go 
before you into Galilee. But Peter said unto him : Although all shall 
be offended yet will not I ? And Jesus saith unto him : Verily, I 
say unto thee, that this day, in this night, before the cock crow twice, 
thou shalt deny me thrice. But he spoke the more vehemently : If 
I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise 
also said they all. The same according to Luke XXII., 3-40 : " Then 
entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of 
the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief 
priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them. And they 
were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised, 
and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of 
the multitude. 

Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must 
be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying : Go, and prepare us 
the Passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him : Where 
wilt thou that we prepare? And he said : Behold, Avhen ye are en- 
tered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of 
water; follow him into the house Avhere he entereth in. And 3'e 
shall say unto the good-man of the house : The master saith unto 
thee : Where is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the Passover 
with my disciples. And he shall show you a large upper room fur- 
nished; there make ready. And they went, and found as he had 
said unto them ; and they made ready the Passover. 

And when the hour was come he sat down, and the twelve apostles 
with him. And he said unto them: I have greatly desired to eat 
this Passover with you before I suffer ; for I say unto you, I will not 
any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. 



168 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said : Take this and di- 
vide it among yourselves ; for I say unto you, I will not drink of the 
fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. 

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto 
them saying : This is my bod}^ Avhich is given for you ; this do in 
remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after the supper, saying : 
This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. 
But behold the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the 
table. And truly the Son of Man goeth as it is determined, but woe 
unto that man by whom he is betrayed I And they began to enquire 
amono- themselves which of them it was that should do this thinsf. 
And there was also a strife among them which of them should be ac- 
counted the greatest (a strange time, one would surely think, for 
such a discourse ; see also Mark IX., 34 ; Luke IX., -IG). And he said 
unto them : The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; 
and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. 
But ye shall not be so ; but he that is greatest among you, let him 
be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that doth serve. For 
whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth. Is 
not he that sitteth at meat ? But 1 am among j'ou as one that serv- 
eth. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations ; 
and I appoint unto you a kingdom as my father hath appointed unto 
me : that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit 
on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

And the Lord said : Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired (to 
have) you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for 
thee that thy faith fail not ; and when thou art converted strengthen 
thy brethren. And he said unto him ; Lord, I am ready to go with 
thee both into prison and to death. And he said : I tell thee, Peter, 
the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that 
thou knowest me. And he said unto them : When I sent you with- 
out purse and scrip and shoes, lacked ye anything ? And they said : 
Nothing. Then said he unto them : But now he that hath a purse 
let him take it, and likewise his scrip ; and he that hath no sword, 
let him sell his garment and buy one. For I say unto you that this 
that is written must yet be accomplished in me : And he was reckon- 
ed among the transgressors, for the things concerning me have an 
end. And they said: Lord, behold, here ai'e two swords. And he 
said unto them : It is enough. And he came and went as he was 
wont to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him." 

The same ace. to John XIII. : " Now before the feast of the Passover, 
when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out 
of this world unto the father, having loved his own which were in the 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 169 

world he loved them uuto the end. And supper being ended, the 
devil having now put in the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simons' son, to 
betray him ; Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his 
hands, and that he was come from God and went (lit, is going) to 
God ; he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments ; and took 
a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin, 
and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel 
wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and he 
(Peter) saith unto him : Lord, dost thou wash my feet ? Jesus an- 
swered and said unto him : What I do thou knowest not now ; but 
thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him ; Thou shalt 
never wash my feet. Jesus answered him : If I wash thee not thou 
hast no part with me, Simon Peter saith unto him : Lord not my 
feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith unto him : 
He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean 
every whit ; and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should 
betray him ; therefore said he : Ye are not all clean. So after he 
had washed their feet, and had taken his garments and was set down 
again, he said unto them ; Know ye what I have done to you ? Ye 
call me Master, and Lord ; and yo say well ; for so I am. If then 
your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash 
one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should 
do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the ser- 
vant is not greater than his Lord ; neither he that is sent greater 
than he that sent him. If ye know these things happy are ye if 
ye do them. I speak not of you all ; I know whom I have chosen ; 
but that the Scripture may be fulfilled : He that eateth bread 
with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before 
it come that Avhen it is come to pass ye may believe that I am he. 
Verily, verily, I say unto you : He that receiveth whomsoever I send 
receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 
When Jesus had thus said he was troubled in spirit, and testified 
and said : Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray 
me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom 
he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disci- 
ples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter, therefore, beckoned unto him 
that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake- He then, 
leaning on Jesus' breast, saith unto him : Lord who is it ? Jesus 
answered : He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped 
it. And when he had dipped the sop he gave it to Judas Iscaiiot, 
the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then 
said Jesus unto him : That thou doest do quickl3^ Now no man at 
the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him ; for some of 



170 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

them thought because Judas had the bag that Jesus ' had said unto 
him : Buy those things that we have need of against the feast, or 
that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received 
the sop, vrent immediately out ; and it was night. Therefore when 
he was gone out Jesus said : Now is the son of man glorified, and 
God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him God shall also 
glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little 
children yet a little while I am with jou. Ye shall seek me ; and 
as I said unto the Jews: Whither I go ye cannot come, so now I 
say to you : A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one 
another ; as I have loved you that ye also love one another. By this 
shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to an- 
other. Simon Peter said unto him ; Lord, whither goest thou ? Jesus 
answered him : Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but 
thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him : Lord, why 
cannot I follow thee now ? I will lay down my life for thy sake. 
Jesus answered him: Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? 
Verily, verily, I say unto thee : The cock shall not crow till thou 
hast denied me thrice." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

According to Matthew XXVL, 15, Judas goes to the chief priests 
and asks them thus : " What will ye give me and I will deliver him 
unto you ? " Now the question at once suggests itself to the candid 
enquirer : How did Matthew, or whoever wrote the first Gospel, 
know what particular expression Judas made use of when bargaining 
with the priests ; and yet here the precise words which Judas spake 
on that occasion are affected to be given. Then, according to Mat- 
thew ; " They covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." Ac- 
cording to Mark and Luke : " They were glad, and agreed to give 
him money." In John nothing is said as to the reward which Judas 
was to I'eceive for his services. As to the preparation for the Pass- 
over by Jesus and his disciples : According to Matthew, the disciples 
come to Jesus, saying unto him : "• Where wilt thou that we prepare 
to eat the Passover ? " According to Mark they say : "Where wilt 
thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the Passover?" 
In Luke, this question of the disciples to Christ is not mentioned ; 
and in John no mention is made at all of this preparation. According 
to Matthew, Jesus says, in answer to the question of the disciples : 
" Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him : The INIaster 
saith : My time is at hand ; I will keep the Passover at thy house 
with my disciples." But, according to Mark, he sends two of 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 171 

his disciples, and says unto them : " Go ye into the city, and there 
shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water; folio vv him, and 
wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good-man of the house : 
The Master saith : Where is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat 
the Passover with my disciples?" "And he will show you a large 
upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for ns." In 
Luke, we first find him, with respect to this Passover, sending Pcier and 
John, and saying unto tliem : " Go, and prepare us the Passover, that we 
may eat." And they said unto him: " Where wilt thou tliat we pre- 
pare ? " And he said to them : " Behold, when ye are entered into the 
city there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water : follow him 
into the house where he entereth. And ye shall say unto the good- 
man of the house : The Master saith unto thee : Where is the guest- 
chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples ? And he 
shall show you a large upper room, furnished ; there make ready." 
The wording in these three representations with respect to the disci- 
ples is different, and being in the direct oration, we cannot tell which 
to select as the original representation, and cannot conclude any one 
of them as literally significant, but may, as in the other connections, 
seek the allegoric meaning. Also, the representation is different 
otherwise in Mark and Luke from what it is in Matthew, in which 
latter no mention is made of the two disciples, of the man bearing 
the pitcher of water, the furnished upper room, &c. In Matthew, 
Mark and Luke, the twelve apostles are represented as being present 
with Jesus at the last supper. In John, this is not mentioned, but 
the representation, if it were real, might be thought to imply their 
presence. 

All the representations of the scene at the supper differ widely 
from each other. They differ with respect to the expressions tliey 
represent Christ to have used ; with respect to the order of the 
events; and with respect to the events themselves. According to 
Matthew, as they did eat he said : " Verily I say unto j'^ou that one 
of you shall betray me." According to Mark it is : " Verily I sa}^ 
unto you, one of you which eateth with me shall betray me." According 
to John, after he forewarns them of the traitor* from a prophecy of 
Scripture (verses 18, 19) he goes on to say : " Verily, verily, I say 
unto 3^ou that one of you shall betray me." In Luke there is no 
corresponding expression, for, according to Luke's narrative, the one 
who should betray him is not spoken of by Jesus at the table nnlil 
after he has distributed the bread and wine, although in the other 
three narratives he is represented as speaking of him before this 
distribution. Then in answer to the anxious questioning of the 



172 CREATOR AKD COSMOS. 

disciples as to who tlie traitor should be he says, according to Matthew : 
" He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall be- 
tray me." The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him; but woe 
unto that man by w^hom the Son of :\Ian is betrayed : it had been 
good for that man if he had not been born. (But notice what follows in 
connection) : "And Judas, which betrayed liira answered, and said: 
Master, is it I ? He said unto him ; Thou hast said." According to 
Mark, in answer to this question, he says: "It is one of the twelve 
that diiapeth with me in the dish. The Son of Man goeth, as it is 
written of him ; but woe to that man by Whom the Son is betrayed. 
Good Ayere it for that man if he had never been born." According 
to John the disciples do not, in their anxious curiosity, ask each for 
himself : Is it I ? But they have recourse to another expedient, to 
find out who the traitor should be ; and this expedient might be 
called in modern phraseology, " Favoritism. " John's narrative goes 
on to say: "Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of 
whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom, one of 
the disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to 
him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He, 
then, lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto him : Lord who is it ? Jesus 
answered ; He it is to whohi I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. 
And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot the 
son of Simon. After the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said 
Jesus unto him: That thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the 
table knew for what intent he spake this unto him," (although in 
Matthew XXVL, 25, he is represented as answering Judas himself 
directly that he should be the traitor, and this before the distribu- 
tion of the bread and wine,) "for some of them thought because 
Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him : Bu}- those tilings 
that we have need of against the feast ; or that he should give some- 
thing to the poor. He then, having received the sop, went imme- 
diately out; and it was night." According to Luke, Jesus, while 
at the table, first speaks of Judas after the distribution of the bread 
and wine. When the cup is represented as just distributed ; and in 
connection with that event, it goes on to say ; •' But, behold, the 
hand of him that betrayeth me, is with me on the table. And truly 
the Son of Man goeth as it was determined; but woe unto that man 
by whom he is betra3^ed. And they began to enquire among them- 
selves which of them it was that should do this thing." " And," it 
says in connection " there was also a strife among them, Avhich of 
them should be accounted the greatest." One would think natural!}- 
that their sorrow must have soon changed into self-confidence and 
pride ! The foregoing is all we find about Judas at the table ; we do 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 173 

not meet with him again till we find him in the garden betraying 
Jesus. . Anyone can see how different these representations, with 
xespect to Judas, while at the table, are. According to Matthew, 
Christ answers the question of Judas himself, before the distribution 
of the bread and wine, that he should be the traitor, or ; " Thou 
hast said," which is explained by the Bible interpreters as meaning 
■the same thing, an affirmative answer, but which certainly is, to say 
the least, equivocal. According to Mark he gives them only the 
indefinite answer : " It is one of the twelve that dippeth witli me in 
the dish," and this before the distribution of the bread and wine. 
According to Luke he only intimates the presence of the traitor 
among the twelve at the table, by saying: "But, behold, the hand 
of him that betrayeth me, is with me on the table, d:c., " and this 
after the distribution of the bread and wine; and then they begin to 
strive among themselves as to who shall be the greatest. And ac- 
cording to John, there is quite a wide-spread sensation among the 
disciples at the table during the supper, as to who should be the 
traitor; and quite a peculiar method is taken also to discover him. 
John's account of Judas at the supper-table is, like all the rest of his 
representations, peculiar — altogether unique. Moreover, as to the 
words Jesus is represented as making use of on presenting the bread 
and wine to his disciples, they are as follows. According to Matthew, 
on presenting the bread, he says : " Take, eat ; this is m}' body." 
And on presenting the cup he is made to say : " Drink ye all of it ; 
for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, 
for the remission of sins. But I say unto you: I will not drink 
henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it 
new with you in my Father's kingdom." According to Mark, on 
presenting the bread, he says : " Take, eat ; this is my body ; " some 
early manuscripts leaving out v''«r'"- the Greek word, translated "■eat," 
in this place in the text. And, on presenting the cup, he is made 
to say : This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for 
many. Verily, I say unto you : I will drink no more of the fruit of 
the vine until that day that I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.*' 
According to Luke, on presenting the bread, he says : " This is my 
body, which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me." And, 
on presenting the cup, he is made to say: "This cup is the New 
Testament in my blood, which is shed for 3-ou." Li John this 
operation of presenting the bread and wine is not at all represented ; 
only that of giving to Judas his sop. These are all different expres- 
sions in the direct oration : and if the reader will turn to L Corin- 
thians, XL 24-27, lie will find an expression different from all these 
relating to the same thing, and jjurporting to be the original. Now, 



174 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

which of all these are the original expressions uttered by Christ, we 
are unable to determine, and have, therefore, to set them all down 
as allegoric representations. Moreover, as to the discourse at the 
table respecting Peter's future denial of Christ, all the narratives 
differ from each other. According to Matthew, Peter answers and 
says to him : " Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet 
will I never be offended." Jesus said to him : " Verily, I say unto 
thee, that this night before the cock crow, thoushalt deny me thrice." 
Peter said to him : " Though I should die with thee, yet will I not 
deny thee." Likewise also said all the disciples. According to 
Mark, Peter said to him : " Although all shall be offended, yet will 
not I." And Jesus says to him: "Verily, I say unto thee, that this 
day, in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shall deny me 
thrice." But he spake the more vehemently : " If I should die with 
thee, I will not deny thee in any wise." Likewise also said they all. 
According to Luke the representation of the denial of Peter has a 
still different phase; it is: "And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, 
behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as 
wheat ; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith'fail not ; and when 
thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." And he saith to him : 
Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. And 
Jesus replies : " I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day 
before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me." And 
following this, in connection, he advises them to sell their garments, 
if necessar}', to buy swords. It is still different in John's ; Simon 
Peter said to him: " Lord, whither goest thou?" Jesus answered 
him : " Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt 
follow me afterwards." Peter said to him : " Lord, why cannot I 
follow thee now. I will lay down my life for thy sake." Jesus 
answers him : "Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied 
me thrice." Now all these representations of the conversation 
respecting the future denial of Christ by Peter, are different from 
each other in the direct oration, and which of them is the true and 
original one we cannot determine, and therefore have to decide them 
all as historically xuiapt, or rather as allegorical. 

The Foub Naeeatives continued till His Delivery to 

Pilate. 

Ace. to Matt. XXVI. 35, to end of chapter : " Then cometh Jesus 
with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the dis- 
ciples : Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with 



BEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 17.3 

liim Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful 
and very heavy. Then saith lie unto them : My soid is exceeding 
sorrowful, even unto death ; tarry ye here and watch with me. And 
he went a little farther, and fell on his face and praj'ed, saying : O 
my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, 
not as I will, but as Thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples 
and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter : What, could ye not 
watch with me one hour ? Watch and i^ray, that ye enter not into 
temptation ; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He 
went away again the second time and prayed, saying : O my Father, 
if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it. Thy will be 
done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes 
were heavy. And he left them, and went away again and prayed 
the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his dis- 
ciples, and saith unto them: Sleep on now, and take rest; behold, 
the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betraj^ed into the hands 
of sinners. Rise, let us be going ; behold, he is at hand that doth 
betray me. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, 
came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from 
the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed 
him gave them a sign, saying : Whomsoever T shall kiss that same is 
he ; hold liim fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said : 
Hail Master, and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him : Friend, 
wherefore art thou come? Then came they and laid hands on Jesus, 
and took him. And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus 
stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and struck a servant of 
the high priest's, and cut off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him : 
Put up again thy sword into his place ; for all they that take the 
sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot 
now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than 
twelve legions of angels. But how then shall the Scriptures be 
fulfilled, that thus it must be? In that same hour said Jesus to 
the multitudes: Are ye come out as against a thief, with swords and 
staves, for to take me ? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, 
and ye laid no hold on me. But all this was done that the Scrip- 
tures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples for- 
sook him and fled. And they that laid hold on Jesus led him away 
to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were 
assembled. But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's 
palace, and went in and sat with the servants to see the end. Now 
the chief priests and the elders, and all the council, sought false 
witness against Jesus, to put liim to deatli ; but found none. Yea, 
though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last 



176 CREATOE, AND COSMOS. 

came two false witnesses and said : This fellow, said : I am able to 
destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three, days. And the 
high priest arose and said unto him : Answerest thou nothing ? 
"What is it wliich these witness against thee? But Jesus held his 
peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him : I adjure 
thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Clu'ist, 
the son of God. Jesus saith- unto him : Thou hast said: neverthe- 
less, I say unto you : Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on 
the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then 
the high priest rent his clothes, saying : He hath spoken blasphem}-; 
What further need have we to witness? Behold now ye have heard 
his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said: He is 
guilty (liable to the penalty) of death. Then did they spit on his 
face and buffeted him ; and others smote him with the palms of their 
hands, saying: Prophesy unto us, O Christ, who is he that smote 
thee ? Now Peter sat without in the palace : and a damsel came 
unto him, saying : Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. But he 
denied before them all, saying ; I know not what thou sayest. And 
when he Avas gone out into the porch another maid saw him, and 
said unto them that were there : This fellow was also with Jesus of 
Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath : I do not know the 
man. And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said 
to Peter : Surely thou also art one of them ; for thy sj)eech bewrayeth 
thee. Then began he to curse and to swear (saying), I do not know 
the man ; and immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered 
the word of Jesus which said unto him : Before the cock crow thou 
shalt deny me thrice. And he Avent out and wept bitterly." The same 
ace. to Mark XIV. 32 to end of chapter: " And they came to a jilace 
which was named Gethsemane ; and he saith to his discij^les : Sit jq 
here while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter and James 
and John, and began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy ; and 
saith unto them : My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death ; tarry 
ye here and watch. And he went forward a little, and fell on the 
ground, and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass from 
him. And he said : Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee, 
take away this cup from me ; nevertheless not wliat I will, but 
what Thou wilt. And he cometh and findeth them sleeping, 
and saith unto Peter: Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou 
watch one hour ? Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. 
The spirit truly is ready but the flesh is weak. And again he went 
away, and prayed, and spake the same words. And when he return- 
ed he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy) neither 
knew they what to answer him. And he cometh the third time and 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 177 

saitli unto them : Sleep on now, and take rest ; it is enough ; the 
hour is come ; behold the Sou of Man is betrayed into the hands of 
sinners. Rise, let us go ; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand. And 
immediately, while lie yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, 
and with liim a great multitude with swords and staves, from the cliief 
priests and the scribes and the elders. And lu; that betrayed him 
luul just giveu tliem a token saying: Whomsoever I shall kiss, that 
same is he ; take him and lead Iiim away safely. And as soon as he 
was come he goeth straightway to him and said : Master, master, and 
kissed him. And they laid their hands on him, and took him. And 
one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the 
high priest, and cut off his ear. And Jesus answered and saith unto 
them : Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and with 
staves to take me ? I was daily with you in the temple, and 3^6 
took me not ; but the Scriptures must be fulfilled. And they all 
forsook him and fled. And there followed him a certain young man 
havnig a linen cloth cast about his naked body ; and the young- 
men laid hold on him. And he left the linen cloth, and fled from 
them naked." 

" And they led Jesus away to the high priest, and with him were 
assembled all the chief priests, and the elders, and the scribes. And 
Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest; 
and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. And 
the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus 
to put him to death ; and found none. For many bare false Avitness 
against him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose 
certain, and bare false witness against him, saying : We have heard 
him say : T will destroy tltis temple that is made with hands, luiJ 
within tlu-ee days I will build another made Avithout luuids. But 
neither so did their witness accree to2rether. And the hi'j'h priest 
stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying : Answerest thou 
nothing? What is it which these witness against thee? But he 
held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the liigh priest asked 
him, and said unto him : Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed ? 
And Jesus said : I am ; and je shall see the Son of Man sitting on 
the right hand of power, and coming in the clotids of heaven. Then 
the high priest rent liis clothes, and saitli: What need we any fur- 
ther witness ? Ye have heard the blasphemy : what think ye? And 
they all condemned him to be guilty (liable to tlu' })enalty) of death. 
And some began to spit on liira, and to cover his face, and to buffet 
him, and to say tnito him : Prophesy. And the servants did strike 
him with the palms of their hands. And as Peter was beneath in 
the palace there cometh one of the maids of the high priesc ; and when 
Vol, II.— 12 



178 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

she saw Peter warming himself she looked upon him, and said: And 
thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied, saying : I 
tnow not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out 
into the porch, and the coek crew. And a maid saw him again, and 
began to say to them that stood by : This is one of them. And he 
denied it again. And a little after they that stood by said again to 
Peter : Surely thou art one of them ; for thou art a Galilean, and 
thy speech agreeth thereto. And he began to curse and to swear, 
saying : I know not this man of whom ye speak. And the second 
time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the Avord that Jesus 
said unto him : Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice ; 
and when he thought thereon he wept." The same ace. to Luke 
XXII, V. 40 to end of chapter : " And when he was at the place he 
said unto them : Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he 
was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down 
and praj^ed, saying : Father, if thou be willing remove this cup from 
me ; nevertheless not my will but Thine be done. And there ap- 
peared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And 
being in an agony he prayed more earnestly ; and his sweat was as 
it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when 
he was rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found 
them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them: Why sleep ye? 
Arise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. And while he yet 
spake, behold, a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the 
twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. 
But Jesus said unto him ; Judas, betray est thou the Son of Man with 
a kiss ? When they that were about him saw what would follow 
they said unto him : Lord, shall we smite with the sword ? And one 
of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. 
And Jesus answered and said: Suffer ye thus far; and he touched 
his ear, and healed him. Then Jesus said unto the chief priests and 
captains of the temple, and the elders Avhich were come to him : 
Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves ? When 
I was daily with you in the temple ye stretched forth no hands 
against me ; but this is j^ourhour and the power of darkness. Then 
took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest's 
house. And Peter followed afar off. And when they had kindled 
<a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat 
down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the 
fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said : This man was also 
with him. And he denied him saying : Woman, I know him not. 
And after a little while another saw him and said : Thou art also of 
them. And Peter said : Man, I am not. And about the space of 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 179 

one hour after another confidently affirmed, saying: Of a truth this 
fellow also was with him ; for he is a Galilean. And Peter s^id : 
Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet 
spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter; 
and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto 
him : Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter 
went out and wept bitterly. 

And the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him. And 
when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and 
asked him, saying : Prophesy, who is it that smote thee ? And many 
other things blasphemously spake they against him. And as soon as 
it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the 
scribes came together and led him into their council, saying : Art 
thou the Christ? Tell us. And he said unto them: If I tell you 
ye will not believe. And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, 
nor let me go. Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand 
of the power of God. Then said they all : Art thou the Son of 
God? And he said unto them : Ye say that I am. And they said : 
What need we any further witnesses? for we ourselves have heard 
of his own mouth." The same ace. to John., XVIII to verse 28 : 
" When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disci- 
ples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, iiito the which he 
entered, and his disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed him, 
knew the place : for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disci- 
ples. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from 
the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lantei'ns and 
torches and weapons. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that 
should come upon him, went forth and said unto them : Whom seek 
ye ? They answered him : Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto 
them: I am he. And Judas also which betrayed him, stood with 
them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went 
backward and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, Whom 
seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered: I 
have told you that I am he ; if, therefore, ye seek me, let these go 
their way ; that the saying might be fulfilled, whieli he spake : Of 
them which thou gavest me, liave I lost none. Then Simon Peter, 
having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut 
off his right ear. The servant's name Avas Malchus. Tlien said Jesus 
iinto Peter : Put up thy sword into the sheath ; the cup wliich my 
Father hath given me shall T not drink it? Then the hand and tlie 
captains and the officers of the -Jews took Jesus and bound liim ; 
and led him awav to Annas first ; for he was father-in-law to Caia- 
phas, who was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaplias was 



180 CKEATOil AND COSMOS. 

he who gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man 
should die for the people. 

And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple; 
that disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus 
into the palace of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door Avith- 
out. Then went out that other disciple which was known unto the 
high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in 
Peter. Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter: Art 
thou also one of this man's disciples? He saith: I am not. And 
the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals ; 
for it was cold ; and they warmed themselves ; and Peter stood with 
them and wai-med himself. 

The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doc- 
trine. Jesus answered him: I spake openly to the world; I ever 
taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews alwa3's 
resort; and in secret have I said nothing; why askest thou me? 
Ask them wliich lieard me what I have said unto them ; behold, they 
know what I said. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers 
who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying : Ans- 
Averest thou the high priest so ? Jesus ansAvered him : If I have 
spoken evil, bear Avitness of the evil ; but if Avell, Avhy smitest thou 
me ? Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. 
And Simon Peter stood and Avarmed himself. They said therefore 
unto him: Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, 
and said : I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, being 
his kinsman, Avhose ear Peter cut off, saith : Did not I see thee in 
the garden with him? Peter then denied again, and immediately 
the cock crcAV." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 
1 he careful reader Avill readily perceive, even without any critical 
comparison of them by us, how very different these narratives are as 
to every point. We, however, in order to render these points of dif- 
ference in these narj'atives more clear and comprehensible, Avill give 
a slight critical review of them. First, the praying in the garden of 
Gethsemane is mentioned in three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. 
These three differ, first in this, that Matthew and Mark speak of his 
going three times to pray after his entrance on this occasion into 
the gai'den, and ea.ch time returning to his disciples Avhom he invaii- 
ablj^ on his return from praA^er, accoi'ding to the three narratives, 
finds sleeping. And, secondly, they differ as to the Avords they re- 
present Christ as using in his praj^er, Avhich, sti'ange as it must 
appear, are represented in the oratio directa, although the three dis- 
ciples whom he brought into the garden with him were remoA-ed to 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS.* 181 

some distance from him, (a stone's cast) and asleep each time when 
he was praying ; and as to the words he speaks lo his disciples on 
his returns from prayer. Though Luke speaks of his going to pray 
only once, yet he gives us a near inspection of him--just as if the 
writer were present with him — and represents him in an agony, hav- 
ing great drops of sweat, as blood, falling down to the ground, and 
an angel from heaven strengthening him. According to Matthew, 
having taken three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, into the 
garden with him, he leaves them at a certain place, and goes a little 
further, and falls on his face, and prays, saying: " O my Father, if 
it be possible, let this cup past? from me ; nevertheless not as I will, 
but as Thou wilt." 

And he comes to the disciples, and finding them asleep, says to 
Peter : " What, could ye not watch Avith me one hour ? Watch 
and pra}^ that ye enter not into temptation ; the spirit indeed is 
willing, but the flesh is weak." He went again the second time, 
and prayed, saying : ^ O my Father, if this cup may not pass from 
me except I drink it. Thy will be done." And he came and found 
them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and 
-went away again and prayed the third time, saying " the same 
words." Then he comes to his disciples and says to them : " Sleep 
on now, and take your rest ; behold the hour is at hand and the Son 
of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise and let us be 
going : behold, he is at hand that doth betray me." According to 
Mark, he takes with him into the garden Peter, James, and John, 
and requests them to tarry and watch with him, while lie goes for- 
ward a little and prays that if it be possible the hour shall pass from 
him. " And he said : Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee ; 
take away this cup from me ; nevertheless not what T uill.but what 
Thou wilt." And he comes and finds them sleeping, and says to 
Peter: " Simon, sleepest thou ? Couldestnot thou watch one hour ? 
Watch ye and prajs lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly 
is ready, but the flesh is weak." And again lie went away and pray- 
ed, " and spake the same Avords." And when ho returned the 
.second time, he found them asleep again, (fur their eyes were heavy), 
" neither knew they what to answer him." And he comes the third 
time, and says to them : " Sleep on now, and take rest ; it is enough, 
the hour is come ; behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into tlic hands 
of sinners. Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betravcth me is at hand." 
According to Luke, having enteretl into the garden with his (li..ei- 
ples, he admonishes them to pray that tliey enter not into temi)tation; 
and withdrawing from them aljout a stone's cast, he kneels down and 
prays; saying ; *•" Father, if Thou be willing, remove this enii I'rom me ; 



182 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done." And when he rises 
from prayer (after having in his agony sweat great drops of blood, 
and experienced the strengthening powers of the angel), he comes to 
his disciples and finds them sleeping for sorrow, and says to them : 
" Why sleep ye ? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." 
Thus, the prayer in the garden is as follows, according to the dif- 
ferent narratives. According to iNIatthew it is : " my Father, if it 
be possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless not as I will but 
as thou wilt." And the second time : " O my Father, if this cup 
may not pass away from me except I drink it, Thy will be done ; " 
the third time saying " the same words." According to Mark it is: 
" Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee ; take awaj'" this . 
cup from me ; nevertheless, not what I will but what thou wilt." He 
prays the second time in '• the same words ; " the third time it is not 
said what were the words he used. According to St. Luke it is : 
" Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me ; nevertheless, 
not my will but thine be done." The difference between these prayers 
is then as the difference between the" expressions — "If it be possible;" 
— " All things are possible; " — " If thou be willing." Which of these 
prayers then represents truly the words which Christ made use of? 
Or does either one of them? Or how could the words he made use 
of be known to any other man than himself, as it is said that he was 
alone, the three disciples, Peter, James and John, being removed 
about a stone's cast from him, and sleeping ? Any candid reader will 
be apt to suspect that these representations ai-e not intended to have 
a literal interpretation. In John's Gospel this prayer in the garden 
is not mentioned ; and the question will naturally suggest itself to 
the reader : how does this hapjDen if John, the ascribed writer, was 
one of the particular three that were with Jesus on that occasion, as 
according to Mattliew and Mark? 

The betrayal by Judas, and the arrest of Jesus are mentioned in 
the four Gospels, but the particulars of that transaction are very 
differentl}^ given. In all four Judas is represented as being present 
at tlae arrest, leading the band of men that perform that act. In 
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Judas is represented as betraying Christ 
by a kiss ; in John nothing is said about him kissing Jesus, but quite 
a different representation is given of the manner of the arrest. Ace. 
to Matthew this was: "And forthwith he came to Jesus and said: 
Hail, master ; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him : Friend, 
wherefore art thou come ? Then came they and laid hands on Jesus 
and took him." Ace. to Mark: " And as soon as he (Judas) was 
come he goeth straightway to him, and saitli : ]\Iaster, Master, and 
kissed him. And thev laid their hands on him and took him." Ace. 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 183 

to Luke ; Judas going before the band of men " went near unto Jesus 
to kiss him. But Jesus said unto him: " Judas, betray e^t thou the Son 
of Man with a kiss ? " Then they that were about Jesus, seeing what 
woiild follow, say to him : " Lord, shall we smite with the sword ? " 
And one of them forthwith smites oft the right ear of the high priest's 
servant; and Jesus touches and heals the ear. Then Jesus said 
unto the chief priests and captains of the temple, and the elders 
which were come to him, &c." So that they who are in the 
other narratives represented as a band of men and officers 
from the chief priests and rulers and captains of the temple are 
here represented as these high functionaries themselves come to 
arrest Jesus. Ace. to John it was: " Judas then, having received a 
band ot men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, com- 
eth thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. "Jesus therefore^ 
knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said 
unto them : Whom seek ye ? They answered him : Jesus of Nazareth. 
Jesus saith unto them : I am he. And Judas also which betrayed 
him stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them : I am 
he, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then asked he them 
again : Whom seek ye ? And they said : Jesus of Nazareth. I have told 
you that I am (he) ; if therefore ye seek me let these (the disciples) 
go their way." Then the writer of this Gospel, with his usual par- 
ticularity, mentions Peter as the one that smites off the ear of the 
high priest's servant ; and that the servant's name wasMalchus. Jesus 
tells Peter to put up his sword again, upon which they arrest him. 
It would seem from this representation that the services of Judas 
were dispensed with, — no kissing is mentioned here, — Jesus having 
the courage and manliness to step forward and identify himself to 
his enemies, upon which they go backward and fall to the ground. 
These are circumstances of the betrayal altogether different from 
any which we have had in the others. 

It is seen then that the words which passed between the traitor 
and Jesus in the transaction of betraying are represented in the dif- 
ferent Gospels as different. " Hail, master," as ace. to Matthew, is 
not the same expression as " Master, master," ace. to Mark. And 
after kissing, the expression : "Friend, wherefore art thou come," as 
ace. to Matthew, is not the same as "Judas, betrayest thou the Sou 
Man with a kiss ? " as ace. to Luke. In order for these four narratives* 
to have a literal signification, all the scenes and circumstances oi 
them which were common to them all would require to be the same, 
whether they were related in the oratio ohliqaa or the oratio directa; 
and all expressions in the four narratives related in the oratio directa, 
and designed to convey the same ideas, should have necessarily to be 



184 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

in precisely the same words, 2^l<^(^^d exactly alike in the corresponding sen- 
tences. 

As to where they take Jesus after they arrest him. Ace. to Mat- 
thew, when they arrest Jesus they lead him away to the house of 
Caiaplias, the high priest. Ace. to John, they lead him to the house 
of Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas. Ace. to Mark and Luke, 
they lead him to the high piiest's house. In Mark alone it is men- 
tioned that on Jesus being led away after his arrest there followed 
him a certain young man, having a linen cloth thrown about his 
naked body ; and that the ,yonng men laid hold on him, and he left 
the linen cloth, and fled from them naked. Curious indeed have been 
the speculations of fathers and ecclesiastics, monks and friars of the 
Christian Church as to who this young man might have been ; and 
as a symbol of the allegory we shall leave men yet to occupy them- 
selves with him. 

From his arraignment before the high priest till his delivery to Pilate. 

The four narratives represent Peter, and one of them (John's) 
another disciple also, as going to the house of the high priest, that of 
Annas, ace. to John ; that of Caiaphas, ace. to Matthew, and that of 
the high priest ace. to jNIark, and Luke. In his examination before 
the high j^i'iest ace. to Matthew and Mark, the chief priests and 
elders, and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put 
him to death ; and although many presented themselves, their evi- 
dence did not agree so as to prove him guilty. But at last, ace. to 
Matthew, " two " false witnesses came and testified : " This 
fellow said : I am able to destroy the temple of God and to 
build it in th]-ee days." And ace. to Mark " certain" came 
and testified : " We heard him say : I will destroy this tem- 
ple that is made with hands, and within three days I will 
build another made without hands." In Li-ike and John nothing is 
said as to false witnesses testifying against him, but the high priest 
examines Jesus without referring to witnesses. Ace. to Matthew, 
the high priest, referring to what the two false witnesses had testi- 
fied, said to Jesus : " Answerest thou nothing ? What is it which 
these witness against thee?" And Jesus remaining silent, the high 
priest again says to him : " I adjure thee by the living God that thou 
tell us whether thou be the Clirist, the Son of God." Jesus answers 
him : " Thou hast said ; nevertheless I say unto 3-ou : Hereafter shall 
ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and 
coming in the clouds of heaven." Ace. to Mark, the high priest, in 
reference to what the false witness had testified, asked Jesus: " An 



BBVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 185 

swerest thou nothing ? What is it which these witness against 
thee ? " But Jesus remaining silent the high priest again asks him : 
" Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed ? And Jesus said : I 
am ; and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of 
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." These expressions, 
which were most likely meant for the same original, are, it is seen, 
considerably different in the wording. 

These examinations of Jesus before the high priest represented 
in Matthew and Mark, one would think from the narratives, to have 
taken place during the night; but Luke d(,es not represent this ex- 
amination as taking place till after daylight had come, ch. XXII, 6Q. 
And ace. to this last it is the elders of the people and the chief priests 
and scribes, net the high priest alone, as in the others, that put the 
question to Jesus, saying : " Art thou the Christ, tell us." And he 
answered them : " If I tell you ye will not believe. And if I ask 
you ye will not answer me, nor let me go. Hereafter shall the Son 
of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God." Then said they 
all : " Art thou then the Son of God." And he said unto them : 
*' Ye say that I am." And they said : " What need we any further 
witnesses? For we ourselves have heard of his own mouth." 

The reader Avill j)erceive that the answers Christ is represented as 
making to these questions, as to whether he is the Christ, are different 
in all the narratives. To this question in Matthew, he answers the 
high priest : " Thou hast said, &c." In Mark he answ^ers : " I am, &c," 
and in Luke : " Ye say that I am, &c." Ace. to John : " The high 
priest (here Annas) asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine." 
Jesus answered him and sa5-s : " I spake openly to the world ; I ever 
taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whither tlie Jews always 
resort, and in secret have I said nothing. Wh}' askest thou me? 
Ask them which heard me what I have said unto them ; beliold, 
the}- know what I said."' LTpon this, one of tlie officers standing by 
strikes Jesus Avith the palm of his hand, saying : " Answerest thou 
the high priest so ? " Jesus answers him : If I have spoken evil bear 
witness of the evil ; but if well why smitest thou me ? " Now An- 
nas sent, not hud sent as translated, (Gr. Aorist w.-c'Tr^r/o) liim l)ound 
to* Caiaphas the lugli priest, representing surely the examination 
which takes place in the preceding verses in this narrative to be be- 
fore Annas. And, here, in John, though he is brought before Caia- 
phas there is no examination of him ]-epresented as taking place 
there. Tlius, we see that the questions which are put to Jesus while 
on his trial by tlie higli priest or council, and the answers which lie 
returns to them, are represented us different in thi' fcjur nurrutives, 
no two of the nurrutives agreeing A\ith(>ueh other, although all chiini- 



186 CKEATOR AND COSMOS. 

ing to set forth the original questions and answers. No two of them 
agree as to the maltreatment which Christ received. The two that 
represent the false witnesses as testifying against him do not agree 
respecting tliem or what they testify. We see that the two that, 
with an exhibition of apparent reason, are regarded as the principal 
narrators, namely Matthew and John, differ as to the place to which 
Jesus was brought when arrested, as well as to many other things. 

With respect to Peter's denial of Christ, while the latter was on 
trial ; in Matthe^v and Mark, Peter is represented as interrogated by, 
and returning answer to a female, in his two first denials of Jesus ; 
and as, in the third instance, answering the interrogations of those 
that stood by ; all the questions and answers being considerably 
different in detail. In Luke and John he is represented as, in his 
first denial, answering the interrogation of a female ; in the second, 
ace. to Luke, that of a man ; ace. to John, that of those standing 
around ; and in the third, ace. to both, that of a man ; John partic- 
ularizing him to be the servant of the high priest, whose ear Peter 
had cut off; so that the old enemies were face to face ; but whether 
their recognition of each other was distinct or not, we are not told. 

Here, ace. to John, Peter gains admittance to the house of the 
high priest, whereinto they had taken Jesus, through the good offices 
of that other disci^ole, who, (ace. to John alone) accompanied Peter 
with Jesus to the high priest's house, and who was acquainted with 
the high priest. This disciple " went in with Jesus to the palace of 
the high priest ; but Peter stood at the door without. Then went 
out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, (here 
Annas) and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter." 
This is notmentioned in any of the others, and it recalls to our mind 
the way in which, ace. to John also, Peter obtained the information 
as to Avho the traitor should be, from the disciple reclining on Jesus' 
breast at supper. No doubtthe representation means to refer to the 
same disciple, who, indeed, must have been quite an influential per- 
sonage with the great, even where one would least expect it. 



The subject continued, acc. to the Four Gospels, from His 
Arraignment before Pilate till His Delivery to be 
Crucified. 

Acc. to Matt. XXVIL 1-32 : " When the morning was come, all the 
chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to 
put him to death. And when they had bound him they led him away 
and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the Governor. 



KEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 187 

Then Judas, which had betraj^ed him, when he saw that he was 
condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of 
silver to the chief priests and elders, saying : I have sinned, in that 
I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said : What is tliat 
to us? See thou (to that). And he cast down the pieces of silver 
in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the 
chief priests toolc .he silver pieces, and said : It is not lawful for to 
put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And 
they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field to bury 
stranocers in. Wherefore that field was called the field of blood unto 
this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy, the 
prophet, saying : And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price 
of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did 
value ; and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed 
me. And Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked 
him, saying : Art thou the King of the Jews ? And Jesus said unto 
him : Thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests 
and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him : 
Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee ? And 
he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the Governor mar- 
velled greatly. Now at that feast the Governor was wont to release 
unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a 
notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore, when they were gather- 
ed together, Pilate said unto them : Whom will ye that I release unto 
you, Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ? For he knew that 
for envy they had delivered him. 

When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto 
him, saying: Have thou nothing to do with that just man; fori 
have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But 
the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitude that they 
should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The Governor answered 
and said unto them : Which of the two will ye that I release unto 
you ? They said : Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them : What shall I 
do then with Jesus, which is called Christ ? All say unto him: Let 
him be crucified. And the Governor said : Why, what evil hath he 
done ? But they cried out the more, saying: Let him be crucified. 
When. Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a 
ttHUiJ^t was made, he took water and waslied his hands before the 
multitude, saying : I am innocent of the blooil of this just person ; 
see ye (to it). 'J'hen answered all tlie people, and said : His blood 
be on us, and on our cliildren. 

Then released he Barabbas unto them : and wlien lie had scourg(Ml 
Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Tlien tlie soldiers of the 



188 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Governor took Jesus into the common hall, (the prsetorium) and 
gathered unto him the whole band, and they stripped him, and put 
on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, 
they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand : and they 
bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying : Hail, King of 
the Jews ! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on 
the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe from 
him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify 
him."' The same according to Mark, ch. XV. 1-21 : " And straightway in 
the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and 
scribes, and the whole council, and bound Jesus and carried him 
away, and delivered him to Pilate. And Pilate asked him : Art thou 
the King of the Jews? And he, answering, said unto him: Thou 
sayest it. And the chief priests accused him of many things ; but 
he answered nothing. And Pilate asked him again, saying : An- 
swerest thou nothing? Behold how many things they witness 
against thee. And Jesus yet answered nothing, so that Pilate mar- 
velled. Now at that feast he releasedunto them one prisoner, whom- 
soever they desired. And there was one named Barabbas, who lay 
bound Avith them that had made insurrection with him, who had 
committed murder in the insurrection. And the multitude crying 
aloud began to desire (him to do) as he had ever done unto them. 
But Pilate answered them, saying : Will ye that I release unto you 
the King of the Jews? For he knew that tlie chief priests had deliv- 
ered him for envy. But the chief priests moved the people that he 
should rather release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered 
and said again unto them : What will ye then that I shi.U do unto 
him whom ye call the King of the Jews? And they cried out again : 
Crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them : Why, what evil hath he 
done ? And they cried out the more exceedingly : Crucify him. And 
so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, 
and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. And 
the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium ; and they 
called together the whole band. And they clothed him with purple, 
and plaited a crown of thorns and put it about his (head), andbegan 
to salute him : Hail, King of the Jews ! And they smote him on the 
head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees 
worshipped him. And when they hud mocked him they took off the 
purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to 
crucify him." The same ace. to Luke, ch. XXIH, 1-26 : "And the 
whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate. And they 
began to accuse him, saying : We found this fellow perverting the 
nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Csesar, saying that he him- 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 189 

self is Christ, a king. And Pilate asked, him, saying : Art thou the 
King of the Jews ? And he answered him and said : Thou sayest it. 
Then said Pilate to the chief priests and tlie people : I find no fault 
in this man. And they were the more fierce, saying : He stirreth up 
the people, teaching throughout all Judeea, beginning from Galilee 
to this place. When Pilate heard of Galilee he asked whether the 
man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged to 
Herod's jurisdiction he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at 
Jerusalem at that time. And when Herod saw Jesus ])e was exceed- 
ing glad; for he was desirous to see him for a long season, because 
he had heard many things of him ; and he hoped to have seen scune 
miracle (lit. sign) done b}^ him. Then he questioned with him in 
many words, but he showed him nothing. And the chief priests and 
scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And Plerod, with his 
men of war, set him at uought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in 
a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. And the same day 
Pilate and Herod were made friends together, for before they were 
at enmity between themselves. And Pilate when he had called to- 
gether the chief priests, and the rulers and the people said unto thcra : 
Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverted the people ; 
and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault 
in this man touching those things Avhereot ye accuse him. Nor yet 
Herod, for I sent you to him, and, lo, notliing worthy of death is 
done unto him. I will, therefore, chastise him and release him. 
(For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.) And 
they cried out all at once, saying : Away with this man, and release 
unto us Barabbas, (who for a certain sedition made in the city, and 
for murder, was cast into prison.) Pilate, therefore, willing to re- 
lease Jesus, spake again to them. But they cried, saying : Crucify 
him. Crucify him. And he said unto them the third time: Wliy, what 
evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in lum : I will, 
therefore, chastise him and let him go. And they were instant with 
loud voices, requiring that he might be criicified. And the voices of 
them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate assented that it 
sliould be as they required. And he released unto them him that 
for sedition aiul murder was cast into prison, whom they desii-ed, and 
he delivered Jesus to their will." 

The same accordin// to John XVHI. 28 to eiul of elia])tor : and XIX. 
1-17 : " Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas, to the liall of judgment ; 
and it was early ; and they themselves went not into the judgment 
hall, lest they should l)e defiled, but that lliey slicjuld eat the Pass- 
over. Pilate then went out unto them, aiul said : What accusation 
bring ye against this man? They answered, and said unto him : If 



190 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto 
thee. Then said Pilate unto them : Take him, and judge him 
according to your law. The Jews, therefore, said unto him : It is 
not lawful for us to put any man to death ;* that the saying of Jesus 
might be fulfilled which he spake, signifying what death he should 
die. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called 
Jesus, and said unto him :. Art thou the King of the Jews ? Jesus 
answered him : Sayest thou this of thyself, or did another tell it thee 
of me ? Pilate answered : Am 1 a Jew ? Thine own nation, and the 
chief priests, have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? 
Jesus answered : My Kingdom is not of this world ; if my Kingdom 
were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not 
be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my kingdom not from hence. 
Pilate, therefore, said unto him : Art thou a King then ? Jesus 
answered : Tliou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, 
and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness 
unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. 
Pilate saith unto him : What is truth? And when he had said this, 
he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them : I find in 
him no fault ; but ye have a custom that I should release unto you 
one at the Passover. Will ye, therefore, that I release unto you 
the King of the Jews ? Then cried they all again, saying : Not 
this man, but Barabbas ; now Barabbas was a robber. Then 
Pilate, therefore took Jesus and scourged him. And the sol- 
diers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put 
on him a purple robe, and said : Hail, King of the Jews ! And they 
smote him with their hands. Pilate, therefoi'c, went forth again and 
saith unto them : Behold, I bring him forth to you that ye may know 
that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the 
crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them: 
Behold the man ! When the chief priests, therefore, and officers saw 
him, they cried out, saying : Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith 
unto them : Take ye him, and crucify him ; for I find no fault in 
him. The Jews answered him: We have a law, and by our law he 
ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate, 
therefore, heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again 
into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus: Whence art thou? 
But Jesus gave him no answer. Then said Pilate unto him: Speak- 
est thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have powei- to 
crucify thee, and power to release thee ? Jesus answered : Thou 
couldest have no^ power against me, except it were given thee from 
above; therefore, he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater 
sin. And from henceforth Pilate sought to release him ; but the 



* Ace. to Acts, ch. VII., the Jews did not hesitate to put Stephen to death for what 
they called blasphemy; but he appears to have been killed by a mob, for the Jerusalem 
Gemera says that the power of capital punishment was taken from the Sanhedrim 40 
years before the destruction of the temple. 



EEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 191 

Jews cried out: If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. 
Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Ceesar. When 
Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat 
down in the judgment seat, in a place that is called the Pavement, 
but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the j^reparation for the 
Passover, and about the sixth hour ; and he saith unto the Jews : 
Behold your King ! But they cried out: Away with him ; away with 
him ; crucify him. Pilate saith unto tliem : Shall I crucify your 
King ? The chief priests answered : We have no King but Caesar. 
Then delivered he him, therefore, unto them to be crucified : and 
they took Jesus, and led him away." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

All the accounts agree that in the morning they led Jesus from 
the high priest's house to that of Pilate. In Matthew alone mention 
is made of Judas, when he reflected on what he had done, bringing 
back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests, and going and 
hanging himself: and we here find the writer setting forth the exact 
words which Judas spoke to the priests and elders, and of their an- 
swer to him likewise : " I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the 
innocent blood." And they said : "• What is that to us ? See thou 
to that." And also the precise words which the chief priests used 
when consulting as to the disposition they should make of the money : 
" It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the 
price of blood." (The reader will doubtless enquire how the writer 
of this narrative came to be an eye and ear-witness of this transaction, 
and how it is the writer of the fourth Gospel especially, or the writer 
of either of the others* does not mention the disposition which Judas 
made of the money, or of himself afterwards.) So, having consulted, 
they determined to buy the potter's field with the thirty pieces of 
silver ; and this was done, as usual, ace. to this writer, in order that 
a prophecy might be fulfilled, ch. XXVII. vs. 9, 10. The reader 
will of course remembar that in MatI hew alone is mentioned the 
definite sum of thirty pieces of silver being given Judas for his ser- 
vices as traitor. 

In John alone it is mentioned tliat on their arrival there with him. 
the Jews who had condncted him tliither would not enter the jndg- 
ment hall, lest tliey should defile themselves on this ^preparation day 
for the Passover ; but that Pilate went out to them and asked what 
accusation they brought against their prisoner, to which they reply : 



* Excepting the writer of the third Gospel be understood as .also the writer of tlio lioo 
Acts, who gives an affecting rejjresentation of it in the first chapter of tlie last named Ixio',, 



192 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

'• If he were not a malefactor we avoitIcI not have delivered him up 
unto you." Their first accusation, however, is : " We found this 
fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Csesar, 
saying, that he himself is Christ, a king." Ace. to the three first 
narratives, the first question which Pilate asks Jesus is • "Art thou 
the King of the Jews ? " To which Jesus answers : " Thou sayest." 
But ace. to John, when Pilate asks him : "Art thou the King of the 
Jews?" Jesus answers him: "Sayest thou this of thyself, or did 
others tell it thee of me ? " Which is followed by Pilate's remon- 
strance to him, that he is not a Jew. and does not know anything 
about him, the prisoner ; that he has l)een delivered up to him by the 
Jews, his own nation : and asking what he had done ? To which 
Jesus replies that his kingdom is not of this world, &.c. This is fol- 
lowed bj^ Pilate again asking him : " Art thou a king, then?" To 
which Jesus answers that he was born for this purpose, that he should 
bear witness for the truth, and that all that are of the truth hear his 
voice ; implying that he is king of the faithful and true, or truth 
and perfection personified, persecuted. And Pilate hereupon asks 
him : "What is truth ? " to which question there is no answer given 
in the narrative, but which may suggest an answer to the reader's 
mind to the Avhole representation. 

All this, ace. to John, happened inside the judgment hall, although 
still the writer acquaints us with the precise Avords of the questions 
and answers of Pilate and Christ to each other. Then Pilate, (ch. 
XYIII. 38,; goes out again to the Jews Avho were assembled outside, 
and tells them that he finds no fault in him, and enquires whether 
he shall release to them Barabbas or the King of the Jews ; to which 
thev all respond: "Not this man, but Barabbas."* This repre- 
sentation in John is so far very difierent from what it is in the other 
'hi'ec Gospels. 

In Luke alone mention is made of Jesus being sent by Pilate to 
Herod, and here he is represented as being subjected to a similar or- 
deal of maltreatment, as he is before Pilate ace. to the other three 
narratives. The ordeal of maltreatment to which, ace. to ^Matthew, 
Mark and John, he is subjected before Pilate is substituted in 
Luke by the ovdeal before Herod. And does it seem strange to any 
of our readers that the ascribed writer of the Gospel of John, who, 
with Peter, is represented as accompanying Jesus on that eventful 
night and morning, does not mention anything about Herod ? " And 
the same day,'' it is said, " Pilate and Herod were made friends to- 
gether, for before they were at enmity between themselves." This 
last sentence makes the narrative appear more reasonable to a person, 
especially if inclined to give it a literal interpretation. It is, however, 

* Barabbas means " Son of the Father." I have heard that in some ancient MSS. this person- 
age is called Jesus Barabbas. This might !ead some to think that tlie discussion in the text is 
simply one on paper, the two names of one nan being made to do duty for two men, were it not 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 193 

according to universal experience tliat the rich, the i^roucl, and. the 
wicked often ingratiate themselves with each other by their joint op- 
pression of the poor, the true, the humble and the good. It has, 
we assume, been so in all ages ; and what does the narrative, after all, 
but set forth each one's experience to himself? 

In Matthew alone it is mentioned that when Pilate was set down 
on the judgment seat his wife sent to him, saying : " Have thou no- 
thing to do with this just man ; for I have suffered many things this 
day in a dream because of him." In the three narratives wliich re- 
present the ordeal of maltreatment before Pilate, — Matthew, Mark 
and John, — there is this difference also, that while in Mattliew and 
Mark it is represented as taking place after his sentence is passed 
and he is delivered over to Pilate to be crucified; in John it is repre- 
sented as taking place some time before the sentence is passed.- In 
Matthew and Mark the soldiers are they who (after he is delivered 
up to them) subject Jesus to this ordeal ; in John, however, Pilate is 
represented as superintending and partly doing it himself some time 
before he passes the sentence upon him. As ace. to John ch. XTX. 
4, 5 : " Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them : Be- 
hold, I bring him forth to you that ye may know that I find no fault 
in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and 
the purple robe. And Pilate saith to them : Behold the man." Then 
ensues a long discussion between the Jews and Pilate as to the re- 
lease or crucifixion of Jesus, which ultimately the Jews have decided 
according to their wish. As we have before remarked the ordeal of 
persecution to which Jesus was subjected on the occasion of his trial 
took place, ace. to Luke, before Herod, and not before Pilate, before 
or after sentence. In Matthew alone it is observed : " Wlien Pilate 
saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, 
he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying : I am 
innocent of the blood of this just person ; see ye to it. Then answered 
all the people, and said: " His blood be on us and on our children." 
The question, though unimportant, very naturally suggests itself: 
How had Pilate, a Roman, become acquainted with that Jewish cere- 
mony of wasliing the hands, so as to practise it on such occasions? 
(See Deuteronomy, ch. XXI. 6, 7.) These discrepancies wliicli we 
have noticed, togetlier with many others which tlie reader may still 
notice in the narratives, will be found a sufficient barrier against our 
believing in the representation as literal, hut we may still conclude 
it allegorical, and of equal importance as if literal. 
Vol. II — 13 

that Barabbns is culled a murderer. But the nearest thing to murder which is recorded as 
having been commiUed not b.v .fcsus but by one of hi.s band of disciples, is the cutting olF of 
the ear of the hinli priest's servant. See I.iilie XXIT., ;tli-:!s; John XXI., 'if). Tlie (iospel's rep- 
resentation of the cliaracler of Christ is Comi)lc.\ and nniciue, cclect and extraordinary. 



194 creator and cosmos. 

The Subject Continued : The Crucieixton and Interment of 
Jesus, ago. to the Four Gospels. 

Ace. to Matt. XXVII. 32, to the end of the chapter : " And as they 
came out they fovmd a man of Cyrene, Simon by name : him they 
compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place 
called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, they gave him vine- 
gar to drink, mingled with gall : and when he had tasted thereof 
he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his gar- 
ments ; casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by 
the prophets : They parted my garments among them, and upon my 
vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him 
there ; and set up over his head his accusation written : This is 
Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were there two thieves cru- 
cified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left. And 
they that passed by reviled him, Avagging their heads, and saying : 
Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save 
thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come dow2i from the cross. 
Likewise also the chief priests, mocking him. with the scribes and 
elders said : He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the 
King of Israel let him now come down from the cross, and we will 
believe Rim. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will 
have him ; for he said : I am the Son of God. The thieves also 
which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth. Xow 
from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the 
ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, 
saying : Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani ? That is to say : My God, 
my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? Some of them that stood 
there when they heard (that) said: This man calleth for Elias. 
And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it 
with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest 
said : Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus 
when he had cried again Avith a loud voice yielded u^J the ghost. 
And. behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to 
the bottom ; and the earth did quake and the I'ocks rent ; and the 
graves were opened ; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose ; 
and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into 
the holy city, and appeared unto many. Xow when the Centurion 
and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and 
those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying : Truly 
this was the Son of God. And many women were there beholding 
afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, 



REVIEW OP THE GOSPELS. 195 

among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James 
and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children. 

When the even was come there came a rich man of Arimathea, 
named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple. He went to 
Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the 
body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body he 
wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, 
which he had hewn out in the rock ; and he rolled a great stone to 
the door of the sepulchre, and departed. And there was Mary 
Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. 
Now the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief 
priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying : Sir, we re- 
member that this deceiver said, Avhile he was yet alive : After three 
days I will rise again ; command therefore that the sepulchre be made 
sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal 
him away, and say unto the people : He is risen from the dead ; so 
the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them : 
Ye have a watch ; go your way, make it as sure as you can. So they 
went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a 
watch." 

The same according to Mark XV. 21 to end of chapter : " And they 
compel one Simon, a Cyrenian, Avho passed by, coming out of the 
country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. And 
they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, 
the place of a skull. And they gave him to drink wine, mingled 
with myrrh ; but he received it not. And when they had crucified 
him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every 
man should take. And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. 
And the superscription of his accusation was written over : The King 
OF THE Jews. And with him they crucify two thieves, the one on 
his right hand, and the other on his left. And the Scripture was 
fulfilled, which saith: And he Avas numbered with the transgressors. 
And they that passed by, railed on him, wagging their heads, and 
saying : Ah, thou that destro3^est the temple and bnildest it in thi-ee 
days, save tliyself, and come down from the cross. Likewise also the 
chief jjriests, mocking, said among tiiemselves with the scribes : He 
saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ, the King of Israel 
descend now from tlie cross, that Ave may see and belicA^e. And they 
that were crucified with him, reviled him. And Avhen the sixth hour was 
come, there Avas darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 
And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried Avith a loud voice, saying : Eloi, 
Eloi, Lama Sabachthani ? Avhich is, being interpreted : ]\Iy God, my 
God, Avhy hast thou forsaken me ? And some of them that stood by 



196 CKEATOE- AND COSMOS. 

when they heard it, said : Behold, he calleth Elias ! And one ran 
and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave 
him to drink, saying : Let alone, let us see whether Elias will couie 
to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up 
the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top 
to the bottom. And when the Centurion, which stood over against 
him, saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said : Truly 
this man was the Son of God. There were also women looking on 
afar off ; among whom Avas Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother 
of James the Less, and of Joses; and Salome, (who also, when he 
was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him ;) and rnan}^ 
other women, which came up with him unto Jerusalem. And now, 
when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the 
day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable council- 
lor, Avhich also waited for the kingdom of God, came and went in 
boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate mar- 
velled if he were already dead : and calling the Centurion he asked 
him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of 
the Centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine 
linen, and took him down, and Avrapped him in the linen, and laid 
him in a sepulchi'e, which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a 
stone to the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary, 
the mother of Joses, beheld where he was laid." The same accord- 
ing to Luke XXIII. V. 26 to end of chapter : " And as they led him 
away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the 
country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after 
Jesus. And there followed him a great company of people, and of 
women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning 
unto them said : Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep 
for yourselves and for your children. For, behold, the days are com- 
ing in the which they shall say : Blessed are the barren and the wombs 
which never bare, and the paps Avhich never gave suck. Then shall 
they begin to sa}^ to the mountains : Fall on us; and to the hills : Cover 
us. For if they do these things in a green tree, Avhat shall be done 
in the dry ? And there were also two other, malefactors, led with 
him, to be put to death. And when they were come to the place 
which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, 
one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus : 
Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do. And they 
parted his raiment, and cast lots. And the people stood beholding. 
And the rulers also Avith them, derided him, sajdng : He saved 
others ; let him save himself if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And 
the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, 



EEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 197 

and saying : If tlaoii be the King of the Jews, save thyself. And a 
superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and 
Latin, and Hebrew : This is the King of the Jews. And one of 
the malefactors which were hanged, railed on him, saying : If thou 
be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked 
him, saying : Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same 
condemnation ? And we, indeed, justl}^ ; for we receive the due re- 
ward of our deeds ; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And lie 
said unto Jesus : Lord, remember me Avhen thou comest into thy 
kingdom. And Jesus said unto him : Verily, I say unto thee, to-day 
shalt thou be with me in Paradise. And it was the sixtli hour, and 
there was darkness over all the laud until the ninth hour. And the 
sun was darkened ; and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said : Father, into 
thy hands I commend ray spirit ; and having said this, he gave up the 
ghost. Now, when the Centurion saw what was done, he glorified 
God, saying : Certainly this was a righteous man. And all the peo- 
ple that came together to that sight, beholding the things that were 
done, smote their breasts and returned. And all his acquaintance, 
and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, be- 
holding these things. 

And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a councillor ; and 
he was a good man and a just: (the same had not consented to the 
counsel and deed of them ;) he was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, 
who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went 
unto Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, 
and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in 
stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the 
preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also Avhich 
came Avithhim from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, 
and how his body was laid. And they returned and prepared spices 
and ointmeuts,and rested the Sabbath day, according to the command- 
ment." The same ace. to John XIX. v. 16 to end of chapter. "And 
they took Jesus and led him away. And he, bearing his cross, went 
forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the 
Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Iiim, and two others with 
him, on either side, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a 
title, and put it on the cross ; and the writing was : Jesus of 
Nazaketh, the King of the Jews. This title, then, read many of 
the Jews ; for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the 
city ; and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then 
said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate : Write not the King of 
tlie Jews ; but that he said : I am the King of the Jews. Pilate an 



198 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

swered : What I have written I have written. Then the soldiers, 
when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four 
parts, to every soldier a part ; and also his coat ; now, the coat was 
without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, 
among themselves : Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it 
shall he; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith : They 
parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture did they cast lots. 
These things therefore, the soldiers did. Now, there stood by the 
cross of Jesus, liis mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of 
Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw his 
mother, and the disciple standing b}", whom he loved, he saith unto 
his mother : Woman, behold thy son ! Then saith he to the disciple : 
Behold thy mother ! And from that hour that disciple took her unto 
his own home. 

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, 
that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith: I thirst. Now there 
was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar 
and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus, 
therefore, had received the vinegar, he said : It is finished ; and he 
bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. The Jews, therefore, because 
it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the 
cross on the Sabbath, (for that Sabbath-dajMvas a high day), besought 
Pilate that the legs might be broken and that they might be taken 
awa3^ Then cometh the soldiers and brake the legs of the first and of 
the other which was crucified with him. But Avhen they came to Jesus 
and found that he was dead alread}" they brake not his legs. But 
one of the soldiers, with a spear, pierced his side, and forthwith came 
there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and 
his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true that ye might 
believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be 
fulfilled : A bone of him shall not be broken. And, again, another 
Scripture saith : They shall look on him whom they pierced. 

And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, 
but secretly, for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take 
away the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which 
at the first came to Jesus b}' night. Then took they the body of 
Jesus, and bound it in linen clothes, Avith the spices, as the manner 
of the Jews is to bury. Now, in the place where he was crucified there 
was a garden ; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never 
man yet laid. There laid they Jesus, therefore, because of the Jews' 
preparation day , for the sepulchre was nigh at hand." 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 199 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

Three of the narratives, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, agree that 
Simon, the Cyrenian, bore the cross of Jesus to Golgotha, or Calvary, 
which means the same thing, the place of a skull. In John, nothing 
is said concerning this Simon. Christ is represented as bearing his 
own cross to Golgotha. Ace. to Matthew, on their a,rrival at the 
place of execution they gave him to drink vinegar mingled with gall; 
according to Mark, wine mingled with myrrh ; and ace. to Luke, 
the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vine- 
gar. Ace. to John, Avhen he is at the point of death, knowing that 
all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be ful- 
filled, he saith : I thirst ; and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and 
put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth. And in Matthew also 
just about this point, it is again said that one of them ran and took 
a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed and gave him 
to drink. Ace. to Matthew they set up over his head on the cross, 
his superscription, written as follows : This IS Jesus the King of 
THE Jews. Acc. to Mark, the superscription is : The King of the 
Jews. Acc. to Luke, it is : This is the King of the Jeavs. And 
acc. to John, it is ; Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. 
Here then the reader beholds four different forms for the superscription 
represented to have been over the head of Jesus on the cross ; and, 
if he can determine the original or true one amongst them, we think 
he will experience no difficulty in deciphering the character, the 
name, and the number of the beast of the book of Revelation, which 
we have afterwards to speak of. The last part of the superscrip- 
tion, " The King of the Jews," is, however, the same in all, and, 
in this case, the different expressions appear to be intended varia- 
tions of the same expression in the different narratives. Acc. to 
Luke and John, the superscription was written in Hebrew, Greek, 
and Latin. In Matthew and Mark is not mentioned more than 
one lan^uaoe. In Luke alone, mention is made of a discourse 
which Jesus addresses to the women following him to Golgotha, 
commencing with: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, 
but weep for yourselves and for your children." Quite a delil)_ 
erate discourse, for one bearing a heavy cross ; but here he is repre- 
sented as relieved of his cross by the Cyrenian, though in John he is 
represented as carrying it to Golgotha himself. Acc. to Matthew, 
Avhen they crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots, that 
a certain prophecy might thereby be fulfilled. The parting of his 
garments, is mentioned in Mark and Luke, but it is not said, that 
this is done in order that any jirophecy might be fulfilled by it. 



200 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

In John there is quite a peculiar representation of the parting of 
the garments ; the writer goes on to state : " Then the soldiers when 
they crucified Jesus took his garments and made four parts, to every 
soldier a part ; and also his coat ; now the coat was without seam, 
woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among them- 
selves : Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that 
the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith : They parted my rai- 
ment among them, and upon my vesture they did cast lots." In all 
four narratives mention is made of two malefactors who were crucified 
with Jesus. And ace. to Mark the Scripture was by this fulfilled 
which saith : He was numbered with the transgressors. Ace. to 
Matthew and Mark, the thieves that were crucified with him reviled 
him among the rest. No such representation is made in John; but 
in Luke it is said : One of the malefactors which were hanged re- 
viled on him sa3-ing : If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But 
the other answering rebuked him, saying : Dost not thou fear God, 
seeing thou art in the same condemnation ; and we indeed justly, for 
we receive the due reward of our deeds ; but this man hath done 
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus : Lord remember me when 
•thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him : Yerily, I 
say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Nothing is 
said about this discourse between the two thieves, (which we may 
remark seems quite a deliberate one to be delivered by men while 
agonizing on the cross,) or of that between the repentant thief and 
Christ, in any other Gospel but Luke's. And will it not seem 
strange to some of our readers that John, the ascribed writer of the 
fourth Gospel, who, under the name of the beloved disciple, is rep- 
resented to have been present at the crucifixion, does not once men- 
tion so affecting a circumstance? 

As to the w^ords which Jesus littered when about to expire, all 
the narratives are different. Matthew has it : " Eli, Eli, Lama 
Sabachthani," that is to say: My God, my God, wh}- hast thou for- 
saken me? Ace. to Mark they are : " Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani ? " 
which is, being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken nie ? The expression in Luke is : " Father, into thy hands I 
commend my spirit ; " and having said this he jdelded up the spirit. 
Ace. to John the exj^ression is ; " It is finished," and he bowed his 
head, and gave up the spirit. Which then of these expressions of 
dying words is tlie true and original one which Christ uttered? for 
they are all different from each other ; for although Eloi, Eloi, Lama 
Saba,chthani, is the same in meaning as Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani, 
yet they are different expressions, and there could be only one of 
them orio-iual. And does it not seem strange to some of our readers 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 201 

that the writer of the fourth Gospel, who is represented as being 
present at the crucifixion as that beloved disciple, does not make 
mention of that long exclamation recorded in Matthew and Mark, 
nor of the understanding the bystanders had of his calling for 
Elias ? But the writer of this Gospel represents Christ as using an 
entirely different expression. We cannot of course conclude these 
narratives as having a literal signification ; but they are symbolical, 
quite as important as if they were literal, and their explanation we 
decide to be the business of the ministers of the Gospel, who should, 
we think, clearly discern and make a not imperceptible distinction 
between allegory and history. 

As to the lime at which the crucifixion took place the narratives 
differ. This is not distinctl}'^ stated in Matthew and Luke ; it is 
implied, however, that it was some time' in the morning. Ace. to 
Mark it took place at the tliird hour. " And it was the third hour, 
and they crucified him." Ace. to John it was about the sixth hour. 
*' And it was the prej^aration for the Passover, and about the sixth 
hour, and he (Pilate) saith unto the Jews : Behold your King." 
Upon which, in answer to the clamors of the Jews, he immediately 
delivers him to be crucified, ch. XIX. verses 14 15, 16. Here there 
appears to be a difference of three hours or nearly that, reckon it as 
we will, that is, considering Pilate to have given up Jesus as soon as 
the narrative would seem to impl}^ he did after he had showed him 
as king to the Jews. For if the writer in John reckoned from 
twelve midnight, as ace. to the Roman method of reckoning time, it 
would be six o'clock, a.m., or soon after ; and if the writer in Mark 
reckoned from six in the morning, as according to the Jews' reckon- 
ing of the natural day, it would be nine o'clock, a. m., still a differ- 
ence of three hours.* 

In three of the narratives, Matthew, Mark and Luke, mention is 
made of the darkness that overspread the land from the sixth to the 
ninth hour, during the crucifixion ; and at the ninth hour these 
three narratives agree Jesus died. Now according to the reckoning 
of the Jews' natural day, which it is supposed the writers of the 
first three narratives followed, this darkness would commence at 
twelve o'clock and end at three past morning, when Jesus should 
have died. But according to the Roman mode of reckoning it would 
have commenced at six o' clock in the morning, or shortly after 



* TheRomaus reckoned their day from midnight to niidnii;ht. The Jews had two kinds of 
hours, viz. tlie astrononucal, or equinoctial hour, tlie 24tli part of a civil day between sun.set 
and sunset, or sunrise and sunri.se; and, second, the natural hour, the twelfth part of a natu- 
ral day, or the time between sunrise and sunset; which last measure it is plain must have 
varied at different times of the year. (See Smith's B. D. ) 



202 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

when Jesus was crucified, and end at nine in the morning, when he 
had died. This darkness, and the time of the dying of Christ, is not 
mentioned in the naiTative in John. And would it seem strange to 
any of our readers that the writer of the fourth Gospel, who is 
represented to us in the common opinion as being present at the 
crucifixion, does not mention this darkness ? And does it seem as 
little strange that it is not mentioned by any of the historical writers 
of that period, or of a couple of centuries afterwards, although it is 
represented to have happened during the lifetime of the celebrated 
Roman writers Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experi- 
enced the immediate effects, or received the earliest intelligence of 
such a prodigy happening within a province of the Roman Empire 
with which Rome had constant communication ? Each of these 
philosophers in an elaborate work has recorded all the great phen- 
omena of nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses which 
his indefatigable curiosity could collect. Both of them have, how- 
evei', omitted to mention these phenomena mentioned in the Gospels 
as attending upon the crucifixion of Jesus. A distinct chapter of 
Pliny is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature and unusual 
duration ; but he contents himself with describing a singular defect 
of light which followed the murder of Julius Caesar, when during 
the greatest part of a year the sun appeared pale and without 
splendor. It does not seem that such a pale obscurity as he con- 
descends to describe could be compared with the preternatural dark- 
ness of the Passion, mentioned in the three first Gospels. 

The three first Gospels mention the rending of the veil of the 
temple (that is, the curtain which separated the holy from the holiest 
place in the Jewish temple) into two parts from the top to the bot- 
tom in connection with the dying of Christ. But Matthew has in 
addition to this that " the earth did quake and the rocks rent ; and 
the graves were opened ; and many bodies of the saints which slept 
arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went 
into the holy city and appeared unto many." Now does it seem 
strange that the rending of the veil of the temple is not mentioned 
in the fourth Gospel, the writer of which some would represent as 
being present at the crucifixion ? And that the earthquake, the 
rending of the rocks, the opening of the graves, and the arising of 
the dead bodies of the deceased (^7.i/.in;dMu-J) saints, after his resurrec- 
tion, and their going into the city, and apj^earing to many there, are 
not mentioned in any other Gospel but Matthew, nor in any other 
history of that period, not even in that of Josephus, which is a his- 
tory of the events of that time and country. 

The expression which the Centurion makes use of on beholding 



EEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 203 

the wonders which take place on the dying of Jesus is represented 
as different in the three narratives, Matthew, Mark and Luke, in 
which alone it is mentioned. Ace. to Mattliew, the Centurion, and 
they that were with him feared greatly, saying : " Truly this was the 
Son of God." Ace. to Mark, the Centurion said : " Truly this man 
was the Son of God." Ace. to Luke the Centurion glorified God, 
saying: " Certainly this was a righteous man." Can we .letej'mine 
which of these expressions, for each of them affects to be the original 
one, the Centurion used; or did he use any of them? This indeed 
surpasses our ability, but we must confess the Centurion may have 
been like some of modern times whose zeal surpasses their knowl- 
edge, and in his enthusiasm have used repeated expressions. In 
John no mention is made of this Centurion ; and does it seem likely 
that the writer of the fourth Gospel, if, as some are of the opinion, 
he were present at the crucifixion, would have omitted mention of 
such a worthy testimony to his master ? 

In the four narratives women are mentioned as being present at 
the crucifixion; in three only, Matthew; Mark and John, particular 
women are mentioned. Ace. to Matthew : " And many women were 
there, beholding afar off, Avho followed Jesus from Galilee, minister- 
ing to him ; among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother 
of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children." Ace. 
to Mark: " There were also women looking on afar off ; among whom 
was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less, and 
of Joses ; and Salome. It is yet an unsettled point among Bible in- 
terpreters whether this Salome is identical with the wife of Zebedee, 
or with Mary the wife of Cleophas, mentioned in John XIX. 25, 
though the weight of modern criticism preponderates in favor of the 
former view. Ace. to John : " Now there stood by the cross of Jesus 
liis mother and his mother's sister,* Mary the wife of Cleophas, and 
Mary Magdalene. This narrative alone goes on to say: "When 
Jesus, therefore, saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom 
he loved, he saith unto his mother : Woman, behold thy Son ! Then 
said he to the disciple : Behold thy mother ! And from that hour that 
disciple took her unto his own home." In John alone also it is relat- 
ed how that the Jews besought Pilate to have the legs of those that 
were crucified broken in order that the bodies might be removed 
from the crosses before the Sabbath came on ; how that the legs of 
the two thieves were broken by the soldiers, but those of Jesus were 
left unbroken because they found him already dead : and how they 
pierced his side and there came out water and blood; and then it is 
added that " these things were done that the Scripture should be ful- 
filled : a bone of him shall not be broken : and again another Scrip- 

* It sometimes has appeared to me strange that there should have been two sisters 
named Mary. Perhaps such a practice as to naming was common among the Jews. 



'204 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

ture saith : They shall look on him whom they pierced." If may 
seem strange to some readers that this delivering of the mother to 
the beloved disciple, and of him to her, and this act oi the breaking 
of the legs of the other two, and of the piercing of the side of Jesus, 
Avith its attendant phenomena, are not mentioned in either of the 
other three narratives of the crucifixion. But, doubtless they have 
al] come, ere they have read thus far, co tliink in a different way 
about these matters from that in whicli they may have been accus- 
tomed to tliink. 

In each of the four Gospels, there is a narrative of the burial of 
■Jesus ; in eacli of the four, Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned as 
connected with the burial, ii: tlie first three naratives as interring 
the body himself, in tlie fourth as doing it together with Nicodemus. 
According to the first three narratives, Joseph wraps the bod}^ in 
linen merely, and in this state conijigns it to the tomb. But, accord- 
ing to the fourth Gospel, Joseph and Nicodemus embalm it with 
a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weiglit, 
which Nicodemus had brought for that purpose ; Avrapping it in linen 
with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury ; they thus in- 
ter it. Now in Matthew it says : " And there was Mary Magdalene 
and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre," jiresent, 
looking on at the burial. And in Mark it says : " And Mary ]\Iag- 
delene, and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid." 
And in Luke it says: '"And the women also who came with him 
from Galilee followed after and beheld the sepulchre, and how his 
body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and oint- 
ments, and rested the Sabbath-day, according to the comman.dment." 
And in the continuation of the narratives (as you will see) we find 
these ver)^ Marys represented as first at the sepulchre on Sunday 
morning, and, according to Mark and Luke, bringing the spices 
which they had in the mean time prepared to embalm the body : (See 
Matthew XXVIII. 1; Mark XVI. 1; Lid^e XXIV. 1; John XX. 1.) And 
now how does it happen that if, as according to the first three narra- 
tives, these women were present at the interment, and beholding liow 
the body was laid ; (for, according to Luke, they beheld the sepulchre, 
and how his body was laid,) they did not observe, as according to 
John, that it was embalmed by Nicodemus and Joseph, and thus 
have known it to be unnecessar}^ for them to go to the trouble and 
expense of that work ? How does it happen that neither Nicodemus 
"nor the embalming is mentioned in the first three narratives, Avhich 
we find spoken of and asserted in John? Does there not appear a 
"contradiction expressed or implied here ? And which of these iiarra- 
'tives of the interment of Jesus are we to take for the originalone? 



VIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 205 

Tliis we are iiaable to determine. Their allegorical meaning is, how- 
eyer, important. 

In Matthew alone mention is made of the chief priests and Phari- 
sees coming together to Pilate on the next da)^ after the interment, 
that is ou the Sabbath, and saying : " Sir, we remember that that de- 
ceiver said while he Avas yet alive : After three days I will rise again : 
■^Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third 
day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto 
the peqple : He is . risen from the dead ; so the last error sliall be 
worse than the first." Pilate said to them : " Ye have a watch ; go 
y.O;ur way, make it as sure as ye can ; " so they went and made the 
sepulchre sure; sealing the stone and setting a watch." We have no 
evidence that the writer of the narrative witnessed the sealing. But 
hei'e he represents to us the precise words of the conversation be- 
tween the chief priests and Pharisees and Pilate with respect to 
Jesus, the sealing of the stone, and the setting of the watch. Now 
how did he come to be an eye and ear-witness of this? We do not 
learn that any of the disciples visited the se]3ulchre on the Sabbath- 
day : but we learn that when they did visit it on the morning of the 
first day of the Aveek they found the stone rolled away from the en- 
trance of it. Nor do we learn that any of them ever saw any indica- 
tion of the sealing of the stone. It seems if the writers of the other 
three Gospels had learned any thing about this sealing and setting of 
the watch they would be very likely to have recorded it. 

The same subject continued : the Narratives op the 
Resurrection according to the Four Gospels. 

Ace. to Matthew XXVIIT. : " In the end of the Sabbath, as it began 
to dawn toward the first day of the Aveek, came Mary Magdalene 
and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there Avas a 
great earthquake ; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, 
and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 
His countenance Avas like lightning, and his raiment Avhite as snow ; 
.and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 
And the angel ansAvered and said unto the women ; Fear not ye ; 
for I know that ye seek Jesus Avhich Avas crucified. He is not here, 
for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 
And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; 
and behold he goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall 3^e see him ; 
lo, I have told yon. And they dej)arted quickly from the sepulchre 
with fear and great joy ; and did run to bring liis disciples word. 
And as they Avent to tell his disciples, behold, Jc^sus met them say- 
ing ; All hail. And they came and held him by the feet and Avor- 



206 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

shipped him. Then said Jesus unto them : Be not afraid. Go tell 
my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. 
Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the 
city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. 
And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken 
counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying : Say ye, . 
His disciples came by night and stole him while we slept. And if 
this come to the Governor's ears we will persuade him and secure 
you. So they took the money and did as they were taught, and this 
saying is commonl}- reported among the Jews until this day. 

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain 
where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him they 
worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake 
unto them, saj'ing : All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them into the name 
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ; teaching them 
to observe all things whatever I have commanded you : and, lo, I 
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The same ac- 
cording to Mark XVI. : " And Avhen the Sabbath was past Mary 
Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome had bought 
sweet spices (Greek '/.ow.v.ara) the same as in John XIX., 40, and from 
which comes our word aromatics.) that they might come and anoint 
him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week they 
came to the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among 
themselves : Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the 
sepulchre. And when they looked they saw that the stone was 
rolled away, for it was very great ; and entering into the sepulchre 
they saw a young man sitting at the right side, clothed in a long 
wdiite garment ; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them ; 
Be not affrighted : ye seek Jesus of Xazareth which was crucified ; 
he is risen : behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, 
tell his di>ciples, and Peter, that he goeth before yoti into Galilee ; 
there shall 3-e see him as he said unto you. And they went out 
quickly, and fled from the sepulchre ; for they trembled and were 
amazed, neither said they anything to any man ; for they were 
afraid. 

Xow when Jesus was risen earlj' the first day of the "week he ap- 
peared first to Mary ^Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven 
devils. She went and told them that had been with him, as they 
mourned and Avept. And they, when the}- had heard that he was 
alive and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared 
in another form unto two of tliem as the}- walked and went into the 
country. And the}- Avent and told it unto the residue : neither be- 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 207 

lieved they them. Afterwards he appeared to the eleven as they sat to- 
gether, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, 
because they believed not them who had seen him after he was risen. 
And he said unto them : Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned. And these 
signs shall follow them that believe ; In my name shall they cast 
out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up 
serpents ; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; 
they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So then 
after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven, 
and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached 
everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word 
with signs following." The. same ace. to Luke., ch. XXIV. : " Now 
upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they (the 
women) came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices ( /.uJ/zara) which 
they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found 
the stone rolled away from the sepulchre ; and they entered in, and 
found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass as they 
were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood })y them in 
shining garments. And as they were afraid and bowed down their 
faces to the earth they said unto them : Why seek ye him that liveth 
among the dead ? He is not here, but is risen ; remember how he 
spake unto you when he Avas yet in Galilee, saying : The Son of 
Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, 
and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words and 
returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things to the eleven, 
and to all the rest. It was Mary jNIagdalene, and Joanna, and jMary 
the mother of James, and other women that were with them who 
told these things unto the ajiostles. And their words seemed to 
them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter 
and ran unto the sepulchre ; and, stooping down, he beheld the linen 
clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at 
that which was come to pass. 

And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called 
Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs. 
And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 
And it came to pass that while tliey communed and reasoned Jesus 
himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holdeu 
that they should not know him : And he said unto them : AVhat 
manner of communications are these that ye have one with another 
as ye walk and are sad? And the one of them, avIiosc name was 
Cleophas, answering, said unto him : Art thou only a stranger in 



208 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Jerusalem, and liast not known the things which are come to pass 
therein these days? And he said unto them : What things? And 
they said unto him : Cancerning Jesus of Nazareth, Avhich was a 
prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; 
and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be con- 
demned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had 
been he which should have redeemed Israel : and beside all this, to-day 
is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women 
also of our company made us astonished, who were early at the 
sepulchre : and when they found not his body the}' came saying that 
they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. 
And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and 
found it even so as the women had said ; but him thej' found not. 
Then he said unto them : O fools and slow of heart to believe all 
that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered 
these things and to enter into his glory ? And beginning at Moses 
and all the prophets he expoimded to them from all the Scriptures • 
the things concerning himself. And the}' drew nigh unto the village 
AAdiither they went; and he made as though he would have gone 
further. But they constrained him, saying : Abide with us, for it is 
towards evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry 
with them. And it came to pass as he sat at meat Avith them, he 
took bread and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their 
eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their 
sight. And they said one to another : Did not our heartburn within 
us, while he talked with ns by the way, and while he opened to us 
the Scriptures ? And they rose np the same hour returned to Jeru- 
salem, and found the eleven gathered together, and they that were 
with them, saying : The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to 
Simon. And thev told what things were done in the way, and how 
he was known of them in the breaking of bread. 

And as they thus spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, 
2,nd saith unto them : Peace be unto you. But they were terrified 
and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he 
said unto them : Why are ye troubled ? And why do thoughts 
arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I 
myself ; handle me and see ; for a spirit hath no flesh and bones, as 
ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken he showed them his 
hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy and 
wondered, he said unto them : Have ye here any meat? And the}^ 
gave him a j)iece of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb. And he took 
it and did. eat before them. And lie said unto them : These are the 
Avords whicli I spake to you, while I was yet present with you, that 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 209 

all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, 
and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me. Then opened 
he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, 
and said unto them : Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ 
to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day ; and that repent- 
ance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all 
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these 
things. And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you ; 
but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power 
from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he 
lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass as he 
blessed them he was parted from them, and was carried up into 
heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with 
great joy ; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing 
God." TJie same according to John, ch. XX. : " The first day of the 
week Cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the 
sepulchre, and seetli the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then 
she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple 
whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them : They have taken away the 
Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid 
him. Peter, therefore, went forth, and that other disciple, and came 
to the sepulchre. So they ran both together, and the other disciple 
did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping 
down, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then cometh 
Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth 
the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not 
lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by 
itself. Then went in also that other disciple who came first to the 
sepulchre, and he saw and believed; for as yet they knew not the 
Scriptures, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples 
went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at 
the sepulchre, weeping ; and as she Avept she stooped (and looked) 
into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white, sitting, the one at 
the head and the other at the foot, where the body of Jesus had lain. 
And they said unto her : Woman, why weepestthou? She said unto 
them : Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not 
where they have laid him. And when she had thus said she turned 
round and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 
Jesus saith unto her: Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest 
thou ? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him : Sir, 
(lit. Lord) if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou has laid 
him, and I will take him away. Jesus saitli unto her: Mary. She 
turned herself and saith to him: Rabboni, which is to say, Teacher. 
Vol. II.— 14 



210 CREATOE AND COSMOS. 

Jesus saith unto her : touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to 
my Father ; but go to my brethren, and say unto them : I ascend 
unto my Father and to your Father, and to my God and your God. 
Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the 
Lord, and he had spoken these things unto her. 

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, 
when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for 
fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto 
them : Peace be unto you. And when he had so said he showed 
unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad 
when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again : Peace 
be unto you ; as my Father hath sent me, ^ven so send I you. And 
when he had said this, he breathed on them and said : Receive ye 
the Holy Spirit. Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto 
them : whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained. 

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with 
them when Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore, said unto 
him : We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them : Except I 
shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my fingers into 
the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side I will not 
believe. 

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas 
with them ; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the 
midst, and said : Peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas : 
Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy 
hand and thrust it into my side ; and be not faithless, but believing. 
And Thomas answered and said unto him : My Lord, and my God. 
Jesus saith unto him : Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou 
hast believed ; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
believed. 

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his dis- 
ciples which are not written in this book. But these are written 
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and 
that believing ye might have life through his name." 

Remarhs on the Preceding. 

These four representations of the resurrection of Jesus are, as it 
is seen, considerably different from each other. All the narratives 
agree that early in the morning on the first day of the week there 
came certain women to the sepulchre, and found the stone rolled 
away from the entrance of it. Ace. to Matthew these were Mary 
Magdalene and the other Mary, doubtless Mary the mother of James 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 211 

and Joses is meant ; and ace. to Mark, Mary Magdalene and Mary 
the mother of James; and Salome. Ace. to Luke, they were Mary 
Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James,* and certain 
others with them, who, ace. to Mark and Luke, had brought sweet 
spices, apmixara^ that they might anoint the body, that is, emijahn it 
in the way in which the Jews were accustomed to do.f In John 
mention is made of only one woman, Mary Magdalene, coming to 
the sepulchre, when it was yet dark. As to these women and what 
they observed and did on their arrival at the sepulchre the narratives 
differ considerably. We have, ace. to Matthew, two women who, 
when they arrive at the sepulchre, see the stone rolled away from 
the door of it, and one bright terror-inspiring angel sitting upon the 
stone outside of the sepulchre, who announces to them that Christ 
is risen, invites them to come and see the place where he had lain, 
and tells them to inform his disciples of the resurrection, and that 
they should go before into Galilee, where they would see Jesus, as 
he the angel, announces to them. And as they turn away from the 
sepulchre and run to bring the disciples word we find them meeting 
Jesus, holding him by the feet, and worshipping him. And here- 
upon Jesus tells them to go and inform his brethren that they may 
go into Galilee and shall see him there. 

According to Mark we have three women represented, who, com- 
ing to the sepulchre and finding the stone rolled away from its en- 
trance, go into it. And they see one young man (meaning an angelic 
representation) clothed in a long white garment, sitting on the right 
side as they entered in, who tells them not to be affrighted ; informs 
them whom they seek ; invites them to behold the place where the 
body had lain ; and bids them to tell his disciples and Peter that he 
goes before them into Galilee, where they shall see him, as he had 
told them before. These turned away quickly and fled from the 
sepulchre, neither did they say anything to any one, for they were 
afraid. It does not say that these women, one of whom was Mary 
Magdalene, saw Jesus on their return from the sepulchre. But 
notice what follows in connection with the foregoing, in Mark's nar- 
rative of the resurrection : " Now, when Jesus was risen early the 
first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of 
whom he had cast seven devils. She went and told them that had 
been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had 
heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her,believed not." Ver- 
ily, it seems that Mary Magdalene must have had tliis sight of Jesus 
before or after her return with the two other women from the sepul- 



* In Matt. XIII., 55, 56, Jesus is said to have had brothers named James and Joses 
and Simon and Judas, and here also he is said to have had sisters. These Nazarene 
children, doubtless, as well as their mother Mary, kept close to Jesus during his trials 
and sufferings. 

f See Smith's B.I). Art. "Embalming." 



212 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

clire ; or would she be more likely to have had it on her return with 
them ; and to have had such a mark of respect paid her, in prefei-ence 
to the other two, seeing she had been of old a favorite with Jesus, as 
appears evident she was from the great good he had wrought for her? 
But our readers will say this will hardly do, for God is n6 respecter 
of j)ersons. Doubtless,' this is true, and we might be able to deduce 
an instructive lesson" from this story of Mary seeing Jesus. These 
symbols, however, we shall leave for the explanation of Christian 
ministers, whose calling it is ; and who will show their connection 
with the other parts of the sacred allegory. 

Accordina^ to Luke we have three women represented, who are 
mentioned by name, and others not named, who, on coming to the 
sepulchre find the stone rolled away from its door ; and having enter- 
ed into it, they find not the body of Jesus. And as they are much 
perplexed on finding that the body is not there, they see two men 
standing by them in shining garments. As they are afraid, and bow 
down their faces toAvard the earth, these angels ask them why they 
seek him that liveth among the dead? They hereupon inform them 
that he is risen, and remind them of what he has told them while he 
was yet present with them in Galilee, how that he was to suffer and 
die, and rise on the third day. The women remember his words, 
return from the sepulchre, and inform the disciples of what they had 
seen and heard ; but the latter hesitate to believe what they tell 
them. Peter at length goes to the sepulchre, and stooping down, 
so as to look in, he sees the linen clothes lying by themselves, and 
departs, wondering at what had happened , but he is not represented 
in this narrative to have entered into the sepulchre. In Luke's nar- 
rative it is not mentioned that the women saw Jesus on their return 
from the sepulchre; nor is it said that Mary Magdalene, or any other 
of the women, saw him on the morning of the resurrection. 

Ace. to John, when Mary Magdalene, who alone of the women is 
mentioned in this narrative as coming to the sepulchre on that morn- 
ing, finds the stone rolled away from the entrance of it, without be- 
ing represented to have entered into it, she runs to inform Peter and 
the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that they had taken away the 
Lord out of the sepulchre, and she knew not where they had laid 
him. Then Peter and the other disciple, on being thus informed, run 
both together toward the sepulchre ; and the other disciple outrun- 
ning Peter, arrives there first ; and, stooping down and looking in, 
he sees the linen clothes lying, yet he enters not in. Then comes 
the laggard Peter, following him, and enters boldly into the sepul- 
chre, and sees the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that had been 



EEVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 213 

about his head, not lying with the linen clothes,* but wrapped to- 
gether in a place by itself. Finally, that other disciple that came 
first to the sepulchre, musters up enough of courage to enter into it, 
and he has only to see in order to be convinced. " For as yet they 
knew not the Scriptures, that he shovdd rise again from the dead," 
although he is represented in Luke as having told them before, in 
Galilee, that he should be put to death and rise the third day. Then 
these disciples return again to their own home, without their having 
seen (ace. to the representation) either angel or spirit or the Lord 
Jesus. But, after the departure of the two disciples, Mary (Magda- 
lene) still lingers at the tomb, weeping ; and she, stooping down and 
looking into the sepulchre, sees two angels clothed in Avhite, sitting, 
the one at the head and the other at the foot of where the body of 
Jesus had lain. They say to her : Woman, why weepest thou ? She 
says to them : Because, they have taken away my Lord, and I know 
not where they have laid him. And having thus spoken, she turned 
herself back, and sees Jesus standing, and knows not that it is Jesus. 
Jesus says to her : Woman, why weepest thou ? Whom seekest 
thou ? She, taking him to be the gardener, said to him : Lord, if 
thou have borne him hence tell me where thou hast laid him, and I 
will take him away. Jesus says to her : Mary. She turns herself 
and says to him : Rabboni. Jesus says to her : Touch me not, for I 
am not yet ascended to my Father , but go and tell my brethren that 
I ascend to my Father and your Father, and (to) my God and your 
God. Mary comes and informs the disciples that she had seen the 
Lord, and what he had said to her. 

Thus we see the scene at the sepulchre is different in each of the 
narratives. In Matthew, we have represented two women who be- 
hold one bright angel sitting on the stone outside of the sepulchre, 
into which they did not enter. In Mark, we have represented three 
women, who see one young man clothed in a long white garment 
inside of the sepulchre, whereinto they had entered. In Luke, we 
have represented three or more women, who see two men in shining 
garments inside of the sepulchre, whereinto the women had entered. 
In John, we have represented one woman who, not entering into the 
sepulchre, but stooping and looking in, sees two angels in shining 
garments, one at the head and the other at the foot of where the 
body of Jesus had lain. 

Also, the visions of Jesus by the women are represented as differ- 
ent. The scene in Matthew, Avhere Jesus meets the two Marys on 
their return from the sepulchre to bring the disciples word, and where 



* The word translated " clothes " in these connections is, in the original, " bandages." 



214 CREATOR Al^D COSMOS. 

they take him by the feet and worship him, is quite different from 
this in John where he forbids Mary Magdalene touching him. It is 
merely mentioned in Mark that he appeared first to Mary Magdalene. 
And in Luke, Christ's appearing to Mary or to any of the women 
after his resurrection is not mentioned. The reader cannot fail to 
see how very different these representations of the resurrection are 
so far as we have yet reviewed them, whether they be literal or 
figurative, in whichever light his reason and conscience now allow 
him to view them. 

In Matthew alone it is mentioned that when the two women were 
returning from the sepulchre to bring the disciples word of the res- 
urrection, the soldiers that had been watching at the sepulchre came 
into the city, and told the chief priests all the things that were done : 
and that when they had taken counsel with the elders they gave large 
money to the soldiers, saying : " Say ye, — His disciples came by night 
and stole him while we slept.* And if this come to the Governor's 
ears we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the money 
and did as they taught, and this saying is commonly reported among 
the Jews until this day." Would it not seem strange to some that 
this circumstance, so important for proof of the resurrection, is not 
mentioned in any other narrative of it, especially in that of John, 
the ascribed writer of the fourth Gospel, who is represented to us 
by Bible biographers to be the same with the beloved disciple men- 
tioned in that narrative as one of those that came early to the sepul- 
chre on the resurrection morn ? But it will be noticed that the act 
of sealing the stone and setting the watch over the sepulchre is men- 
tioned only in Matthew ; and here, though it may seem no little 
strange how he could have been an eye and ear-witness of this trans- 
action, which he would have to be if his narrative set forth a literal 
representation, we find the writer setting forth the precise words in 
which the chief priests address the " watch " when they are bribing 
them. It also does not appear very likely that the priests would have 
dared to tamper with Roman soldiers and officers in the manner here 
represented ; it is inconsistent, at least, with the proverbially strict 
discipline of the Roman legions ; and to have used such language to 
them in relation to the Governor as they are represented to have done 
would be quite unsafe. True, they might have given them some 
money in the way of gift rather than reward, but as the representa- 
tion here is it certainly looks more plausible than probable, and more 
alleo'oric than either. 

In JMark it is mentioned that after he had appeared to Mary 
Magdalene on the resurrection morn he appeared in another form to 
two of them as they went into the country; and they went and told 

* 111 every refeience to the resun-eclion of Jesus in the Acts of the Apostles by Sts. Peter and 
Paul it is claimed that God raised him from the dead. See Acts II., 24 ; III., 15, 26; V.,30; XIII. 
30, 33; XVII., 31. But how the resurrection of the body of the crucified Savior was effected is 
nowhere any farther explained. 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 215 

it to the rest, but the latter were incredulous. And in Luke it is 
related that as two of the disciples were going into the country to a 
village called Emmaus on the day of the resurrection, and conversino- 
together concerning the things that had happened, that Jesus himself 
joined company and walked and conversed with them unrecognized ; 
but that he becomes known to them as he sits with them at supper ; 
whereupon he vanishes immediately out of their sight. They having 
returned to Jerusalem the same evening, find the eleven assembled 
together, and they that were with them saying ; The Lord is risen 
indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they related to them 
their experience on the way, and how Christ was recognized by them 
as they sat at supper. Does it not seem strange to some that this 
vision is not mentioned in either of the other Gospels, sa)% in Matthew 
or John, if it be true, as some Bible biographers represent, that these 
two were reckoned among the eleven disciples, and that the latter 
was one of the witnesses of the resurrection himself? It is reason- 
able to suppose that they who are upon the scene of an action should 
be likely to know more about it than those who are far distant from it, 
entire strangers to it, as the writer of this narrative, if of literal inter- 
pretation, must have been. But what plainly shows the character 
of the composition is this, that the writer, who as we see, must h ave 
been an entire stranger to the scene, considered as literal, represents 
the many turned conversations between the two disciples and Christ 
in the oratio directa, that is, he represents the precise words which 
they spoke to each other during their whole interview, both on the 
way and in the house. The question will of course suggest itself to 
any unprejudiced mind : How could he possibly do so truly if he 
were not an eye and ear witness of it ? And even so he would require 
to be a considerably good reporter. It is nothing wonderful for a 
man at any time or place, day or night, to have a vision, especially 
if his mind be susceptible of such impressions ; yea, and it is not con- 
trary to experience that several persons may be impressed with the 
same idea at the same time. But this allegorical representation will 
doubtless be rightly interpreted by true Christian ministers, who will 
exercise a sober scholarly discernment in distinguishing allegory from 
history, and in showing its application to the true Christian life. 
That vision of Christ to the two going into the country mentioned 
in Mark, may be merely an epitome of this long narrative in Luke ; 
for it is hardly circumstantial and elaborate enough to be called of 
itself an allegor}^ ; or. and which appears as likely, it may be tlie 
short account of a vision, out of which the representation in Luke 
has been elaborated. According to John, on the evening of the day 
of the resurrection, when the doors were shut where the disciples 



216 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus appeared in tlieir midst, 
and said : Peace be unto you. And having so said he showed them 
his hands and his side. They being glad at seeing him he says again: 
Peace be unto you ; as my Father hath sent me even so send I you ; 
and having thus spoken he breathed on them and says : Receive ye 
the Holy Spirit, &c. 

But it proceeds to say that Thomas, one of the twelve, was not 
Avith them when Jesus appeared, &c., and that in an eight days after 
this the disciples were again assembled, and Thomas with them, 
when Jesus appears among them, and identifies himself satisfactorily 
to Thomas. The representation of the interview in the closed room 
on the evening of the resurrection day is made out considerably dif- 
ferent in Luke. According to this narrative the two disciples, on 
their return from Emmaus, find the eleven disciples gathered to- 
gether, and as they relate to them the experience of their journey, 
Jesus appears in their midst and says : Peace be unto you, '(fee. This 
interview, then, recorded in Luke as happening on the return of the 
disciples from Emmaus on the evening of the resurrection day, must 
mean the same as that recorded in John as happening on the evening 
of the same day. There is this discrepancy, however, in those two 
narratives of this first interview with the risen Christ in the closed 
room, that while the two disciples on their return from Emmaus, ac- 
cording to Luke, found the eleven gathered together, and others with 
them, to whom they are relating the experience of their journey, 
when Jesus appears among them ; in John it is asserted that Thomas 
was not present at that interview, without whom the number of the 
eleven apostles could not have been there. Farther, while in John 
he shows them his hands and his side ; in Luke he shows them his 
hands and his feet. In John he twice utters the expression : Peace 
be unto you ; in Luke only once ; upon which, according to Luke, 
they are terrified and affrighted, supposing they had seen a spirit ; 
but according to John they are glad when they saw the Lord. In 
Luke he asks : Have ye here any meat? And they give him a piece 
of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb, which he eats before them ; 
in John mention is not made of this. In John he breathed on them, 
and said to them : Receive ye the Holy Spirit ; whosesoever sins 
ye remit they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye 
retain they are retained, nothing of which is mentioned in Luke. In 
Luke, after he has eaten the fish and the honeycomb, he expounds to 
them the Scriptures concerning himself, and opens their understand- 
ing that they may understand the Scripture fulfilled in him, nothing 
of which is mentioned in John. In John he sends his disciples even 
as his Father had sent him : in Luke this is not mentioned. In Luke 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 217 

he tells them that he will send upon them the promise of his Father, 
and to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be endued with power 
from on high; in John nothing is said of this. These are represent- 
ed to us as two different accounts of the same interview of the risen 
Jesus with his disciples in the closed room ; but we cannot discover 
much that is alike in the two representations ; indeed they are so 
dissimilar as to appear like different interviews. 

The interview of the risen Christ with the eleven, recorded in 
Mark, is different from either of the foregoing. In this He is repre- 
sented as appearing to the eleven as they sit at meat (or together), 
and upbraiding them with their incredulousness and hardness of 
heart, because they believed not them that had seen Him after He 
was risen. " And he said to them : Go ye into all the. world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be condemned. 
And these signs (often translated miracles) shall follow them that 
believe : In my name they shall cast out devils ; they shall speak 
with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink 
any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the 
sick, and they shall recover." It is seen that there is nothing in 
common in this interview with that recorded in Luke or that in John, 
only that it was with the eleven apostles as they sat together. He 
sends them into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature ; 
he says that he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he 
that believeth not shall be condemned ; he tells them that certain 
signs shall attend upon those that believe, &c., none of which things 
are recorded in the narratives in the other Gospels ; and does it 
not to some appear strangest of all that in Matthew no mention is 
made of any of these interviews with the disciples in the closed room, 
or as they sit together ; although the eleven are represented as being 
present, and Matthew is reckoned one of the eleven ? If the writer 
of the first Gospel were present at these interviews, one would nat- 
urally think he would not be at all likely to have omitted all mention 
of them in his narrative. Is not his assumed presence there, his I'e- 
puted authorship of the first Gospel, and his omission of all mention 
of them unmistakeable evidence of the unliteral character of the four 
narratives? not to speak of the historical inconsistencies among 
themselves of these narratives, which are given of the interview. 
But instead of the writer of the first Gospel taking us into the closed 
room, and showing us what took place there in the interviews with 
the risen Jesus, he takes us away from the scenes of Jtidiea and from 
the streets of Jerusalem into a mountain of Galilee, after showing us 
how that the soldiers were bribed to keep the secret of the stealing 



218 CEEATOE ANr COSMOS. 

of Christ's body by the disciples. Ace. to Matthew " the eleven 
disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain, where Jesus had 
appointed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him, 
but some doubted. And Jesus spake to them saying: All power is 
given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all 
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Spirit, &c." This interview, as represented by 
Matthew upon the mountain of Galilee, is not mentioned in either of 
the other Gospels; that which corresponds most nearly to it is in 
Mark : " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature, &c." But the scenes of these interviews are represented as 
different, the latter being a room ; the Avording, too, of the narratives 
is different, as well as most of the ideas they respectively convey ; 
and if the writer of the fourth Gospel were one of the eleven dis- 
ciples, as he is considered to have been, would he not be likely to have 
mentioned this interview on the Galilean mountain, for it is said in 
Matthew, the eleven disciples were there present with Christ when 
he gave them their commission to teach, and baptize all nations, &c., 
not a word of which is mentioned in John. 

To the second interview between the risen Jesus and his dis- 
ciples in the closed room, which is represented as taking place in eight 
days after the resurrection, and which appears to relate altogether to 
the removal of the incredulity of Thomas, as according to John, we 
have nothing corresponding in any of the other Gospels ; but evi- 
dently this second interview is so placed in accordan ce with the de- 
sign, and a filling out of the allegorical idea. Matthew leaves us with 
Christ upon the mountain of Galilee, but does not speak of his as- 
cending to heaven. In Mark he is represented as being received up 
into heaven (it does not say from where) to sit on the right hand of 
God : in Luke as being received up from Bethany ; and in the fiist 
chapter of the Acts it implies this ascent to have taken place from the 
Mount ot Olives. All these ascents, of course, are designed to pre- 
figure the elevation of humanity morally and spiritually by the doc- 
trines of the Gospel of truth. 

John's narrative now takes us into Galilee with the risen Jesus, 
but not to the same scene as that to which Matthew took us. While 
Matthew took us up on a mountain John takes us to the lake of Ti- 
berias. 

The main subject continued. 

According to John^ ch. XXT. : " After these things (that is, after 
the two interviews with the disciples in the closed room at Jerusalem 
&c.) Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tibe* 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 219 

rias ; and in this manner showed he (himself). There were together 
Simon Peter and Thomas, called Didimus, and Nathaniel, of Cana 
of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. 
Simon Peter saith unto them: I go a fishing; they say unto him: 
We also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship im- 
mediately, and that night they caught nothing. But when the 
morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore ; but the disciples 
knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them : Children, 
have ye any meat ? They answered him : No. And he said unto 
them : Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. 
They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the 
multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, saith 
unto Peter : It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it 
was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat about him (for he Avas naked), 
and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in. 
a little ship (for they were not far from the land, but as it were two 
hundred cubits) dragging the net with fishes. As soon as they were 
come to land they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon 
and bread. Jesus saith unto them : Bring of the fish which ye have 
now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of 
great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three , and for all there Avere 
so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them : Come 
and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him : who art thou ? 
knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh 
bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third 
time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was 
risen from the dead. So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon 
Peter : Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these ? He 
saith unto him : Yea, Lord , thou knowest that I love thee. He 
saith unto him: Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second 
time: Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him : 
Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him : 
Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time : Simon, son of 
Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said to him 
the third time, Lovest thou me ? And he said unto him : Lord, thou 
knowest all thino-s? thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto 
him : Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast 
3"oun<r thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest ; 
but when thou sh:ilt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and 
another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 
This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And 
when he had spoken this he saitli unto him: Follow me. Then 
Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, 



220 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

who also leaned on his breast at supper, and said : Lord, which is 
he that betrayeth thee ? Peter seeing him, saith to Jesus : Lord, 
and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith unto him : If I will that 
he tarry till I come, what is that to thee; follow thou me. Then 
went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should 
not die ; yet Jesus said not unto him, he sliall not die ; but, if I will 
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? This is the disciple 
which testifieth these things and wrote these things, and we know 
that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things 
which Jesus did, the which if the}^ should be written every one, I 
suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that 
should be written." 

Remarks on the Preceding. 

This chapter of John is altogether taken up with the account of the 
miraculous draught of fishes, which we have reviewed before under 
the head of the miracles ; and with the conversation represented to 
have accompanied and followed it between the risen Jesus and his 
disciples ; and the scene of this representation is on the Lake of Tibe- 
rias or the Sea of Galilee, and on its shore. This representation is differ- 
ent from any we find in any of the other Gospels. We have shown 
before, with respect to the miraculous draught of fishes, that it is a vis- 
ionary or allegorical representation ; and it is at once seen that the 
conversation which takes place between Christ and Peter, in which 
the beloved disciple is at the end incidentally mentioned, forms part 
of this representation. The question, Lovest tliou me ? being put 
three times to Peter, would indicate the fallibility, or liability to fall 
from the truth, of the most ardent and enthusiastic professors of it. 
And the charge. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep, repeated three 
times, would indicate the obligation which the professors of the truth 
are under to God to adhere to his cause in all circumstances, and to 
be active and vigilant in the advancement of the cause of truth and 
righteousness amid evil as well as good report. The question con- 
cerning the beloved disciple, Lord, this man, what shall he do ? 
would indicate that Christians are likely to be often too anxious as 
to what course their neighbor Christians take, to the neglect of their 
own duties. And the answers to this question, ch. XXL, v. 22, that 
the possessors and professors of God's truth should not be so anx- 
ious as to what other professors might do as to be good and do good 
themselves, to be eternally active and earnest themselves in uphold- 
ing and promoting the cause of godliness in the world. 



REVIEW OF THE GOSPELS. 221 

■ What follows from our Review of the Crospels, and from what lue gather 
concerning them from other Sources. 

1. T.hat these Gospels as they now exist in the original Greek 
have jn the main a symbolical interpretation rather than literal; that 
they have none the less a real signification, and that rightly inter- 
preted they are to be received as the gift of God.* 

2. That the four Gospels are evidently a work of design, the four 
constituting one whole, neither being sufficient in the mind of the 
author or authors without the others ; that tlie setting forth symbol- 
ically Jesus Christ as an exemplar and Saviour, a lawgiver and 
teacher to mankind, is their principal design ; that their very concep- 
tion teaches the possibility of man's attaining to great spiritual per- 
fection ; and that they teach unmistakably that Jesus Christ is the 
Son of God.f 

3. That they represent sjanbolically twelve apostles holding their 
respective positions, or representing their different types of character, 
about the central head of the Christian Kingdom, Jesus Chiist, after 
the similitude of the twelve sons of Jacob about their patriarchal 
father, or of the twelve tribes about their king in the Israelitish king- 
dom. 

4. That the idea of Christianity, as a religious system resulting from, 
and a substitute for the Mosaic system of the Jews, originated with 
the ministry of John, called the Baptist, who preached essentially 
the doctrines which Christ in the Gospels also preached, namely, 
baptism and repentance for the remission of past sins, and the neces- 
sity of living a life of active godliness for the future. Baptism was 
symbolical to teach human beings what they really were before it, 
and which they might come to understand themselves to be by the 
proper application of the symbol. We do not learn precisely what 
was the formula of words John made use of in his administration of 
baptism, but it may have been that indicated in the 19th verse of 
the last chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew ; and it is plain 
that the being baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit is meant at least to teach the eternal sonship of Christ, J whicli 



* The design of the Gospels is not to deceive, as niight be inferred from the tone of some 
Biblical critics, eminent scholars indeed, who, because they discovered the Gospels to be un- 
historical, cast them aside as having no meaning, and did not try to discover that simple 
allegoric meaning wherein their Unity consists, that hidden truth which, understood, is designed 
for application to real life. 

t See also 1st Epistle of John, ch. III., verses 1, 3. 

t Wherever in this book we speak of the Trinity wc mean that the pn^per and Xew Testa- 
ment sense of the Trinity is Jesus Christ or man. When, therefore, it is understood th.it tlie 
Trinity properly understood means man, it will not be wondered at if the worship of the Trinity 
be not actually inculcated in this book. We do not pronounce, however, when we hear one 



222 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the illustration with respect to the Creator and Cosmos in the First 
Part of our work will make more clear. And they who had sub- 
mitted themselves to baptism, repentance, and the new life of active 
godliness in the perfection of holiness and righteousness to which 
they had attained were they or he that should come after John, and 
of whom John was the forerunner. Thus Christ was not only one, 
but also many ; not only a part, but also the whole of those ad- 
mitted into the Kingdom of God in the way prescribed, and living 
therein in the manner ordained they should live ; and thus also it 
will not appear improbable that there was one prominent among 
the primitive Christians who was cruuilied, and whose name was 
Jesus, afterwards called the Christ.* See also pasre 91. 

5. That it is probable the Gospels were not systematized into the 
form in which we now have them in the Greek before the latter part 
of the Second Century, for till the last quarter of the Second Cen 
tury we do not meet in the writings of the early christian Fathers 
any verbal citation which we can suspect to be from the Gospels ; 
and no express verbal citation is found in the writings of that early 
period from the other books of the New Testament ; f and that it is 
most probable these Gospels were elaborated into their present form 
in the Greek language by allegoric or symbolic representation from 
a basis or nucleus of tradition principally written of the primitive 
Christians. $ 



praying to the Deity under the names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that such an one conceives 
an object of worship in the form of man or in any other form. This is best known to the 
person's self; but to worship an object in any form is dishonoring and displeasing to the Deity. 

* Modern research has brought to light the following curious relic: 

Sentence rendered by Pontius Pilate, acting governor of Lower Galilee, stating that Jesus of Naza- 
reth shall die on the cross. — In the year seventeen of the emperor, Tiberius Caesar, and the 24th 
day of March, in the city of the holy Jerusalem, Annas and Caiaphas being high priests, sacri- 
flcators of the people of God; Pontius Pilate, governor of Lower Galilee, sitting in the presi- 
dential chair of the Praetory, condemns Jesus of Nazareth to die on the cross between two 
thieves, the great and notorious evidence of the people saying: 1. Jesus is a seducer. 2. He is 
seditious. 3. He is an enemy to the law. 4. He calls himself falsely the son of God. 5. He 
calls himself falsely the King of Israel. 6. He entered the Temple followed by a multitude 
bearing palm bi-anches in their hands. Orders the first centurion, Quilius Cornelius, to lead him 
to the place of execution. Forbids any person whomsoever, either poor or rich, to oppose the 
death of Jesus. The witnesses who signed the condemnation of Jesus are: 1. Daniel, Kabboni, 
a Pharisee. 2. Joannes Rorobable. 3. Kaphael, Rabboni. 4. Capet, a citizen. Jesus shall go 
out of the city of Jerusalem by the gate Struennus. 

The above sentence was engraved on a copper plate on one side of which was written: "A 
similar plate is sent to each tribe." It is said the original was in Hebrew, and that the French 
translation was made by the Commissioners of Arts of the French armies, who, in 1850, dis- 
covered Iho plate in an antique vase of white marble, while excavating in the ancient city of 
Aquilla in the kingdom of Naples. 

t See, for example, Smith's Bible Dictionary, unabridged, Art. New Testament, History of. 
\ It is noticeable that Bishop Butler in his " Analogy," as well as Mr. Locke, places reason 
above revelation, the judge of it as of all other things. In speaking of the objections made to 
the evidences of Christianity (Analogy, Part II., ch. 3) he says: " I express myself with caution 
lest I should be mistaken to vilify reason, whicli is indeed the only faculty we have where- 
with to judge concerning anything, even revelation itself; or be misunderstood to assert that a 
supposed revelation cannot be proved false from internal characters. For it may contain clear 
immoralities or contradictions : and either of these would prove it false." We may remark that 
because a composition is proved to be unliteral it is not thus shown to be not allegorical ; 



REVIEW OF THE "ACTS." 223 

6. That, notwithstanding an examination of the present Gospels 
by comparison with each otl.or according to the ordinary rules of 
language might by some be thought not to warrant the couclusioii 
in whole or in part, it is probable not only that iu connectiou with 
the founding of Christianity a man named Jesus was crucificed, but 
that, whether or not born at Bethlehem, he during his life regarded 
Nazareth as his residence ; that in due time he was baptized l)y 
John ; that he claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, and after John's 
death was regarded as a leader among the baptists ; that this gained 
for him the enmity of the ruling powers, (for Josephus says it was 
because of the great influence which John had acquired over the 
people, and through apprehension lest he might estrange them from 
himself that Herod had him imprisoned ; and, of course, the claim 
of Jesus to the Messiahship would be construed as treason against 
Caesar;) and, according to the commonly received chronology, we 
find Jesus to correspond more exactly with the time of Daniel IX., 
24-27, and with the other prophecies — some of them vague — 
which are claimed as relating to the Messiah, than any other char- 
acter in history. Illustrations drawn from the state of an earthly 
monarch in the education of a Christian lepublic ai'e inappropriate, 
for the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, and the characters 
of Christ plainly teach the universal brotherhood of man. 

7. That the ideal Christ of the Gospels is meant to prefigure the 
perfection of character attainable by man from the practice of self- 
denial and active godliness inculcated in the Gospels ; and perfection 
in all its bearings, ramifications, and aspects, so far as possil)le to 
attain or manifest in the character of human beings, in connection 
with firm faith iu the goodness of God and his acceptance in onr 
behalf of the self-sacrifice of Jesus, should principally be held forth 
as a surety for salvation. 

8. That the Gospels though mainly and as to their main subject 
allegorical have nevertheless a large amount that is literal ; that 
whether of literal or figurative interpretation their language has a 
real meaning ; and that with respect to the Code of Moral Precepts 
which they enunciate for the government of mankind, and for purity 
of doctrine when rightly interpreted, the gospel system is superior 
to any other religious system of the past or of the present of which 
we have knowledge. 

A Short Review of the Book Of the Acts of the Apostles. 

The book called the Acts of the Apostles is ascribed to Luke, the 

for the parts of it wliich contradict each other and prove it unliteral may at the same time be, 
as in the case of the Gospels and the Acts they are, different phases of the same allegoric rep- 
resentation, and having at the same time a real meaning. 



224 CREATOR AKD COSMOS. 

traditional writer of the third Gospel. The identity of the writer 
of both books would appear from their great similarity in style and 
idiom, and the usage in both of particular words and compound 
forms. But it may appear somewhat surprising that notices of the 
author are so entirely wanting, not only in the book itself, but also 
in the Epistles of Paul, whom he is represented by early Christian 
writers to have accompanied for some time in his missionary travels. 
However this may be, it is pretty certain that the author was not a 
present witness of most of what is related in the book of the Acts, 
if we consider it as a real history. The production of the work 
in its present form, it is probable, belongs to the same date as that 
of the canon of the Gospels. 

The book of the Acts first appears to be directly quoted from in 
the Epistle of the Churches of Lyons and Vienna to those of Asia 
and Phrygia, 177 A. D., or in the last quarter of the second century ; 
then it is repeatedly and expressly quoted from by Irenaeus, Clement of 
Alexandria, Tertidlian, and so downwards. It was rejected by the 
Marcionites of the third century and the Manichaeans of century 
fourth, as contradicting some of their pecuMar doctrines. 

The text of the Acts is found to be very full of various readings. 
To this it is thought by critical examiners several causes may have 
contributed. In the many backward references to Gospel narratives, 
and the many anticipations of statements and expressions occurring 
in the Epistles, temptations abounded for correctors in after times 
to try their hand at assimilating, and, as they thought, reconciling 
the various accounts. In places where ecclesiastical order or usage 
was in question, insertions or omissions were made to suit the habits 
and views of the Church in after ages. Where the narrative related 
facts, any act or word apparently unworthy of the apostolic agent 
was modified for the sake of decorum. "Where Paul repeats to 
different audiences, or the writer himself narrates the details of his 
marvellous conversion, the one passage was pieced from the other 
so as to produce verbal accordance. There appear in this book an 
unusual number of these interpolations of considerable length which 
are found in the Codex Beza (D) and its cognates. Borneraan, a 
critic of soiue eminence, believes that the text of the Acts originally 
contained them all, and has been abbreviated b}"" correctors ; and he 
has published an edition of it in which they are inserted in full. But 
whether or not the)^ pertained to the original the greater part of them 
are unmeaning and absurd.* 

If we examine the first chapter of the Acts we shall find that it 



See, also, Hist, of Book of Acts in birith't, 3.1.'. 



REVIEW OF THE " ACTS." 225 

gives us information which we do not find in any other place. Verses 
1-12 represent to us the Ascension of Christ from Mount Olivet, a 
Sabbath-day's journey from Jerusalem, which was in measure about 
2000 paces, or about six-eighths of a mile ; while in the fiftieth verse 
of the last chapter of the Gospel ace. to Luke, the place fi-om Avhich 
he ascended is said to be Bethany, which, ace. to John XI. 18, was 
fifteen furlongs, nearly two miles, from Jerusalem. The writer, also, 
though he was not a present witness of Avhat he here relates * 
represents to us the precise words in which the disciples ask Jesus : 
" Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" 
And of his answer to them : " It is not for you to know the times or 
the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, &c." — 
Verses 6-8. And the precise words in which the two angels address 
the assembled disciples as they stand and gaze upon the ascending 
Jesus, verses 10, 11. And the precise words of the speech of Peter 
concerning the fall of Judas and the choosing of an apostle in his 
place, verses 15-23. And the precise woixls of their prayer to the 
Lord before casting the lots to choose the new apostle, verses 24-26. 
And in verse 18 it informs us that Judas purchased a field with the 
reward of his iniquity, viz., with the thirty pieces of silver which he 
obtained for his services as traitor, and uhat falling headlong he 
burst asunder in the midst, and his bowels gushed out : all of which 
is differentiated by the account in Matthew of his giving the thirty 
pieces of silver again to the priests, wherewith they buy the potter's 
field, and his going and hanging himself, Matthew XX VI I. 8-1 0.f 
Besides, how would all these speeches in all their turns have been 
likely to have been preserved to us verbatim, since the author or 
compiler could have come by them only by tradition ? From the 
apparent historical inconsistencies and the inherent improbability of 
their having a literal interpretation Ave could not decide this chapter 
as historical, but Avould conclude it allegorical, and designed to 
supplement the Gospels, especially with reference to the idea of 
Christ. 

Ch. II. In chapter II we have also represented to us what we 
do not find in any other j^lace : Verses 1-14 represent the descent 
of the Holy Spirit, and the speaking of the apostles in different 

* The reader may renieraber that we are examining tliis. as we did the Gospel, in tlie liglit 
of modern opinion, tliat is, supposinji for the purpose of illustration this to be real history, and 
seeing how it will stand on that ground, 

t It might be jiossiblc to effect a i)artial reconciliation between these two accounts, for a 
moment considered historical, by supjjosing that Judas may have tacitly deputed the priests to 
buy the field on his account, and, that having hung himself with a too slender rope he fell 
alive from his self-constructed gallows; but that his death was no less ellcctually accomplished 
from the bursting of liis bowels by the fall. 

Vol. II.— 15 



226 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

languages which they had never learned, and the observers mocking 
and saying : " These men are full of new wine, &c.," to which in 
reply Peter makes a long speech, verses 14-37, which is reproduced 
to us verbatim. Also, we are given the precise words in which the 
multitude, greatly affected by what Peter had said, say to the 
apostles : " Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " And the precise 
words in which Peter answers them : " Repent, and be baptized, 
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, &c.,'' verses 37-41. 
As before remarked it is difficult to understand how we could have 
all these speeches preserved to us verbatim, especially when the 
author to whom the book is ascribed could have derived them at the 
best only by tradition, written or oral : and as for the miraculous 
speaking with tongues on the day of Pentecost the writer could 
have learned of that also only by tradition ; and we have determined 
before that to prove the fact of a miracle having been wrought, it 
requires the evidence of two or more eye and ear-witnesses of it who 
will not contradict each other in their relation of it. It may be 
remarked, however, that the Christian Church, that is, the priest- 
hood of it, has always claimed the power of working certain kinds 
of miracles ; of producing vision and prophecy; of expelling demons 
of every kind and variety ; of healing the sick ; and, in some cases, 
of raising the dead : (although of all the accounts we have in the 
writings of the early Chiistian Fathers of the raising of the dead we 
never meet with an author who witnessed himself what he relates.) 
The divine inspiration, whether it was conveyed in the form of a 
waking or sleeping vision, is described by the Fathers as a favor very 
liberally bestowed on all ranks of the faithful. When their devout 
minds were sufficiently prepared by a course of prayer, of fasting, 
and of vigils to receive the extraordinary impulse, they were trans- 
ported out of their senses, and delivered in ecstasy what was in- 
spired, being mere organs of the Holy Spirit, just as a pipe or flute 
is of him who blows into it. The design of the visions seems for 
the most part to have been either to disclose the future history or 
to guide the present administration of the Church. The gift of 
tongues was also one of the powers which the Christian Church 
claimed to possess ; although it is stated or intimated in Trenaeus, 
one of the earliest of the Christian Fathers, that while the knowledge 
of foreign languages was frequently communicated to his contem- 
poraries he was himself left to struggle with the difficulties of a 
barbarous dialect, while preaching the gospel to the inhabitants of 
Gaul. It is observed by Dr. Middleton in his " Free Inquiry " con- 
cerning the miracles, that as the pretension to the gift of tongues 
was of all others the most difficult to support by art, it was the 



EEVIBW OF THE " ACTS." 227 

soonest given up. But while the Greek and Roman Churches yet, 
we believe, claim the power of performing certain kinds of miracles, 
most Protestant divines now without reluctance confine miracles to 
the time of the apostles. This representation of the descent of the 
Spirit and of the speaking with tongues might probably have arisen 
from a vision which some of those prominent among the early 
Christians had, whether sleeping or awake ; and being in ecstasies 
over it they would be likely to call forth the jeers and ridicule of 
their neighbor Jews ; upon which one of their number, as Peter, 
would have to say something in self-defence and in confirmation of 
some or one of them having had the vision of the Spirit's descent 
upon them, and of their speaking in different languages with which 
they were unacquainted. This then would be a foundation for a 
representation such as we have in the second chapter of the Acts, in 
which it is seen the design is to have it supplementary to and con- 
firmatory of the Grospels. It is plain, however, that in the represen- 
tation of the speech of Peter, as well as in all such as we shall meet 
with in this book, the design is to set forth to our view a particular 
man, Jesus Christ, as a man however, who lived and died, and was 
raised from the dead by the power of God, although a consideration 
of the four gospels compels us to conclude the New Testament 
representation of Christ to be on the whole rather of symbolical than 
of literal signification, and that consequently the things narrated 
as to his life, death, resurrection, &c., do bear a corresponding and 
yet a real interpretation. 

The two most prominent characters that are represented and 
that repi-esent in this part of the Acts of the Apostles are Peter 
and John. These two are reckoned among the tioelve apostles, 
and these last being typically or symbolically rather than literally 
represented, the things said or related concerning them do bear a 
corresponding and yet a real interpretation. This explanation holds 
good as to the twelve apostles, but we should not allow ourselves to 
doubt but that there were many Peters, and Johns, Bartholomews, 
Matthews &c., among the Primitive Christians who for probity and 
active godliness might well be called apostles.* 

The representations then in the second chapter of the Acts are 
designed to be supplementary to and confirmatory of the Gospel 
idea of Christ. The representation, however, of a human being 
attempting to converse with another in a language he has never 
learned and does not at all undei-stand, may appear to expcrienco 
unreasonable, and yet be accepted by faith. 

Ch. III. Chapter third also gives us information which we do 
not find mentioned in any other place, or confirmed by any other 

* That there existed for a short time at the origination of Christianity a band of twelve men 
called disciples or apostles, who received instruction from and acknowledged as their Superior 
Uin. who was afterwards crucifled, la not improbable. See page -iil, Nos. 3 and 4. 



228 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

evidence. Verses 1-12 represent to us the healing of a cripple by Peter 
and John. And verses 4—7 represent verbatim, the words which Peter 
addresses to him. The thought may perhaps strike tlie reader why 
it was not some other or others of the apostles than Peter and John, 
say Matthew, or Simon Zelotes, or Andrew, or Thaddeus, or Bar- 
tholomew, or some other of them, than these particular two that 
were represented in the story as healing this man ? The thought 
may also suggest what appears the answer, that the representation 
is symbolical, and that the immortal duo, Peter and John, are sym- 
bolic characters, the things.related concerning whom have yet a real 
signification. The good and true Christian ministers and others 
will, doubtless, interest themselves in getting out the true meaning 
of the allegory in all its phases, and in truly applying it. In the 
latter part of this chapter, verses 12-26, we have the discourse given 
verbatim, which Peter is represented to deliver on this occasion. This, 
discourse, is designed to be supplementary to, and confirmatory of 
the Gospel representations, and to be helpful in the upbuilding 
of the Christian system, and the advancement of the Christian 
Church. 

Ch. IV. Chapter four is simply the narrative continued, which 
was begun in the preceding chapter. Verses 1-7 represent the arrest 
of Peter and John, and their confinement by the authorities of the 
temple for disseminating the new doctrines. Verse 7 represents the 
precise words which the priests address to Peter and John on their 
arraignment before them ; and 8-13, the reply of Peter, verbatim ; 
and what may appear more remarkable still to those who have been 
accustomed to believe in the literality of all these representations, is 
this, that in verses 15-18 we have represented the precise words 
which the priests and the other members of the council used in con- 
ference with each other. In verses 19-21 are represented the precise 
words of Peter and John in answer to their injunctions ; and in 
verses 24-31 is represented, verbatim, the prayer which they, with 
their companions, address to God, on having been forbidden by the 
council to promulgate their doctrines. Verse 31 informs us of the 
place having been shaken where they were assembled praying, 
which shaking may have been present to some of the early disci- 
ples, as is often experienced in a dream : or it may be a phase of the 
allegory. Verses 32 to the end, inform us of the filial relationship 
which existed among the hopeful disciples ; and represent to us the 
beginning of the Christian commonwealth, when the disciples sold 
their possessions and goods, and came and deposited the price of them 
in the hands of the apostles ; which, indeed, would appear to have 
put great power into the apostles' hands, a power and privilege which 



EEVIEW OF THE "ACTS." 229 

has, to a considerable extent, been since claimed and in many cases 
barbarously exercised by the priests or modern apostles of the nomi- 
nal Christian Church. There may have been some circumstances in 
connection with the early Christians at Jerusalem, which gave rise 
to part of the representation in this chapter ; say, for example, some 
of them ma}^ have been so enthusiastic for the new faitli, and have 
had such a good opinion of the integrity of their elders, as to make 
their goods common to all the professors, and to make the elders 
their trustees ; but the main part of the narrative is allegorical, the 
design of it being still to be confirmatory of and supplementary to 
the narratives of the Gospels, and to assist in introducing a state of 
things which would tend to put great power into the hands of the 
Christian hierarchy. 

Ch. V. The statements of this chapter also we do not find re- 
corded in any other place or confirmed by any other authority. 
Verses 1—12 rejjresent to us a scene which, having witnessed, we 
should certainly have to confess to have been most miraculous and 
tragical. Here we have Ananias, and Sapphira, his wife, rejiresented 
to have fallen dead instantly because of their keeping back part of 
the price of their property, and not surrendering it all to the apos- 
tles ; and their death happens in such a way that the impartial reader 
is at once disposed to conclude that if the representation be a literal 
one, Peter, by his ghostly power, must have killed them both. In 
verses 3-5 we have set forth the precise words which Peter addresses 
to Ananias. And in verses 8-10 we have the conversation verbatim 
which ensued between Peter and Sapphira, and resulted in the death 
of the latter. This representation is an allegory, and one of which 
the design, if it be not independent prophecy, might be thought to 
have been not the noblest; at the same time that it teaches, to the 
extent of one's fears, the danger of lying. Peter in the representa- 
tion may stand for the priesthood of the Catholic Christian Church. 
The Church of Rome has always delighted to claim Peter for its 
founder ; we will give it Peter to represent its hierarchy. The fore- 
knowledge Peter is represented to have had of their keeping back 
part of the price may truly have predicated the power which the 
Christian hierarchy has wielded for many centuries over mankind in 
making men believe that they knew even the secret thoughts of their 
hearts, and enslaving not only their bodies, but their minds also. 
And the off-handed way in which he kills this pair of human beings 
for not giving up to him the whole price of their possessions (the 
representation having it that it was for their lying against the Hol}^ 
Spirit, which every one can see would not be safe) would have predi- 
cated the omnipotence the priesthood of this Christian system would 



230 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

assume, not only over the minds and bodies, but over the properties 
and possessions of their votaries. That such is the design of the 
piece there appears not the slightest doubt ; for, behold, it goes on 
to say, verses 12-17 : " And by the hands of the Apostles -were many 
signs and wonders wrought among the people ; and they were all 
with one accord in Solomon's porch." But mark what follows : 
" And of the rest durst no man join himself to them,'" that is, to the 
apostles, " but the people magnified them, &c." Truly here the 
priests perform great things, and are greatly exalted as symbolised 
by the apostles, and especially by Peter. Verses 17-29 represent to 
us the arrest and imprisonment of the apostles by the high priests 
and the Sadducees ; and how the angel of the Lord delivers them 
out of the prison by night : and how they are found in the temple 
teaching the people in the morning ; although it may not appear 
very probable that people should frequent the temple so early in the 
morning to be taught, or that men should be there teaching the people 
in the morning before the authorities of the temple were on the alert. 
Verse 20 represents verbatim the words of the delivering angel to the 
apostles ; verse 23, the precise words spoken by the officers to the 
council on their return from the prison and not finding the apostolio 
prisoners there ; verse 25, the precise words of the one who informs 
the council that they are standing in the temple teaching the people. 
Verse 28 represents the precise words of the high priest's address to 
the apostles on their being brought before him again ; and verses 
29-33, verhatim, the speech of Peter in response to him. Verses 
34-40 represent verbatim^ the oration of the counsellor Gamaliel in 
reference to the prisoners. Now if the honest enquirer will only ask 
himself how the writer of the book of Acts, an entire stranger to the 
scene here represented (supposing it for a moment to be literjilly 
understood,) could have known to give the precise words in the case 
of each speaker in the drama, he will doubtless conclude it to have 
been impossible for liim to have done so. And if he considers that 
this information has been handed down to the writer of the book of 
Acts traditionally by some one who was present on the scene, still 
he cannot fail to see that there are some speeches here represented 
in the direct oration which no Christian witness present on the scene 
could be supposed to be able to learn, were he ever so desirous of 
doing so ; as for instance what the officers say to the council on in- 
forming them that the prisoners had escaped ; — and in some cases it 
is seen we have represented in the direct oration the speeches of the 
priests and counsellors in secret conclave ; — such an enquirer will 
certainly conclude that the representation in the main cannot be of 
literal signification, although there may have been some circumstan- 



REVIEW OF THE " ACTS." 231 

ces connected with the primitive Christians which might have given 
rise to parts of the representation of this chapter, and out of which 
the whole might have been elaborated allegorically. The idea of an 
angel delivering men out of prison, except it be an human angel, who 
could do it, is to experience unknown but may l)e an object of 
faith. But if the design of the representation in the first part of 
the chapter is to nmgnify the Christian priesthood, the design of 
that of the latter part of it is to infuse into the Christians a strong 
faith in their doctrines ; to inculcate a firm adherence to them in all 
circumstances and a steady persistence in their promulgation through 
evil and through good report. Both the former and the latter repre- 
sentations of this chapter have had their design eminently accom- 
plished in the long-continued triumph of the Christian hierarchy, 
and in the steady advance of Christianity over all the opposition it 
encountered. 

Ch. VI. In this chapter we have represented the advance of the 
Christian hierarchy in the apostles having appointed deacons or 
under-priests, who should have it as their chief business to care for 
the poor, and dispense to them food, while they give themselves 
wholly to prayer and spiritual things. Their power has been shown 
forth in the preceding chapter, their increase in effectual strength is 
shown in this ; and like all great institutions we find this founded 
and cemented in blood, the blood of a martyred deacon named 
Stephen. The more satellites or attendants the great spiritual 
magnates, the heads of the Church, should have, the greater would 
become the effectual strength of their institution ; and history shows 
that no institution, sacred or civil, ever wielded a more entire and 
effectual power than did the Christian hierarchy, especially as 
established at Constantinople and Rome, in the former place for 
nearly a dozen of centuries, and yet continued in the Greek Church, 
in the latter and throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, for sixteen 
or seventeen centuries. But doubtless the primitive Christians at 
Jerusalem may have found themselves in such circumstances as to 
necessitate their appointing a number of men to attend to the wants 
of the indigent, aside from those Avho were accounted elders or 
ministers of the doctrines and ordinances ; and this may have given 
rise to the representation we are considering, and to the order of 
deacons in the Christian hierarcy. In verses 2-5, are represented to 
us the very words which the apostles address to the people concern- 
ing the choosing of the deacons, and in verses 11, 13, 14, we are 
given verbatim what the false witnesses said against Stephen. 

Ch. VII. In this chapter we have the story of Stephen, con- 
tinued. Verse 1 represents the precise terms of the high priest's 



232 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

question to Stephen ; and from verses 2-54 we have represented 
verbatim the long speech of Stephen, when on his trial. In verse 56 
the precise words of his exclamation of seeing the Son of Man stand- 
ing at the right hand of God ; and in verse 60 those of his prayer to 
God, to lay not the sin of his death to the charge of his persecutors : 
all of which might teach the doctrine of entire self-denial for the 
cause of truth, even to death, and that without bearing any ill-will 
to one's persecutors. The early Christians in Judaea doubtless 
experienced persecution, even to death in some cases, for their 
principles, out of which is given to us the representation of Stephen : 
but the facility and fulness with which these speeches, especially 
that of Stephen, is given in the oratio directa would naturally incline 
one to suspect that much of this representation had been elaborated 
from the understanding of the author of this book, who was not 
himself a present witness of what he relates, considered as real : and 
that it has much the same design as that of the previous representa- 
tions, that of supplementing and confirming the Gospel representa- 
tions, and of teaching lessons of importance to the growing Christian 
Church. In one of the last verses of this chapter we are first intro- 
duced to young Saul, the persecutor. 

Ch. Vni. This chapter represents to us the progress of the 
Christian Gospel through the instrumentality of Philip the deacon, 
of Peter and John ; and of the growing power of the priesthood over 
the masses of the people, which last, as in the previous eases with 
respect to the priesthood, might be rather symbolical than literal. 
Verse 1 informs us that on account of the persecution which raged 
at Jerusalem, principally by the instrumentality of Saul, who is 
represented as displaying no modesty, but great cruelty in his pro- 
ceedings against the infant Church, all the believers were scattered 
abroad throughout Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. The 
thought will suggest itself to the candid enquirer : What would keep 
the twelve shepherds (here for a moment considering the narratives 
as literal) at Jerusalem in the midst of persecution, while all their 
flock had departed and were scattered abroad? One should suppose 
they must have been fond of being persecuted. Or would they rather 
have been in some safe place enjoying the abundance of goods which 
their credulous and good-natured followers had " laid at their feet," 
while the poor enthusiasts themselves were scattered abroad in indi- 
gence ? Such a supposition we think would not be warranted with 
respect to the twelve Apostles, still there doubtless were prominent 
elders among the believers at Jerusalem to whom the latter entrusted 
the care of their goods, and who thought it their duty to remain in 
Jerusalem to guard their trust, even at the risk of their lives, while 



REVIEW OF THE "ACTS." 233 

the mass of the believers found it necessary to consult their personal 
safety by flight. Verses 6-9 tell us of the prodigies wrought by 
the deacon Philip, which corresponds so closely to some of the cases 
of the miracles of the Gospels, which we have already reviewed, that 
they will need no explanation here : " For unclean spirits, crying 
with a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them ; 
and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed." 
Verses 9-25 represent to us Simon, the sorcerer: v. 13, he believes, 
and is baptized, wondering at the miracles (lit., powers) and signs 
wrought by Philip. Verses 15-18 show us how the Holy Spirit is 
given to the converts through the imposition of the hands of Peter 
and John ; converts who, although they had been baptized, had not 
yet experienced the Holy Spirit and its effects ; and this event, with 
the scene which takes place between Peter and Simon, the sorcerer, 
on the latter offering the Apostles money for the power of imparting 
the Holy Spirit to whom he would, surely represents to us the power 
which would, in after times, be assumed and monopolized by the 
Catholic hierarchy, of conferring the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and 
performing miracles. If these converts, mentioned as not receiving 
the Holy Spirit till the laying on of the hands of Peter, had only 
known that they had in themselves, even individually, the principle 
of the Holy Spirit, which only needs to be developed in order for its 
influence to be experienced, they might not so anxiously have desired 
the exercise on their behalf of the ghostly powers of Peter. This 
principle of holiness every one has the power and privilege of de- 
veloping for themselves by their living a life of entire godliness, 
which is the best result as to possessing the Holy Spirit they can 
attain to. Christians, moreover, always experience excellent results 
from the practice of assembling themselves together for the worship 
and praise of God, for the enlightenment and encouragement of each 
other, and by their mutual deliberation, counsel and support, the 
better to advance the cause of truth and holiness in the world. As 
we mentioned before, in the case of some of the miraculous represen- 
tations of the Gospels, each holy, good, and God-fearing man has 
the power of communicating to others his own good influence, and 
thus of making them participate, to some degree, in his feelings, 
thoughts, and aspirations. And, doubtless, there were many such 
good men among the primitive Christians, men who understood what 
they were themselves and their -powers, and what they could do. 
But in this representation is evidently symbolised the powers which 
the priesthood would assume to possess and exercise as distinct from 
the laity in the Christian system. Verses 26-40 represent to us the 
interview between Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch which resulted 



234 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

iu the baptism of the latter, an experience which, were it that of 
any one now-a-days, we should be disposed to call romantic. Verses 
19-25 represent the precise words which Simon the sorcerer ad- 
dressed to the apostles, and those which in reply Peter spoke to him. 
In verses 26-30 are represented the exact words which the angel 
spoke to Philip : and in verses 30-39 those of the conversation 
between Philip and the Eunuch. When we enquire how all these 
conversations, given us in tlie oratio direeta by a writer who was not 
himself a present witness of them, are likely to be of literal import, 
tlie thought naturall}' occurs to us that though there may have been 
some circumstances peculiar to the early Christians which gave rise 
to the narratives in this chapter, and which the writer of the book 
of Acts might have received traditionally, yet still that the repres- 
entations of this chapter, taken as a whole, are allegorical, and 
designed to magnify the office of the priesthood of the Christian 
system. 

Ch. IX. In this chapter we have represented the miraculous con- 
version of Saul of Tarsus to the Christian faith, and the healing 
of the paralytic, and the raising of a dead woman to life by Peter. 
We may notice to start with, that we have no other evidence of what 
is recorded in this chapter but this record itself, and that the writer 
of the book did not witness himself what he here relates. We have 
determined before on grounds which we think all will call reasonable 
that to prove the fact of a miracle, in the common acceptation of that 
term, having been wrought, it would require two or more present 
witnesses of it who would relate the circumstances of the miracle in. 
much the same language, or in language in which they would not 
contradict each other. But the fact of us having no present witness 
of what is recorded in this chapter, unless it be the two accounts 
which Saul under the name of Paul, gives us of himself before the 
assembled Jews in Jerusalem, ch. XXII. ; and before Herod Agrippa, 
ch. XXVI., prevents us from receiving it as of literal interpretation, 
so far at least as the accounts of the miracles are concerned. In 
verses 4-7, ch. IX., are given verbatim the words in which Saul is ad- 
dressed by the voice of the Lord in the vision, and those of Saul in 
reply. According to this the voice says to him : Saul, Saul, why 
persecutest thou me "^ And he said: Who art thou Lord? And the 
Lord said : I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest ; it is hard for thee 
to kick against the pricks. And he, trembling and astonished, said : 
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? And the Lord said unto him : 
Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must 
do. And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing 
a voice, but seeing no man." According to his account in ch. XXII. 



REVIEW OB THE "ACTS." 235 

the conversation is: " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And 
I answered : Who art thou, Lord ? And he said unto me : I am Jesus 
of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me 
saw indeed the light, and were afraid ; but they heard not the voice 
of him that spake to me. And I said: What shall I do. Lord? And 
the Lord said unto me : Arise, and go into Damascus, and there it 
shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do." 
According to his speech before Agrippa, ch. XXVI., it is : " Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to kick 
against the pricks. And I said: Who art thou, Lord ? And he 
said: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand 
upon thy feet ; for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to 
make thee a minister, and a witness, both of these things which thou 
hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, de- 
livering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now 
I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to 
light, and from the power of Satan unto God ; that they may receive 
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified 
by faith that is in me." These accounts, it is seen, are somewhat 
different ; the first two differ from the third in that they represent 
Saul alone as falling to the ground ; the third represents not only 
Saul, but all who journeyed with him as thus falling. And in the 
first it is said ; " The men which journeyed with him, stood speech- 
less, hearing a voice but seeing no man ; " but in the second he sa3's : 
" And they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid, 
but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me," which is 
plainly contradictory. According to the first, Saul, after exj^erienc- 
ipg this phenomena, is three days withoiit sight: according^ to the 
second, he could not see for the glory of the light; being led by the 
hand of them that were with him, he came into Damascus ; which 
might imply that the light had such a dazzling effect upon his eyes 
as to deprive him of clear vision for a time. In the third, nothing 
is said of his being rendered sightless. There is considerable differ- 
ence in the three representations of the conversation Avhich took 
place between Saul and the Lord in the vision, which each one can 
notice for one's self. Since this mutual conversation is given in the 
direct oration in the three accounts, and since it is not exactly the 
same in all as to the words, and their position in relation to each 
other in the sentences we cannot understand either one of them as 
exactly representing the circumstances of the conversion of Saul : 
and have to decide that if such an event happened it must have taken 
place in a way somewhat different from that represented in either 
one of these accounts. 



23b CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

According to oh. IX., 23—30, as well as ch. XXII., 15-18, Saul 
shortly after his conversion, would appear to have returned to Jeru- 
salem ; but in the Epistle to the Galatians, ch. I., 15-20, we learn 
that after his conversion, he went into Arabia preaching the Gospel, 
and did not return to Jerusalem for three years. If there is not here 
a contradiction in terms there fairly seems one implied, and it seems 
to have been the work of design by later hands than Saul's, for what 
purpose does not appear. 

In verses 10-17, ch. IX., are given verbatim^ the words of the con- 
versation which took place between the angel in the vision and An- 
anias, in relation to Saul, and in verse 17 the precise words which 
Ananias speaks to Saul, on the occasion of his visiting him to restore 
him to sight and baptize him. Saul is represented in this ch. (IX.) 
as being the principal persecutor of the Christian sect, for it says, 
verse 31 : " Then," that is, after Saul's conversion, " had the Churches 
rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified ; 
and, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy 
Spirit, were multiplied." This representation of the conversion 
of Saul, and the rest which ensued to the Christians upon it, might 
perhaps designate the ultimate triumph of the Church over its bitter- 
est enemies and its most powerful opposers. And the course which 
Saul takes afterwards might indicate the zeal with which the op- 
posers of Christianity, when converted to it, would in all circumstan- 
ces uphold the doctrines of their newly espoused religion, and ad- 
vance its cause. There seems, however, sufficient ground for con- 
cluding that an event took place in the early history of Christianity 
corresponding to, or identical with that given in the general repre- 
sentation of the conversion of Saul. It is not at all unreasonable or 
incredible that God, in answer to the earnest and faithful prayers of 
the persecuted infant Church ; in mercy to the deluded fanatic him- 
self; but most of all for the accomplishment of his own wise and 
eternal purposes, appeared in a vision of light, struck terror to the 
heart of the young man Saul, while on his bloodthirsty persecuting 
errand, effected a complete change in his callous and perverse heart, 
and in his religious opinions, and communicated to him His will to 
be obeyed by him in the future. It was the will of the Deity that 
Christianity should prevail. God did not have to come from any 
distance in order to appear to Saul,' for the Deity is ever and every- 
where present ; and the words he addresses to Saul, in the vision, " I 
am Jesus whom thou persecutest," could have left no doubt on Saul's 
mind as to what his will and purpose were concerning the new sect. 
Not that the voice which came to Saul was necessarily that of Jesus, 
a man who had lived and died, but that that wliich was or was 



REVIEW OF THE " ACTS." 237 

s 
io be the "Gospel's idea of Jesus Christ was of God, and that it was 
his will that it should prevail. The eternal truth is that the name of 
God is not Jesus ('hrist in particular, or that of any man in partic- 
ulai : he could have made himself known to Saul by any other name 
that suited his purpose, or, if it so pleased him, he could have effect- 
ed hi'o purpose in Saul without thus communicating in words with 
him ; but this is the way in which he pleased to effect his purpose, 
and thus not only exercised his mercy towarrls, but honored the 
humility and faith of the early Christian Church.* Still, if we, with 
our present experience, had happened to be with Saul at the time this 
event happened to him we might not have detected anything so very 
wonderful in it. We are not of those who believe that the young 
man Saul possessed a remarkably strong constitution of body or of 
mind; the influence which Avas brought to bear upon him stunned 
him, so that he appears to have fallen to the earth. There are many 
men now-a-days, we learn, who can exercise such a controlling influ- 
ence over the mind or nervous system of others by their will as ef- 
fectually to stun them, so that they may lose power of themselves 
and fall ; and this controlling power must be the more effectual when 
there are a combination of minds set upon the stultifying of one. 
What should hinder us therefore from concluding that a number of 
strong-minded and intelligent men among the early Christians, men 
who perfectly understood themselves and their powers, and what 
they could effect, had banded themselves together and purposed 
with prayer to God, and an unwavering faith in his help, to bring 
their minds to bear upon the mind of Saul, and to communicate to 
his nervous system an electric shock as it were, at the same time that 
the grace of God would so aifect his heart as to impress him with a 
realizing sense of the goodness and worthiness of the cause and sect 
he was persecuting. This is no more than what we may be allowed to 
believe a similar association of good intelligent Christian men nun' be 
the means in Gods hands of effecting to-day although it would be 
nothing less than presumption and impertinence in men to suppose 
they could do any such thing of themselves. It is not that any particu- 
lar influence or spirit has necessarily to go from one to another in or- 
der to produce such an effect : but the effect produced is a change 
in the ever and everywhere present mind or spirit, and the revelation 
to the understanding is the indication of that present mind. However, 
let the manner of Saul's conversion have been ever so simple it 
would appear to have been a real conversion and productive of ex- 
cellent effects in the after life of Saul for the Christian Church ; just 
such a conversion as Christians believe to be genuine, and should 
wish to all their enemies. 

*~Jesu8 of Nazareth was a voluntary sclf-saci-iflcc for the Truth, in that he confessed he was 
the Son of God, which was a cai)ital offense against the Jewish law. But the crime for which 
he was crucifled by a Konian i)rocurator and which authorized the superscription "The King of 
the Jews," appears plainly to have been that ho claimed to be the Messiah or Jcwi>h I'rinco, 



238 CBEATOE AND COSMOS. 

We may remark that we possess no other account of the conver- 
sion of Saul, any more than of the miracles of Peter, than what the 
book of the Acts affords us : and as for this book, we have no further 
proof of its historical genuineness and authenticity than what two 
assumptions afford us, namely, that it was written by Luke, and that 
he was a companion of Paul in part of his missionary enterprises. 
True, the early Christian writers in the latter part of the second, 
and in the third centuries, mention the Acts of the Apostles, 
and quote from it ; but it has been remarked before that notices 
of Luke, as the author, are entirely wanting, not only in this 
book but also in the Epistles ascribed to Paul. The name Luke is 
mentioned in three places in the New Testament, Goloss. IV. 14 ; 
2d Timothy IV. 11 ; Philemon, v. 24 ; but it is not intimated that 
he is the writer of any book : though it does not appear improbable 
that he, or the same writer that produced the third Gospel, may have 
produced the book of the Acts which is probably built upon or ela- 
borated from traditions written or oral, except the few chapters at 
the end of the book, from ch. XX., which are historical and were 
written by a personal observer. To continue our review of ch. IX. ; 
verses 32-36 represent to us the healing of a palsied man by Peter ; 
and in verse 34 we have represented the precise words which Peter 
spoke to him on that occasion. And verse 36 to the end of the 
chapter represent to us Peter raising Tabitha to life, v. 40, giving 
the precise words he spoke to her in performing the resurrection. 
This seems certainly to indicate the peculiar powers which the 
Christian priesthood would assume and pretend to exercise, as sym- 
bolized by Peter, and eminently fulfilled in the pretended miracles 
of the so-called Christian hierarchy during many centuries. In all 
our experiences of mankind from history or observation we never 
met with a man who writes or says that he performed himself, or 
saw performed by another, the act of the raising from the dead a 
human being. But it is reasonable to suppose that a change for the 
better might be effected in a person not quite dead, but who appear- 
ed so from extreme weakness and exhaustion of the physical and 
mental faculties, by certain good and holy men, possessing strong 
faith in the power and goodness of God, as well as certain powers and 
gifts which they might be supposed to bring to bear upon the invalid. 
But that a human being that is quite dead could be brought to life by 
another human being, possessed of what powers he may, appears to our 
limited understanding, no more credible than that an earthen vessel 
that has been broken in shivers can be made to hold water while in 
that broken state, or that a mill can be made to grind corn while it 
is all out of gear, and broken as to its internal machinery. Still the 

which would be construed a capital offense against the Roman supremacy, the Messiah of any 
state being its chief ruler. This last with the general accusation that he was the leader of a 
band going about perverting the people, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, etc., effected hia 
crucifixion criminally. 



REVIEW OF THE " ACTS." 239 

exercise of firm and unwavering faith in the power and goodness of 
the Deity is always commendable in human beings, as we do not 
know the conditions and relations of things as well as God knows 
them. 

Ch. X. In this chapter is represented mainly the conversion and 
baptism of Cornelius, a Gentile, and his family. Verses 1-9 repre- 
sent the vision of the angel to Cornelius, and his sending messengers 
to Joppa for Peter. In verse 4-7 are represented the precise words 
which the angel speaks to Cornelius, and the latter to him ; verses 
9-19 the vision of Peter while reposing on the housetop ; verses 19- 
20 the words which the Spirit speaks to Peter ; and verses 21-23 
the words which Peter and the messengers of Cornelius speak to 
each other. And verses 26 to the end of the chapter reproduce to 
us the exact words spoken by Peter and Cornelius in their addresses 
to each other. Any candid reader will of course enquire how these 
speeches come to be given in the direct oration by a writer not himself 
a present witness of what he relates. But do we suppose that he 
compiled mostly from written traditions in which these speeches 
were given in this style? There is apparent probability in such a 
supposition to one who is disposed to look upon these representa- 
tions as historical ; but in the case of the Gospels we found that 
where there were several documents setting forth what might at 
first sight appear parallel accounts of the same thing, when these 
representations or accounts of speeches in the direct oration were 
fairly analised, they were found inconsistent with each other, as 
history. Even so were there other accounts accessible to us of 
the events which we have recorded here, we might also reason- 
ably expect them to differ enough to be historically inconsistent 
with each other, in like manner. But the representations of the 
chapter are doubtless mainly allegorical, designed, as before, to con- 
firm and supplement the Gospel representations, to foreshow the 
exaltation of the Christian priesthood, and to impress believers in 
Christianity with a sense of the inherent power and virtue of their 
hierarchy. The adherents of the Romish branch of the Christian 
Church have always held to Peter being the founder of the Church 
at Rome, although others contend that Paul founded it ; and the 
Popes of Rome claim to be the direct successors of Peter, and the 
vicegerents of Christ in relation to the church. Peter, therefore, 
may be here regarded as symbolising the whole hierarchy of the 
Catholic Christian Church, and what he is represented as doing or 
exercising may represent what this hierarchy would assume to exer- 
cise or do. 

Ch. XI. This chapter gives us an account of Peter's defence be- 



240 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

fore the apostles for the alleged crime of communicating the doctrines 
of Christianity to the Gentiles, or the uncircumcised, and of the 
spread of Christianity among the Gentiles by Barnabas, Saul, and 
others, which indicates, at least, that the early Christians were 
zealous and vigilant in the promulgation of their opinions. And the 
last verses also indicate that there were prophets in the early Church. 
The representation in this chapter is still in accordance with the 
confirmatory and supplementary idea ; contains, doubtless, some 
historical truth ; and would teach lessons of zeal and activity to the 
growing Christian Church in the propagation of their doctrines. 

Ch. XII. In this chapter, verses 1-20, is recorded the persecu- 
tion of the Christian sect by Herod Agrippa ; his killing of James, 
and imprisoning of Peter, who is represented as delivered out of 
prison by an angel. It then speaks of Herod as on a set day pre- 
senting himself upon his throne and making an oration to the people, 
upon which they salute him as a god, " and immediately the angel 
of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory ; and he 
was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost." According to Josephus, 
this saluting took place as Herod was attending certain games that 
were celebrated at Cseserea, in honor of the Emperor, and he did 
not die till five days after the celebration of these games. This 
James, mentioned in the second verse as put to death by Herod, is 
doubtless the same spoken of by Josephus, as James the Just, but we 
do not find that he mentions the celebrated names of Peter or John 
or Saul. And it must always have appeared a matter of surprise to 
readers of the New Testament how it was that the twelve Apostles 
disappeared so mysteriously after the event of the crucifixion is re- 
presented to have taken place. Nothing of them is left us but two 
or three names. And as for the traditions concerning them after- 
wards by early writers they are all so differing as not altogether 
to be relied upon ; some having them individually to preach the 
gospel in one place, others in another ; some having them to have 
suffered martyrdom in one way, others in another ; and so on as 
to all of them.* This' representation of the deliverance of Peter 
by the angel bears all the appearance of a dream or vision. And thus 
we have the book of the Acts characterized by a mixture of history 
with vision, allegory and traditions all elaborately interwoven to fill 
out the supplementary idea. But we have in this book now only a 
part of the traditional stories which were contained in it in early times, 
but which, as before remarked, have been expunged from it. 

Ch. XIII. This chapter represents to us Saul and Barnabas 



* See the accounts of the twelve apostles in their order in Smith's Bible Dictionary; also in 
Kltto's Bible History, which may on the whole be regarded as less reliable authority. It is to 
be remembered, however, that ihe twelve apostle are put before us as, for the most part, un- 
leai'ned men who perhaps would not be very forward preachers. 



??,EVTTr,W OF THE " ACTS." 241 

delegated by the ChTirch at Antioch, to preach to the Gentiles. They 
sail to the island of Cyprus, and at Paphos, a sea-port of that island, 
they convert the Governor of the island, Sergius Paulus, to their 
faith; and here Saul, who, for some reason, left unexplained, begins 
now to be called Paul, performs a miracle by blinding the eyes of 
Barjesus, or Elymas the sorcerer. We have not any other evidence 
of these statements than what is given in the book of Acts. In 
verses 10, 11 are represented to us the exact words which Paul speaks 
to the sorcerer. Verses 16-42 set forth verbatim a speech of Paul in 
the Synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia : and verses 46-48, represent 
the exact words of Paul and Barnabas in their address to the opposing 
Jews. There is, doubtless, some historical truth in this chapter and 
there are some things which we cannot so readily conclude as of literal 
interpretation, namely, how that one human being can arbitrarily 
cause blindness to another, as Paul is represented to have done to 
the sorcerer. This we may, however, remark, that if the peculiar 
powers possessed by some men allow them a certain control over the 
faculties of others, they should use their powers for good, and not 
for evil. From this and from the use of the direct oration we 
should infer that there has been a good deal of allegory interwoven 
with some historical truth in this chapter. 

Ch. XIV. This chapter also, doubtless, contains much historical 
truth with some allegory interwoven. Paul and Barnabas travel 
from place to place in their missionary work. But at Lystra Paul 
heals a cripple that had never walked ; peculiarly, in this respect, 
like the one that Peter and John healed on their way into the temple, 
Ch. III. At the command of Paul, " stand upright on thy feet," 
he leaps and walks. Although it is not said that a permanent cure 
was effected upon the cripple, still the l-epresentation of their attempt 
to worship and sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas immediately after this, 
would indicate the cripple to have been able, at least for the time, to 
move about. In verses 8-18 the representation of the people address- 
ing the missionaries, and the latter them, in the direct oration, would 
incline us to suspect that there is some allegory interwoven into the 
tissue of this narrative. Here also, verses 19-28, Paul is stoned 
nearly to death by the people, instigated by the opposing Jews, but 
he recovers and pursues his missionary labors, displaying, indeed, 
the spirit of one fully convinced that the cause in Avhich he was 
engaged, and which he had first taken on faith, was a right worthy 
and true one. 

Ch. XV. Tliis cliapter would appear to be historical. The 
speeches, however, of Peter and James, as well as other parts ot the 
narrative given in the direct oration would be likely to indicate alle- 
VoL. II.— 16 



^42 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

.gory interwoven on the part of the writer. The design of the represen- 
tation is, doubtless, mainly to supplement and confirm the narratives 
■of the Gospels. When the apostles and elders in their letter to the 
faithful at Antioch are represented as making mention, v. 26, of Paul 
and Barnabas as " Men that have hazarded their lives for the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ," it appears evident that it only means to 
indicate the cause in which they are engaged to advance in general, 
not the cause or name of any particular man, Jesus Christ, more than 
that of every true Christian in general ; for some or most of those 
here called apostles and elders at Jerusalem are represented as strict 
adherents of the law of Moses, and observers of some Jewish ordi- 
nances ; and we may certainly believe would not for a moment 
entertain the idea of setting up any particular man, either in place of 
God, or as worthy of the honor and worship which in the Jewish 
idea pertained to Jehovah alone.* The idea of the general cause in 
which they were engaged and which pertained to them all in general and 
to each one in particular^ as represented hy the name Jesus Christ, or 
our Lord Jesus Christ, must have been the idea of Christ entertained hy 
the intelligent primitive Christians, and not the idea of any particular 
Tnan as distinct from and exalted above all the rest of the faithful. As 
it is said in the Epistle of Jude : " And Enoch also, the seventh 
from Adam, prophesied, saying : The Lord cometh in (not only 
with, as translated) ten thousands of his saints." The leaders among 
the early Christians appear to have been quite intelligent, to have 
had a pretty clear understanding of what they were, and what they 
ought to do. 

Ch. XVL This chapter would appear to be mainly historical. 
The use of the first person plural by the writer from the tenth to the 
eighteenth verse of this chapter would indicate the writer of the 
book to have been with Paul at least during the time the events he 
relates in these verses were taking place ; that is, he joins Paul at 
Troas, voyages with him thence to Philippi, and remains at that 
place after the apostle's departure from it. He, however, does not 
appear to have been imprisoned with Paul and Silas at Philij^pi, 
which imprisonment was one of the results of Paul's casting out a 
demon or spirit of divination from a damsel that was possessed with 
one, verses 16-25. Verses 25—10 represent to us the imprisonment 
of Paul and Silas, and how, upon their having prayed and sung 
praises unto God in the night, there was an earthquake, which shook 
the prison to its foundations, threw open all the prison doors, and 
loosened the bands of all the prisoners. From the fact that the wri- 
ter was not a present witness of this not very probable scene of 
which he narrates, from the use of the direct oration in the conversa- 

* The name Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth would here stand for God and his cause in 
general, both in the converted Jewish and Gentile mind, in contradistinction to Satan and his 
cause. Jesus represented the cause of God, of Truth, and Righteousness. 



EEVIEW OF THE " ACTS." 243 

tion represented between Paul and the jailor, from the circumstance 
of the jailor and his whole family being represented as being convert- 
ed and baptized as a result of the miracle, and from the apparent at- 
tempt at probability in the latter part of the narrative setting forth 
the scene between the magistrate and the missionaries, we would 
not be able to conclude this miraculous account as literal, but 
would class it as allegoric. Many Christians, doubtless, have had 
their faith in the power of the preachers of their doctrines, and in 
the divinity of their religion, increased and strengthened by reading 
or hearing this account of the scene in the prison at Philippi. 

Ch. XVII. This chapter is meant to be mainly historical. Paul 
pursues his missionary work, though followed by his persecutors 
from place to place, until he arrives at Athens, where the Athenians, 
anxious to become acquainted with the new doctrines which he 
brings to them, take him up on Mars Hill and have him deliver an 
oration, in which he explains his doctrines. This speech is represent- 
ed to us in the direct oration as well as some other parts of the dis- 
course of this chapter, though the writer of the book was not present 
here with Paul. It is well worth the reader's while to carefully pe- 
ruse the speech of Paul on Mars Hill, as represented in this chapter. 
This chapter sets forth Christian doctrine and practice. 

Ch. XVIII. This chapter is historical : it appears probable 
enough ; but there is a lesson in it worthy of being learned by all 
Christians, and especially by all Christian ministers, a lesson from 
example, how, that the missionary Paul was a tent-mak^r who la- 
bored with his hands at his trade all the week, and reasoned in the 
synagogue every Sabbath-day, and persuaded the Jews and the 
Greeks, verses 3-5. It teaches them that they should not be above 
laboring with their hands at any honest employment in procuring that 
wherewith to support themselves and their families, that the truth 
of God may not be bound by their dependence upon the wicked rich. 

Ch. xix. This chapter appears to be historical, intermixed with 
some that looks apocryphal. See the story of the exorcists, verses 
13-18, which, however, does not seem improbable that a madman 
would do when feeling himself aggrieved by men whom he suspect- 
ed to be playing tricks on him. But see the use of the direct oration, 
especially in the speech of Demetrius, and that of the town clerk. 
But, doubtless, we must consider in this case, that Paul may have 
been present to take notes ; and that the records may have come 
into the hands of the writer of the book of Acts. 

Ch. XX. This chapter is historical. The writer, whoever he 
was, appears, as here indicated by the use of the first person plural, 
verses 5-7, in narration, to join Paul at Philippi, Avhere he had been 



244 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

left seven years before. He now appears to continue with Paul dur- 
ing the occurrence of the events narrated in the remaining parts of 
this book. The remaining eight chapters are historical, and seem in 
the main to be in accordance with the events which took place in 
the life of Paul within the time here included. There is, liowever, 
as before noticed, some difference in Paul's accounts of his conver- 
sion as recorded in the twenty-second and tlie twenty-sixth chapters, 
and that recorded in chapter nine. Also, if the reader will notice 
the last three verses of ch. XXVT., where our writer represents in the 
direct oration what was said in conference ajoart between Festus and 
Agrippa as to Paul, as well as other points wliich he may notice iu 
the narrative, he will perhaps conclude that all the statements of this 
part of the book even, are not to be implicitly depended upon as 
authentic history. The reader Avill also notice the many stratagems 
which the apostle to the Gentiles makes use of to keep himself out of 
danger from liis Israelitish or other enemies. He jiurifies himself and 
takes a vow at Jerusalem after the Jewish fashion, ch. XXL He 
saves himself from jDersecution by the Roman authorities by declar- 
ing himself a free-born Roman citizen, ch. XXII. And in order to 
get the good-will of the Pharisees in the Council he declares him- 
self a Pharisee, the son of a Pliarisee, ch. XXIII. And by his elo- 
quence he almost persuades Agripjoa to become a Christian, ch. 
XXVI. ; showing us that Avith all his belief of tlie miraculous inter- 
ference of God in the behalf of those engaged in His cause, he still 
believed that the ministers or missionaries for the truth, or those en- 
gaged in whatever way in the service of God, should not omit or ne- 
glect to use any worthy means the}^ may see available for their pres- 
ervation while engaged in active duty, or any worthy act which they 
can make use of to advance the cause of truth and righteousness 
among mankind, at the same time tl:iat tliey cultivate firm and un- 
wavering faith in the power and benevolence of the Deity. 

After our review of the Gospels and the Acts we think it necessa- 
ry to remark that although we have been at great pains to execute 
this whole analysis and synthesis with care and thoroughness, we fear 
there may be some who will not exercise such care in preparation to 
express themselves concerning it. We have the experience of some 
who are habituated to carelessly and in an empty vaunting way ex- 
press themselves unfavoi-ably of that which they do not take pains 
to understand, or which they are not conipetent or have not the 
means to investigate for themselves ; and on the other hand of some 
who, perhaps in obedience to the impulse of the moment, speak ap- 
provingly of a matter in a similar manner and with a like amount of 
knowledge of it. Although I would not consider it right to disfavor 



REVIEW OF THE " ACTS." 245 

the exercise of judgment and the free discussion of profitable sub- 
jects, such as those embraced in this book, still I would consider 
that the mind should first be furnished with full and correct data 
upon which the judgment ma}^ be exercised. A pai'tial knowledge 
of any subject can afford at most only a partial expression of it, and 
if that partial knowledge has been wrongly conceived that partial 
expression will doubtless be more or less a misrepresentation of 
the source whence the knowledge has been derived. When one ex- 
presses himself on a subject which he understands or which he has 
made himself acquainted with, his words have no uncertain sound, 
nor is it easy to misunderstand or misrepresent him. 

With reference to the review under consideration, I now may add 
that the chief object of the revie:v of the Gospels and the Acts was 
to simplify the idea of Christ, and to show what the Gospel system 
requires of men in order to their becoming living members of the 
kingdom of heaven, which, understood simply and really as it has 
been shown to be in the preceding pages, and as it will be shown 
more fully and cleajly by and by, dispelling vague and erroneous 
ideas and drav/ing in the wandering thoughts concerning this sub- 
ject, must tend to the peace and stability of mind of those who pur- 
pose living a godly life. 

The object was not to demonstrate that Christ did not or does 
not exist, for he who doubts this, might, according to the proper un- 
derstanding of the subject, as well doubt his own existence ; but to 
give a more intelligent and correct understanding of the subject 
Christ ; to show the interior Gospel idea concerning it ; to intimate 
that material form or substance in the consideration of such a sub- 
ject is of very little account when compared with moral character ; 
that as the body without the spirit is dead, so the Spirit of Christ is 
that which we seek to attain, that of which we should be and by 
which we should be actuated, and that in which we should have 
faith rather than in any material bodily form ; and to remove the 
veil of mystery from that perfect spiritual and moral character rep- 
resented in the Gospels to which all should look for example and 
which all should imitate and cultivate in themselves. 

A sure foundation is here laid, therefore, wliereon others may 
build who have the inclination and the necessary qualifications to 
expound the Scriptures as tliey should be expounded, to teach the 
worship of God as it should be taught, and to raise a temple of 
"living stones,"* holy souls, to the honor of his name. 

* See 1st Epistle of Peter, ch. II. 4, 5. 



'246 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

A Review of the History of the Christian Church, 
especially with reference to the prophecies of the 
Book of Revelation. 

First an Explanation of Chapters IV. and V. of Revelation, in con- 
nection with the History of the Primitive Church. 

In order that all may profit by the experience which history 
affords, especially as it is connected with the Christian religion, we 
now propose to give a sketch of the history of the Christian Church, 
in its relation to the prophecies of the book of the Revelation, which 
book is a prophetic allegory designed to foreshow the state of the 
Christian Church in future ages in its relation to the world, especial- 
ly to the Roman Empire. The first three chapters of this book are 
taken up with the messages to the seven churches of Asia. Chapters 
IV. and V. contain another representation which we shall glance at 
as relating to the state of the Christian Church, especially during 
the first three centuries. Ch IV., v. 1 : " After this I looked, and, be 
hold, a door was opened in heaven : and the first voice which I heard 
was as it were a trumpet talking with me ; which said. Come up hith- 
er, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter." 

By heaven here, is meant the church of God, and the door being 
opened in it signifies, first, that the prophet might be enabled to 
take a view of its internal arrangements, and to form a judgment 
of its character; second, that all who would, might enter through 
the door ; and, thirdly, it is represented as now established among 
men, not at the time the prophecy was delivered, but some time after; 
for the angel says to the prophet : " Come up hither, and I will shew 
thee things which must be hereafter." This hereafter, as we have 
remarked, refers especially to the period which intervened between 
the delivering of the prophecy and the establishment of the Catholic 
Christian religion in the Roman Empire, or say the second and third 
centuries of the Christian era. Verse 2 : " And immediately I was 
in the spirit : and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on 
the throne." The principal idea conveyed in this verse is a coiri- 
pound one, that of a throne set up in heaven, and one sitting there- 
on. Verse 3 : " And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and 
a sardine stone : and there was a rainbow round about the throne, 
in sight like unto an emerald." Here there is no attempt made to de- 
scribe the one that sat upon the throne, only that he was to look 
upon like a jasper and a sardine stone, which stones are of various 
colors. This one is meant to sjanbolize the Deity, doubtless in ac- 
cordance with the primitive Church idea ; and the rainbow round 
about the throne, in appearance like to an emerald, would signify not 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 247 

only his holiness and perfection, but also his propitious character. 
Verse 4: "And round about the throne were four and twenty 
seats (lit. thrones), and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders 
sitting, clothed in white raiment ; and they had on their heads 
crowns of gold." The four and twenty elders clothed in white 
robes and having on their heads crowns of gold, and sitting upon 
seats or thrones round the throne of Deity, represent the Christian 
Church as made up of Jews and Gentiles. The white robes are em- 
blematic of truth and purity, and the crowns of gold of the wealth and 
dignity of the Christian Church on earth; for although this prophecy, 
we are now considering, we apply especially to the primitive Church, 
yet it may refer to the truer part of the Christian Church in all ages. 
Verse 5 : "And out of the throne proceeded lighnings and thunder- 
ings and voices ; and there were seven lamps of fire burning before 
the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." The lightnings arid 
thunderings, and voices proceeding out of the throne indicate that 
a change was being brought about in the old established state of 
things by the direct will and power of Deity ; in this case that a rev- 
olution in religion was taking place in the world, which was so in 
the times of the primitive Church. The seven lamps of fire burning 
before the throne representing the seven Spirits of God (seven being 
prophetically a perfect number), indicate the perfection of the effect- 
ive power of Deity, the perfection of his wisdom and knowledge, as 
well as the perfection of the light which the true Christian religion 
doth infuse. The true Christian religion, that is, the Christian reli- 
gion rightly understood and unmixed with error, is superior to all 
other religions v/hich we know to have existed. Verse 6 : " And 
before the throne there was a sea of glass, like unto crystal ; and 
in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four 
beasts (lit. living creatures, Greek, C<5a) full of eyes before and be- 
hind." The sea of glass, like unto crystal before the throne, in- 
dicated the purity of faith of the true Christian Church, espe- 
cially as set forth in primitive times, in the ages of its persecution. 
Where we meet with any passage in this book which sets forth 
a sea of glass mingled with fire, as ch. XV. v. 2, it symbolizes a 
state of the faith more or less corrupt. The four living creatures 
being in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, 
means that they appear under, and supporting the throne, having 
their faces outwards, and their hind parts inwards. And their being 
full of eyes, before and behind, would signify the omniscience of 
Deity, as represented in them, his agencies. The idea of Deity rep- 
resented here, is in accordance with the idea of Deity which would 
prevail among mankind in the ages which the vision especially rep- 



248 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

resents. Mankind, according to this, liardly conceives of Deity as 
omnipresent, but a good deal in accordance with the old -Jewish idea 
of Jehovah, a personal Deity, still not conceived of as having parts or 
passions, as eminently set forth here in him that sits upon the throne. 
Still, although perhaps not conceived then in that way, the omni- 
presence of Deity appears in his omniscience as symbolized by the 
eyes in the living creatures. This vision eminently symbolizes the 
idea of Deity, entertained in the primitive Church before the subject 
of the Trinity began to occupy much of men's attention, or to be agi- 
tated. Verse 7 : " And the first living creature was like a lion, and 
the second living creature like a calf, and the third living creature 
had a face as a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying 
eagle." These four living creatures might symbolize the whole of 
animate creation, so far as it pertains to the earth and the air ; or 
they might rather symbolize mankind world-wide (as indicated by 
the number four), in all the jihases of his character. Thus, the lion- 
like face symbolizes steady courage and boldness, as represented in 
the warrior class ; the calf-like appearance, the ignorant, uneducated 
classes, the man-like appearance, the intelligent classes ; and the 
eagle-like appearance, the intrepid, the fearless, and, shall we say, 
chivalrous of mankind. Besides, and in connection with the last ex- 
planation, the four symbolic living creatures might have had a refer- 
ence to the four prophetic Empires, the first of which, the Babylonian, 
was symbolized by the lion, and the last, the Roman, was always 
represented by the eagle ; the calf might properly symbolize the Me- 
do-Syriac, and the man the Grecian Empire. These four Empires were 
in the main united in one, the Roman Empire, at the time this ' 
prophecy was delivered. Either of these explanations, that is, of 
the four living creatures, symbolizing the animate creation pertain- 
ing to the earth and air, or mankind world-wide, as described above, 
is admissible. Thus, God was conceived as a Being above, and gov- 
erning all these. 

Verse 8 : " And the living creatures had each of them six wings 
about him ; and they were full of eyes within ; and they rest not day 
and night, saying : " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which 
was, and is, and is to come." Each of the living creatures having 
six wings, six being prophetically an imperfect number, signifies 
that each of them represented only a part ; but taken all together 
they represented the whole of what they did represent ; twenty- 
four wings corresponding to the number of the heavenly elders, 
which we know symbolized the complete Christian Church, as 
made up of Jews and Gentiles. "And they were full of eyes 
within," signifying the omniscience and omnipresence of Deity 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 24i* 

as represented in his agencies and creatures. This word "within" 
does not mean the same with the word " behind," verse 6 ; both of 
them respectively corresponding to our words within and behind. 
And they rest not day and night, saying : Holy, holy, holy, Lord 
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." All animate 
creation is naturally imbued with the spirit of praise to God, who 
maketh even the wrath of man to praise him ; and this praise as- 
cends to Deity by night and by day. And not only from the 
animal, but from the vegetable, yea, from all creation, does praise 
ascend to Deity, but in different ways. The praise here, however, 
referred to has especial reference to that which ascends to God 
from mankind world-wide. The Lord God Almighty, which was, 
and is, and is to come, or the ever present Deity manifesting himself 
variously, or rather conceived of differently by mankind in different 
ages in one way, in the past, in another way in the present, and still 
in other ways to be in the future. This, too, has especial reference 
to the eternity of man, as best represented in the idea of Jesus 
Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the 
first and the last. 

Verse 9 to end of chapter : " And when those living creatures give 
glory and honor and thanks to him that sat upon the throne who 
liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before 
him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and 
ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying : Thou art 
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor, and power ; for thou 
hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were creat- 
ed." Here, the twenty-four elders are represented as praising God 
simultaneously with the four living creatures ; the elders represent- 
ing the Christian Church, now established among mankind in general, 
which are especially represented by the four living creatures prais- 
ing God, worshipping Deity variously in different localities of the 
earth. Both the Christian worship of the Deity and the worship of 
Deity by mankind variously, go on at the same time. Here, be it 
remarked, the worship is given to one God, without any idea of 
plurality of persons in the Deity being implied. The elders cast 
their crowns before the throne, signifying that the Christian Church 
would willingly surrender their wealth and honors at the shrine of 
Deity, and that though kings, they would be the servants of God, in 
all self-denial and humility. 

Ch. v., V. 1 : " And I saw in the right hand of him that sat upon 
the throne a book written within and on the back side, and sealed 
with seven seals." Here, he that sits upon the throne is represented 
as having a right hand, which is the only description as to parts that 



250 CREATOR ^ND COSMOS. 

is giveu of him, and in the hand he holds a little book Qi^ho>) which 
is written within and on the back side (after the manner of a roll), 
and sealed with seven seals. This little book symbolized the wisdom 
and knowledge which the Christian religion was designed to impart 
to mankind. But how was this wisdom and knowledge to be attain- 
ed ? For the little book was sealed with seven seals, completely, 
perfectly sealed ; for seven signifies completeness, perfectness. This 
we shall see by and by. 

Verses 2—6 : " And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud 
voice : Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof. 
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth was 
able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much 
because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book. 
And one of the elders said unto me : Weep not : behold, the Lion 
of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the 
book and to loose the seals thereof." 

By the strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice is doubtless 
symbolized the efforts which humanity would make at the time of 
the introduction of Christianity to extricate itself from the bonds of 
superstition. The prophet weeps because there is found no one either 
in heaven or earth, the old Church or the world, worthy or able to 
open the book, or to loose the seals, which indicates the pitiable con- 
dition of ignorance and superstition in which humanity was. But 
one of the elders raises his courage by saying to him : " Weep not : 
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath pre- 
vailed to open the book." Christianity was primarilj?- of the Jews. 
The ideal Christ of the Gospel is represented as springing from the 
tribe of Judah, an.d the family of David. Here, however, Christ is 
represented as the root or ancestor of David, which shows that man- 
kind personified, especially the Jewish nation, from which the idea 
of Christianit}'- originated, is meant. Mankind, personified under 
the idea of Christ (or in the ideal Christ), the ancestor and 
offspring of David, is meant. The Lion of the tribe of Judah will 
then signify Christianity and all its agencies. This, by teaching 
men what they were and what they ought to be and to do, imparted 
to them divine wisdom and knowledge; revealed to them the mys- 
tery of Deity ; so that the humble Christian, if he be moderately 
intelligent, may become as conversant with the subject of Deity as 
the proud and learned worldlj^ philosopher. 

Verses 6-8 : " And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne 
and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood 
a Lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, 
which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And 



PREMITrVE CHRISTIAN CHUKCH. 251 

he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat 
upon the throne." The prophet seeing the Lamb standing in the 
midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst 
of the elders, means that the Lamb formed a conspicuous object of 
the group made up of the throne, with the living creatures support- 
ing it, and the elders around. The Lamb would appear thus a con- 
spicuous object somewhere near the centre (//tTw) of the group. 
The Lamb appearing as if he had been slain signifies the crucifixion 
or slaying of the flesh, with its affections and lusts, as symbolized by 
the representation of the crucifixion on Calvary, which each true 
Christian has to effect in himself. And this, as ever}' good Christian 
minister knows, is a far more important crucifixion (though not a 
literal one) than any literal crucifixion of the body can be. This 
carnal crucifixion is necessary to be practised by all Christians in 
order that they may live the life of entire godliness in the spirit, and 
so attain to divine truth ; otherwise, be their faith or name what it 
may, they remain still in their sins and their ignorance. This cruci- 
fixion of the flesh with its affection and lusts, and living the life of 
patient self-denial and entire consecration to God, are the all-impor- 
tant things in Christianity, without which all other things, by what- 
ever name called, are of no avail to the attainment of perfection in 
wisdom and the knowledge of God. The age of the primitive Church 
was eminently one of self-denial and persecution for the Christians, 
during which they lived in general holier lives, and, we believe, 
maintained the faith purer than in any subsequent age. The lamb 
having seven horns and seven eyes signifies, first, the omnipotence of 
true Christianitj'' in which men are not only made perfect, but 
conquer through intelligent and patient self-abnegation and zealous 
activity in the cause of godliness; and, second, the omniscience 
which is attained by the pursuit of the true Christian course. Each 
one has in one's self the principle of this omniscience and omnipo- 
tence, which is the real and true omniscience and omnipotence : and 
the sum of mankind have it collectively ; only requiring to be de- 
veloped in each and all. The Lamb having the seven horns and 
seven eyes (perfection of power and of wisdom) syrobolized the 
certain success of the Christian movement, the final prevalence of 
true Christianity. The Lamb steps forward and takes the book out 
of the right hand of him that sits upon the throne ; signifying that 
the work is to be done particularly by human beings themselves ; 
the book of wisdom and knowledge awaits them, is held out to them, 
but they have to go and take it. They must take the forward step, 
make the continued faithful and determined eifort, before they can 
expect to attain to any great degree of perfection. But the persist- 



252 CEEATOB AND COSMOS. 

ent faithful efforts are crowned with success. " Wilt thou know, 
vain man, that faith without works is dead?" 

Verse 8, to end of chapter : " And when he had taken the book, 
the four living creatures and four and twenty elders fell down 
before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials 
full of odoi's, which are the prayers of Saints. And they sung a 
new song, saying : Thou art worthy to take the book and to open 
the seals thereof; for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God 
by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation ; 
and hast made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall 
reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many 
angels round about the throne, and the living creatures and the 
elders : and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice : Worthy 
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, 
and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature 
which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such 
as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard 1 saying: Blessing 
and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four living 
creatures said : Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down 
and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever." Here, verses 8- 
10, the twenty-four elders or representatives of the Christian Church 
are shown as falling down before the Lamb and ascribing praise to 
him for what h'e had done for them : "because thou wast slain and 
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, &c." It is to be remarked 
that they are not represented as giving to the lamb-like object the 
same kind of worship they give to him that sits upon the throne and 
lives for ever and ever. Their praise to the Lamb is in gratitude for 
what he had done for them in that, by the example of his self- 
sacrifice, he gives them wisdom and knowledge, and power and sal- 
vation, whereby they are made unto God kings and priests ; and 
they shall reign on the earth. This whole representation is, how- 
ever, symbolic, a can-ying out of the Gospel's idea of Christ ; and 
the lamb-like symbol represents humanity redeemed and perfected 
by intelligent Christian self-denial, patience, humility, and active 
godliness. The all-inclusive language in verses 11-14 bespeaks 
universal prevalence for .the Christian religion, but become mystified; 
for see, verse 13, the same praise' is ascribed to the Lamb that is 
given to him that sits upon the throne ; which was one of the results 
of the establishment of the doctrine of the Trinity in the fourth 
century under Constantine and Theodosius, and was not peculiar to 
primitive Church times, when the faith was comparatively simple, 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 253 

But see, verse 14 and last, the elders still adhere to the worship only 
of him that sits upon the throne and liveth for ever and ever. True 
wisdom teaches us to worship the infinite and invisible Deity alone, 
which is neither an object of the sense nor of the imagination. The 
principal ideas set forth symbolically in this representation are those 
of the crucifixion of the flesh, with its affections, and lusts; the 
living a life of entire and active godliness, and the following the 
intelligent elders in the worship of the infinite and invisible Deit}' 
alone, as may be in some inadequate sense symbolized by him that 
sat upon the throne. The ensuing Chapters, VI.-XIII. (at wliich 
last we propose to begin again with the interpretation of the 
prophecy), contain prophecies relating to the history of the Christian 
Church, and of the Roman Empire, with especial reference in some 
part, as ch. IX., to the Mohammedan and Turkish invasions, &c., as 
to the others. And now we shall give a chapter upon 

The History of the Primitive Christian Church. 

The greater part of the original Jewish converts to Christianity 
adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors, and were desirous of 
imposing them upon the Gentiles who continually increased the 
number of the Christians. The first fifteen bishops, or rather pres- 
byters, of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews ; and the congrega- 
tion over which they presided united the law of Moses with the 
doctrines of Christ. It was natural that the primitive tradition of a 
Church which was founded shortly after the first introduction of 
Christianity should be acknowledged by all the other Christian 
Churches as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant Churches very 
frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable parent, and 
relieved her distresses by their voluntary contributions. But when nu- 
merous and opulent Christian societies were established in the great 
cities of the Empire, in Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Corinth, and 
Rome, the reverence which Jerusalem had inspired to all the Gentile 
Christians insensibly diminished. The Jewish converts, or, as they 
came afterwards to be called, the Nazarenes, who had laid the founda- 
tion of the Church, soon found themselves overwhelmed by the increas- 
ing multitudes that from all the various religions of Paganism enlist- 
ed under the Christian banner ; and the Gentiles who, with the appro- 
bation of their peculiar apostle, had rejected the Mosaic ceremonies, at 
length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the same toleration 
which they had at first humbl)'- solicited for their own practice. The 
ruin of the city, and of the temple and public religion of the Jews 
about the year 70 A. D., was severely felt by the Nazarenes. They 
retired just before the siege began to the little town of Pella, east of 



254 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the Jordan, where the ancient Church languished above sixty years 
in solitude and obscufity. At length, in the reign of Hadrian, they 
again effected an entrance to the new Roman city, ^lia Capitolina, 
which was founded on Mount Zion, on the ruins of old Jerusalem, 
by that Emperor, and from which all other Jews were excluded. 
This entrance the Nazarenes accomplished in a peculiar manner. 
They elected for their bishop Marcus, a Gentile, and most probably 
an Italian, or a native of one of the Latin provinces. Persuaded by 
him, the most considerable part of the congregation renounced the 
Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had persevered above a 
century. By this sacrifice of their prejudices and habits they pur- 
chased a free admission into the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly 
cemented their union with the general Christian Church. When 
this restoration to Mount Zion was effected, the crimes of heresy and 
schism were imputed to the remnant of the Nazarenes which refused 
to accompany their Latin bishop. They still preserved their habita- 
tion of Pella, spread themselves into the villages adjacent to Dam- 
ascus, and formed an inconsiderable Church in the city of Beroea, 
now Aleppo, in Syria. The name Nazarenes* was soon thought to be 
too honorable an appellation for these Christian Jews, and they 
received from their supposed scanty resources of mind and of estate 
the contemptuous epithet of Ebionites, that is, paupers. 

In a few years after the restoration of the church to Jerusalem it 
became a matter of dispute whether a^man who had acknowledged 
Christ as the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the law of 
Moses, could possibly hope for salvation. Justin Martyr answered 
this question in the affirmative ; and though he expressed himself 
with the most guarded diffidence he ventured to determine in favor 
of such an imperfect Christian, if he were content to practice the 
Mosaic ceremonies without pretending to assert their general use or 
necessity. But when Justin was pressed to declare the sentiment of 
the Church he acknowledged there were very many among the ortho- 
dox Christians, who not only excluded their Judaizing brethren from 
the hope of salvation, but who denied intercourse with them in the 
common offices of friendship, hospitality, and social life. The more 
rigorous opinion prevailed over the milder ; and a line of demar- 
cation was drawn between the disciples of Moses and those of 
Christ. 

The Ebionites, rejected from one religion as apostates and from 
the other as heretics, found themselves compelled to assume a more 
decided character ; and although some traces of that sect may be 
discovered as late as the fourth century they insensibly melted away 
into the Church or the Synagogue. Of all the systems of Christianitj 

* The Nazarenes, which were the stock of the Ebionites, we are to regard as the first founders 
of Christianity: to that sect we are to look for the facts as to its origin. Whatever may have 
been their individual beliefs as to the character of Jesus, they appear to have had no doubt 
that their man was crucified. 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 255 

it is said that of Abyssinia is tlie only one wliich adiieres to the Mosaic 
rite. 

While the orthodox Chnrches preserved a just modinrn between 
excessive veneration and improper contempt for the law of Moses, 
the various heretics deviated into equal, but opposite extremes. 
From the acknowledged truth of the Jewish religion the Ebionites 
had concluded that it could never be abolished. From its supposed 
imperfections the Gnostics * as hastily concluded that it never was 
instituted by the wisdom of the Deity. There are some objections 
seeming or real against the authority of Moses and the Old Testa- 
ment institutions which readily present themselves to the inquiring 
mind. These objections were eagerly embraced and petulantly urged 
by the Gnostics. As those heretics were for the most part opposed 
to the pleasures of sense they arraigned the polygamy of the patriarchs, 
the gallantries of David, and the seraglio of Solomon. The conquest 
of the land of Canaan and the extirpation of the unsuspecting natives 
they were at a loss how to reconcile with the common notions of 
humanity and justice. But when they recollected the sanguinary 
list of murders, of executions and of massacres which stain almost 
every page of the Jewish annals they acknowledged that the barbar- 
ous Israelites had exercised as much compassion towards their idol- 
atrous enemies as they had ever showed to their friends and country- 
men. Passing from the sectaries of the law to the law itself they 
asserted that it was impossible that a religion which consisted only 
of bloody sacrifices and trifling ceremonies, and whose rewards, as 
well as punishments were all of a carnal and temporal nature, could 
inspire self-denial or the practice of virtue. The Mosaic account of 
the creation and fall of man the Gnostics treated with derision. 
They would not listen with patience to the repose of the Deity after 
six days' labor, to the rib of Adam, the garden of Eden, the tree of 
life and of knowledge, the speaking serpent, the forbidden fruit, and 
the condemnation pi'onounced against human kind for the venial 
offence of their first parents. The God of Israel was represented by the 
Gnostics as a being liable to passion and to error, capricious in his 
favor, implacable in his resentment, meanly jealous of his superstitious 
worship, and confining his partial providence to a single people, and 
to this transitory life. In such a character they could discover none 
of the features of the all- wise and omnipotent universal parent. 
They allowed that the religion of the Jews was somewhat less 
criminal than the idolatry of the,Gentiles ; but it was their fundamen- 
tal doctrine that the Christ that they acknowledged as the first and 
brightest emanation of the Deity appeared upon earth to rescue maa- 

* A strong, considerably intelligent, aud influential sect of primitive Christians. 



256 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

kind from their various errors, and to reveal a new system of truth 
and perfection. Tlie Gnostics, also called Docetse,* believed in the 
non-reality of a material body of Christ. Their doctrine was that 
instead of issuing from the womb of a virgin, as the orthodox had it, 
he had descended on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect 
manhood ; that he had imposed upon the senses of his enemies and 
his disciples : and that the ministers of Pilate had wasted their 
impotent rage upon an airy phantom that seemed to expire on the 
cross and after three days to rise from the dead. Educated in the 
Platonic school, they conceived that the brightest jEon or emanation 
of the Deit}'' might assume the outward shape and visible appearance 
of a human being : but they did not conceive tlie imperfections of 
matter to be compatible with the purity of the celestial substance. 
The most learned of the orthodox Fathers admit the doctrines of the 
Gnostics. Acknowledging that the literal sense is repugnant to faith 
as well as reason, they take their stand and deem themselves secure 
behind the veil of allegory, which they claim is spread over most of 
the Scriptures. 

During the first one hundred years of Cliristianity its professors 
were indulged in a freer latitude of faith and practice than has ever 
been allowed in succeeding ages. As the spiritual authority of the 
prevailing party was exercised with increasing severity, and the terms 
of communion were gradually narrowed, many of its most respectable 
adherents who were called upon to renounce, were provoked to assert 
their private opinions, and openly to erect the standard of rebellion 
against the orthodox rule of the Church. The Gnostics were distin- 
guished as the most polite, the most learned, and the most wealthy 
of the Christian name ; and that general appellation which expresses 
a superiority in knowledge! was either assumed by themselves or ironi- 
cally bestowed by their envious adversaries. They were almost all 
of the races of the Gentiles, and their principal founders appear ro 
liave been natives of Syria and Egypt. The Gnostics blended with 
the faith of Christ many sublime but obscure tenets, which they de- 
rived from oriental philosophy and even from the religion of Zoroas- 
ter, concerning the eternity of matter, the existence of the two prin- 
ciples, and the mysterious hierarchy of the invisible world. As soon 
as they had launched out into that ocean of speculation they deliver- 
ed themselves to the guidance of a disordered imagination, and they 
were insensibl}' divided into more than fifty particular sects, of whom 
the most celebrated were the Basilidians, the Valentinians, the Mar- 



* From 6oKeo) to seem, as they held that Christ was only an appearance, and not a real 
body. 

t From -yiyv&dKU to know. 



PKIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 257 

cionites, and, in a still later period, the Mauicliteans. Each of these 
sects could boast of its bishops, and congregations, of its doctors and 
martyrs; and instead of the four Gospels adopted by the Church they 
produced a number of histories in which were related the actions and 
discourses of Christ and his apostles ; but we mnj remark here that 
Origen, that indefatigable writer,- who spent his life in the study of 
the Scriptures, relies for their authenticity upon the inspired authority 
of the Church. 

The success of the Gnostics was rapid and extensive. They cover- 
ed Asia and Egypt, established themselves in Rome and penetrated to 
some extent into the provinces of the West. They arose in the first 
and second centuries, flourished in the third, and were depressed in 
the fourth and fifth by the prevalence of the Orthodox, or Trinitarians, 
and the superior ascendant of the ruling power. 

Whatever difference of opinion might subsist between the Ortho- 
dox, the Ebionites, and the Gnostics concerning the divinity or obli- 
gation of the Mosaic law, they were all equally animated by exclusive 
zeal ; and by the same abhorrence for idolatry which had distinguish- 
ed the Jews from the other nations of the ancient world. The phi- 
losopher who understood the systems of polytheism as compositions of 
human fraud and error could disguise a smile of contempt under a 
mask of devotion without fearing that either the mockery or the com- 
pliance would subject him to the resentment of any invisible, or, as 
he conceived them, imaginary powers. But the primitive Christians 
were accustomed to look upon the established religions of Paganism 
in a much more odious and formidable light. It was their invariable 
sentiment that the demons were the authors, the patrons, and the 
objects of idolatry. Those rebellious spirits, they thought, which had 
been degraded from the rank of angels, and cast down into the infer- 
nal pit, were still permitted to roam upon the earth to torment the 
bodies, and seduce the minds of sinful men. The demons soon dis- 
covered the natural propensity of the human heart towai'ds devotion, 
and artfully AvithdraAving the worship of mankind from their Creator, 
they usui'ped the place and honors of the supreme Deity. By the 
success of their usurpations they at once gratified their pride and re- 
venge, and obtained the only consolation of whicli they were yet sus- 
ceptible, the hope of involving mankind in a participation in their 
guilt and miseries. It was imagined that they had distributed among 
themselves the most important characters of polytheism, one demon 
assuming the name and attributes of Jupiter, another of ^EscuLapius, a 
third of Venus, and a fourth of Apollo; and that by the advantage 
of their long experience and aerial nature, tliey were enabled to ex- 
ecute with skill and dignity the parts which they had undertaken. 
Vol. II.— 17 



258 CREATOR ASD COSMOS. 

Tliey lurked in the temples, instituted festivals and sacrifices, invent- 
ed fables, pronounced oracles, and were frequently allowed to perform 
miracles. The Christians who, by the interposition of invisible evil 
spirits, could so readily explain every preternatural appearance were 
disposed to admit the most extravagant fictions of the Pagan mythol- 
ogy. But the Christian's belief was accompanied with horror. The 
most trifling mark of respect paid to the national religion he consider- 
ed as a direct homage j^ielded to the demon, and as an act of rebellion 
against the majesty of God. 

In consequence of these opinions, the Christian regarded it as his 
first and most imperative duty to preserve himself pure and uncon- 
taminated from the practice of idolatry. The religions of the nations 
were not merely speculative doctrines professed in the schools or 
preached in the temples. The innumerable deities and rites of 
polytheism were interwoven with all the circumstances of business 
or pleasures of public or private life ; and it appeared impossible to 
escape the observance of them without at the same time renounc- 
ing all the offices and amusements of society, and all commerce with 
mankind. We in the present age can hardly conceive the difficulties 
which the primitive Christians experienced in preserving themselves 
from the countenancing and practice of idolatry. 

The doctrine of a future state was scarcely considered among the 
polytheists of Greece and Rome as a fundamental article of faith. 
They understood the providence of the gods as it related to public 
communities rather than to private individuals, to be principally dis- 
plaj'ed upon the theatre of this visible world. The petitions offer- 
ed on the altars of Jupiter or Apollo expressed the anxiety of their 
worshippers for temporal happiness, without regard to a future life. 
The doctrine of the soul's immortality was inculcated with more dili- 
gence and success in India, Assyria, Egypt and Gaul ; and, since we 
cannot attribute such a difference to the superior knowledge of the 
barbarians, we may ascribe it to the influence of an established priest- 
hood, which employed it as a motive tending to the practice of vir- 
tue, and as an instrument of their ambition. We would naturally 
expect that a principle so essential to religion would have been re- 
vealed in the clearest terms in the Mosaic law, and inculcated by 
the hereditary priesthood of the Jewish nation. But we discover 
that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is omitted in the 
law of Moses. After the return of the exiled Jews from Babylon, 
and after Ezra had restored the ancient records of their religion, two 
celebrated sects, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, gradually arose 
at Jerusalem. The former, belonging to the more opulent ranks of 
society, adhered strictly to the literal sense of the Mosaic law, and 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 259 

rejected the immortality of the soul as an opinion which received, no 
supportfrom the book which they revered as the only rule of life. To 
the authority of the Scriptures the Pharisees added that of tradition ; 
and they accepted under the name of tradition, several speculative 
tenets from the religions of the Eastern nations. The doctrines of 
fate or predestination, of angels and spirits, and of a future state of 
rewards and punishments were in the number of the new articles of 
their belief: and as the Pharisees, by their austere manners, had 
drawn into their party the body of the Jewish people, the immortali- 
ty of the soul became the prevailing sentiment of the synagogue 
under the reign of the Asmonaean princes and priests. As soon as the 
Jews admitted the idea of a future state, they embraced it with 
that zeal which has always so characterized their nation. 

When the promise of eternal life and happiness was proposed 
to mankind on condition of adopting and practising the faith of the 
Gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer should have 
been accepted by great numbers of every religion, rank, and pro- 
vince of the Roman Empire. The ahcient Christians were animated 
by a contempt for their present existence, and by a confidence of 
immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect faith of modern 
ages cannot give us any adequate notion. The influence of the doc- 
trines of the primitive Church was much strengthened by an opinion 
which universally prevailed therein, that the end of the world and 
the kingdom of heaven were at hand. The near approach of this 
awful event they believed to be foretold in the Gospels, and those 
who understood in their literal sense the discourses of Christ, as rep- 
resented there, expected the second and glorious coming of the Son 
of Man in the clouds before that generation should have passed away 
which was witness of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or 
Hadrian. The revolution of eighteen centuries shows us the fallacy 
of interpreting these prophecies literally ; but as this opinion subsist- 
ed in the Church it was productive of the most salutary eifects on 
the faith and practice of the Christians, who lived in the awful and 
constant expectation of that moment when the globe itself and all 
the various races of mankind should tremble at the appearance of 
the Divine Judge. The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millen- 
nium was immediately connected with the second coming of Christ. 
As the works of creation had been finished in six days their present 
state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet 
Elijah, was limited to six- thousand years. By the same analogy it 
was inferred that this long period of toil and contention which was 
now almost elapsed would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a 
thousand years, and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the 



260 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

Saints and the elect who had escaped death (see I. Thessalonians IV., 
15-18), or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth 
till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection. So pleas- 
ing was this hope to the mind of the Christians that they quickly 
adornedthenew Jerusalem, the seat of the blissful kingdom, with all 
the gayest colors of the imagination. The inhabitants of this millennial 
paradise were still supposed to retain their human nature and senses 
after as before the resurrection. A city was erected of gold and 
precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was 
bestowed on the adjacent territory, in the free enjoyment of whose 
spontaneous productions the happy and benevolent people were 
never to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive propertj^ 
The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a 
succession of Fathers from Justin Martyr and Irenseus, who, it was 
said, conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down 
to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine. Such 
appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox be- 
lievers, and it seems so well adapted to the desires and apprehen- 
sions of mankind that it must have contributed in a very considera- 
ble degree to the progress of the Christian Church. But when the 
Christian edifice was almost completed the temporary support was 
laid aside. The doctrine of Christ's literal reign upon earth was at 
first regarded as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees as 
a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the 
absurd invention of fanaticism and heresy. 

Whilst the happiness and glory of a millennial reign was prom- 
ised to the true Christians, the most dreadful calamities were pro- 
nounced against an unbelieving world. The edification of a new 
Jerusalem was to advance by equal steps with the destruction of the? 
mystic Babylon ; and as long as the Emperors who reigned before 
Constantine persisted in the profession of idolatry the epithet of 
Babylon was applied to the city and empire of Rome. A regular 
series Avas concocted of all the evils, physical and moral, which can 
afflict a flourishing nation ; intestine discords and the invasion of the 
fierce barbarians from the unknown regions of the North; pestilence 
and famine, comets and eclipses, earthquakes and inundations. All 
these were only so many preparatory and ominous signs of the great 
catastrophe of Rome, when the country of the Catos, the Scipios, and 
Caesars should be consumed by a flame from heaven, and the city of 
the seven hills, with her palaces, her temples, and her triumphal arches, 
should be buried in a vast lake of fire and brimstone. The country which 
from religious motives, had been chosen for the origin and principal 
scene of the conflagration was the best adapted for that purpose by 



PRIMITIVE CHKISTIAN CHURCH. 261 

natural and physical causes, by its deep caverns, beds of sulphur, and 
numerous volcanoes, of which those of Vesuvius, of Etna, and of 
Lipari exhibit but an imperfect representation. And the calmest and 
most intrepid skeptic, in the then state of scientific knowledge, could 
hardly refuse to allow that the destruction of the system of the world 
by fire was in itself not improbable. The Christian also founded his 
belief much less on the deduction of reason than on the authorit}'' 
of tradition, and his interpretation of Scripture; expected it with 
terror and confidence as a certain approaching event ; and as his 
mind was perpetually filled with the solemn idea he considered every 
disaster that happened to the Empire as an infallible symptom of an 
expiring world. 

The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the ancients 
on account of their ignorance or incredulity with respect to Chris- 
tianity, implies an idea offensive to reason, and highly presumptuous. 
But the primitive Church, whose faith was of a firm consistence, 
delivered over without hesitation to eternal torture the far Greater 
part of mankind. They might j)erhaps indulge a charitable hope in 
favor of Socrates, or some other sages of antiquity, who consulted 
the benefit of mankind according to the light of reason, before that 
of the Gospel had arisen. But they unanimously affirmed that those 
who, since the introduction of Christianity, had obstinately persist- 
ed in the worship of the demons, neither deserved nor could expect 
a pardon from the justice of the Deity. These rigid sentiments, 
which had been unknown to the ancient world, appear to have infused 
a spirit of bitterness into a system otherwise of love and harmony. 
The ties of blood and friendship were frequently torn asunder by 
the difference of religious faith ; and the Christians who in this woi'ld 
found themselves oppressed by the power of the Pagans, were some- 
times reduced by resentment and spiritual pride to delight in the 
prospect of their future triumph. "■ You are fond of spectacles," 
exclaims Tertullian ; " expect the greatest of all spectacles, the last 
and eternal judgment of the universe. How shall T admire, how 
laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud mon- 
archs, so many fancied gods groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness ; 
so many magistrates who pei-secuted the name of the Lord, liquefy- 
ing in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against the Christians ; so 
many deluded philosophers blushing in red-hot flames with their de- 
luded scholars : so many celebrated poets trembling before the tribu- 
nal, not of Minos, but of Christ; so many tragedians more tuneful 
in the expression of their own siifferings; so many dancers — " but 
feelings of humanity suggest to us to draw a veil over this fearful 
description which the fierce African (rather an exception, indeed, in 



262 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

this respect, to the generality of the early Christian writers), still 
pursues in a long variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms. 

But beyond doubt there were many among the primitive Chris- 
tians of a temper more corresponding to the meekness and charity of 
their profession. There were many who felt a sincere compassion 
for their friends and countrymen, and who exerted their zeal and 
influence to save them from impending destruction. The careless 
and ignorant polytheist, assailed by new and unexpected terrors, 
against which neither his priests nor philosophers offered him any 
certain protection, was frequently terrified and subdued by the menace 
of eternal damnation. His fears might assist the progress of his 
faith and reason ; and if he could only persuade himself that the 
Christian religion might possibly be true it became an easy task to 
convince him that it was the safest party that he could possibly em- 
brace. 

The supernatural gifts, too, which were claimed to be exercised 
by the Christians above the rest of mankind, must have conduced to 
their own comfort, and frequently to the conversion of infidels. 
The expulsion of evil spirits from the bodies of those persons whom 
they had tormented was considered a signal though ordinary triumph 
of the Christian faith, and is repeatedly urged by the ancient Fathers 
as the most convincing evidence of the truth of Christianity. The 
ceremon}^ was usually performed in a public manner, and in the ])re- 
sence of a great number of spectators ; the patient was relieved by 
the power or skill of the exorcist, and the vanquished demon was 
heard to confess that he was one of the fabled gods of antiquity that 
had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind. The reader can- 
not fail to see how such effects and phenomena may have been pro- 
duced after reading the illustrations in the case of the miracles of 
the Gospels ; still considering that they may have been produced in 
other ways by the influence of the Holy Spirit. But the most mira- 
culous cure of diseases of the most inveterate and preternatural kind 
can no longer occasion us any surprise when we are informed that 
in the days of Irenaeus, about the end of the second century, the 
resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed an un- 
common event. Dr. Middleton, however, thus objects to this state- 
ment of Ireuceus : " It is very strange that from the time of the 
apostles there is not a single instance of this miracle to be found in 
the three first centuries : except a single case slightly intimated in 
in Eusebius from the works of Papias,* and which he seemed to rank 
among the other fabulous stories delivered by that weak man." And 



* The preceptor of Irenaeus and who claimed to have conversed with the apostle John. 
Such is liow tradition comes to us. 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 263 

Bp. Douglass considers Irenaeus to speak of what had "been per 
formed formerly," not in his own time. At such a period, however, 
when faith could boast of so many wonderful victories over death, 
it seems difficult to account for the skepticism of these philosophers 
who still rejected and derided the Christian doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion. A noble Greek had rested upon this important ground the 
whole controversy, and promised Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, that 
if he could be gratified with the sight of a single person who had 
been actually raised from the dead, he would immediately embrace 
the Christian religion. It is to be remarked that this prelate, how- 
ever anxious he may have been for the conversion of his friend, 
thought proper to decline this fair and reasonable challenge. 

It is evident that the unresisting softness of temper, so con- 
spicuous among the primitive Christians of the first three centuries, 
proved of some benefit to the advancement of their cause. The most 
credulous or curious among the Polytheists were often persuaded to 
enter into a society which asserted an actual claim of miraculous 
powers. Tlie primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, 
and their minds were exercised to the habit of believing the most 
extraordinary events. They felt, or they fancied, that on every 
side they were incessantly assaulted by demons, comforted by visions, 
instructed by prophecy, and sometimes delivered from sickness, 
danger, and death by the supplications of the Church. The real or 
imaginary prodigies of which they so frequently conceived them- 
selves to be the objects, the instruments, or the spectators, happily 
disposed them to adopt with the same ease the wonders of the 
evangelic narratives ; and thus miracles which did not exceed the 
measure of their own experience inspired them with the most lively 
assurance of mysteries which were represented to surpass the limits 
of their understanding. It is this deep impression of supernatural 
doctrines which has been so much celebrated under the name of 
faith ; a state of mind described as the surest pledge of the divine 
favor, and of future felicity, and recommended as the first, perhaps 
the only real merit of a Christian. According to the more rigid 
Christian doctors, even to our own time, the moral virtues, which 
may be equally practised by infidels, are destitute of any value or 
efficacy in the work of our justification ; a doctrine which is carried 
out to its full extent by the Jesuits, and by all who are of a like 
spirit in every Christian Church, and which not only bears its refu- 
tation on its face, but in the meanly immoral practices of many of 
its professors. 

But the primitive Christians wei'e accustomed to demonstrate 
their faith by their virtues ; and it Avas justly supposed that the 



264 CKEATOB AND COSMOS. 

divine persuasion which enlightened ov subdued the understanding 
did at the same time purify the heart and direct the actions of the 
believer. The first apologists for Christianity who justify the inno- 
cence of their brethren, and the writers of a later age who celebrate 
the sanctity of their ancestors, display in the most vivid colors the 
reformation of manners which was introduced to the world by the 
preaching of the Gospel. Tt was a very ancient reproach of the 
Pagans against the Christians that the latter allured into their 
society the most atrocious and abandoned criminals, who, as soon as 
they were touched by a sense of remorse, were easily persuaded to 
wash away in the waters of baptism the guilt of their past conduct, 
for which the temples of the gods refused to grant them any expia- 
tion. But this seeming reproach, when cleared from misrepresenta- 
tions, contributes perhaps as much to the honor as it did to the 
increase of the Church. The friends of Christianity may acknowl- 
edge without shame that many of their most eminent saints had 
been, previous to their baptism, abandoned sinnei's. Those persons 
who, in the world, followed, though perhaps imperfectly, the dictates 
of benevolence and propriety, derived such a calm satisfaction from 
the consciousness of their own rectitude as rendered them much less 
susceptible of the sudden emotions of shame, of grief, and of terror 
which have given birth to so many wonderful conversions. After 
the example of their divine master, as set forth in the Gospels, the 
Christian missionaries of this age did not disdain the society of men, 
and of women, oppressed by the consciousness and often by the 
effects of their vices. As they emerged from sin and superstition to 
the glorious hope of immortality they resolved to devote themselves 
to a life, not only of penitence but of virtue ; and the desire of per- 
fection became the ruling passion of their soul. When the Chris- 
tians of Bythinia were brought before the tribunal of the younger 
Pliny, under certain accusations, they assured the Proconsul that 
far from being engaged in an unlawful conspiracy, they were bound 
by a solemn obligation to abstain from the commission of those 
crimes which disturb the private or the public peace of society, from 
theft, robbery, adultery, perjury and fraud. And this blamelessness 
was admitted by the candid and enlightened Roman, so far as his 
opportunity of observing the Christians allowed him to judge. Near 
a century after this TertuUian with an honest pride, could boast 
that very few Christians had suffered by the hand of the executioner, 
except on account of their religion. Their serious and sequestered 
life, averse to the gay luxury of the age, inured them to chastity, 
temperance, economy, and all the sober and domestic virtues. The 
contempt of the world exercised them in the habits of humility, 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 265 

meekness and patience. The more they were persecuted the more 
closely they adhered to each other. Their mutual charity and un- 
suspecting confidence has been remarked upon by infidels, and was 
too, often abused by perfidious friends. It is an honorable circum- 
stance for the morals of the primitive Christians that even their 
faults, or rather errors, were derived from an excess of virtue. Some 
of the bishops and fathers of the Church, whose evidence attests, 
and whose authority might influence the professions, the principles, 
and even the practice of their contemporaries, had studied the Scrip- 
tures with less skill than devotion ; and they often received in the 
most literal sense those rigid precepts of the Gospels to which suc- 
ceeding commentators have applied a figurative mode of interpreta- 
tion. Ambitious to exalt the perfection of the Gospel above the wisdom 
of philosophy, the zealous fathers have carried the duties of self-mor- 
tification, of purity and patience to a height which one would think 
scarcely possible for a human being to attain, much less to preserve. 
Aspiring to imitate the perfection of angels they disdained, or they 
affected to disdain, every earthly and corporeal delight. The first 
sensation of pleasure was marked as the first moment of the abuse of 
the senses. The candidate for heaven was instructed, not only to 
resist the grosser allurements of the taste or smell, but even to shut 
his ears against the harmonies of profane music, and to view with 
indifference even the most finished productions of human art. Gay 
apparel, magnificent houses, and elegant furniture were supposed to 
unite the double guilt of pride and of sensuality ; a simple and morti- 
fied appearance was more becoming to the Christian, who was certain 
of his sins, and doubtful of his salvation. In their censures of luxury 
the fathers are exceedingly minute and circumstantial ; and among 
the various articles which excite their pious indignation we 'may 
mention false hair, garments of any color except wliite, instruments 
of music, vases of gold and silver, downy pillows (as Jacob reposed 
his head on a stone), white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, 
the use of warm baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, 
in the language of TertuUian, is a lie against our own faces, and an 
impious attempt to improve tlie works of the Creator. When Christian- 
ity was introduced among the rich and polite, the observance of those 
rules was left to such as aspired to superior sanctit3^ Buttlie virtue 
of the primitive Christians, like that of the primitive Romans, was to a 
large extent guarded by poverty and ignorance, since it can hardly 
be said that the less wealthy ranks of mankind can claim a merit for 
foregoing that which they are not able to possess ; an d still if men 
be real Christians (whether they be poor or rich) they are infinitely 
more content and godly without the use of luxuries. Modesty in 



266 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

moderation is commendable in all, for it must be confessed that the 
poor in many cases are inclined to be more vain than they should be 
as well as the rich. 

The fathers were correspondingly particular in the restraints 
which they imposed upon the commerce of the sexes. It was theii 
unanimous sentiment that a first marriage was all that was requisite 
for the purposes of nature and of society. The marriage tie was 
defined as a resemblance of the mystic union between Christ and his 
Church, and was pronounced indissoluble either by divorce or death. 
The practice of second nuptials was branded with the name of a 
legal adultery, and the persons who were guilty of such a scandalous 
offence against Christian purity were excluded from the honors and 
from the alms of the Church. They considered a state of celibacy 
and a godly life as the nearest approach to the divine perfection. It 
was often with difficulty that ancient Rome could maintain the in- 
stitution of six vestal virgins ; but the primitive Church was filled 
with a great number of persons of either sex who had devoted them- 
selves to the practice of perpetual chastity. A few of these occa- 
sionally, among whom we may reckon the celebrated Origen, judged 
it most prudent to disarm the tempter by marriage. Among the 
Christian ascetics, however (a name which from their peculiar man- 
ner of life they soon acquired), many, as they were less presumptuous 
were probably more successful. The loss of sensual pleasure was 
compensated in them by spiritual pride ; and it was in praise of these 
chaste spouses of Christ that the Fathers have poured forth the stream 
of their eloquence. Such are the early traces of monastic principles 
and institutions which in a subsequent age counterbalanced all the 
advantages of Clnistianity. 

While the primitive Christians inculcated the maxims of passive 
obedience they were not inclined to take any active part in the civil 
administration of the government, or the military service of the em- 
pire. This seeming indifference to the public welfare exposed them 
to the contempt and reproaches of the Pagans, who often asked what 
must be the fate of the Empire, attacked on all sides by the barbar- 
ians, if all the Roman citizens should adopt the pusillanimous senti- 
ments of the new sect. To this reproachful question the Christian 
apologists returned obscure and ambiguous answers, as they were 
unwilling to reveal the secret cause of their security, the expectation 
that before the conversion of mankind was accomplished, war, 
government, the Roman Empire, and the World itself should be no 
more. 

But though the primitive Christians were dead to the pleasures 
and business of the world, their love of action, which could not be 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 267 

extinguished, found a new occupation in the government of the 
Church. The safety of their society, it§ advancement and honor 
produced in their minds a spirit of patriotism such as the earl}-- 
Romans had felt for the republic, and sometimes also of a similar 
indifference in the use of whatever means might probably conduce 
to so desirable an end. The ambition of elevating themselves to the 
honors and offices of the Church they disguised by the laudable 
profession of devoting to the public good the power and considera- 
tion which, for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit. 
In the exercise of their office they were frequently called upon to 
detect the errors of heresy or the arts of faction, to oppose the de- 
signs of perfidious brethren, to stigmatize their characters with in- 
famy, and to expel them from a societj^ whose peace and harmony 
they had attempted to disturb. The ecclesiastical rulers of the 
Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the 
innocence of the dove : but as the former was subtile so the latter 
gradually became corrupted with the habits of government. In the 
Church, as in the world, those who were placed in any prominent 
station rendered themselves considerable by their eloquence and 
firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by their dexterity in 
business ; and while they concealed from others, and perhaps from 
themselves, the secret motives of their conduct, they too frequently 
displayed all the turbulent passions of active life, which were tinc- 
tured with an additional degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the 
infusion of spiritual zeal. 

Those who have studied the subject with candor and impartiality 
are of the opinion that those primitive Christians to whom the name 
of apostles is ascribed declined the office of legislation, and rather 
chose to endure some partial scandals and divisions than to exclude 
the Christians of future ages from the liberty of varying their forms 
of ecclesiastical government, according to the changes of time and 
circumstances. The scheme of policy which was adopted during 
the first century may be discovered from the practice of the Churches 
of Jerusalem, Ephesus, and Corinth. The Christian societies which 
were organized in the cities of the Roman Empire were united only 
by the ties of mutual faith and charity. Equality and independence 
formed the basis of their internal constitution. The want of disci- 
pline and human learning was partially supplied by the assistance of 
the prophets, who appear to have had their spiritual call to that 
function without distinction of sex or natural abilities, and who, as 
often as they felt the impulse of inspiration, poured forth their 
prophecies in the Christian assemblies. But these extraordinary 
gifts were frequently abused or misapplied by the prophetic teachers. 



268 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

They displayed them at an improper season, presumptuously disturb- 
ed the service of the assembly, and by their misdirected zeal, or their 
vanity, they introduced into the Church of Corinth a long and 
melancholy train of disorders. As the institution of prophets be- 
came useless, and even harmful, their powers were withdrawn and 
their office abolished. The public functions of religion were then 
solely entrusted to the established ministers of the Church, the bish- 
ops and p:-esbyters ; two appellations which in their first origin 
appear to have distinguished the same office and the same order of 
persons. The name presbyter was expressive of their age, or rather 
of their gravity and wisdom. The title of bishop Q-ia/MTzo^) denoted 
their inspection over the faith and morals of the Christians who were 
committed to their pastoral care. In proportion to the number of 
the faithful in the infant congregations a larger or a smaller number 
of these episcopal presbyters guided with equal authority and united 
counsels. 

But the most perfect equality of freedom requires the directing 
hand of an acknowledged superior ; and the order of public proceed- 
ings soon introduced the office of a president, at least, with the 
authority of collecting the sentiments, and of executing the resolu- 
tions of the assembly. A regard for the public order and tranquillity 
which would have been so frequently interrupted by annual, or by 
occasional elections, induced the primitive Christians to constitute 
an honorable and perpetual rulership, and to choose one of the wisest 
and the most holy among theii presbyters, to execute during his life 
the duties of their ecclesiastical Governor. It was uiidii- iik-.-c cii- 
ciimstances that the lofty title of bishop began to raise itself above 
the humble appellation of presbyter or elder ; and while the latter 
remained the most natural distinction for the members of every 
Christian senat«, the former was appropriated to the dignity of its 
new president. The episcopal form of government, which appears 
to have been instituted before the end of the first century, was 
adopted without delay by all the societies which were already scat- 
tered over the Empire, had acquired in an early period the sanction 
of antiquity, and is still looked upon by the most numerous branches 
of the Christian Church as a primitive and even a divine institution. 
It need hardly be observed that the pious and humble presbyters or 
elders, who were first dignified with the title of bishop, could not 
possess, and would probably have rejected the power and pomp which 
afterwards pertained to the Roman Pontiffs, or now pertain to a 
German or English prelate. Their jurisdiction, which was originally 
of a spiritual, though in most cases of a temporal nature also, we 
may define in a few words. It consisted in the administration of 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 269 

the sacraments and discipline of the Church, the superintendence 
of religious ceremonies, which insensibly increased in number and 
variety, the consecration of ecclesiastical ministers, to whom the 
bishop assigned their respective functions, the management of the 
public fund, and the determination of all such differences as the 
faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous 
judge. These powers, during a short period, were exercised accord- 
ing to the advice of the college of presbyters, and with the consent 
and approbation of the assembly of Christians. The primitive bishops 
were considered as only the first of their equals, and as the honorable 
servants of a free people. Whenever the episcopal chair became 
vacant by death, a new president was cliosen among the presbyters 
by the suffrages of the whole congregation, every member of which 
supposed himself invested with a sacred and sacerdotal character in 
respect to holiness and virtue. Such was the mild and equal con- 
stitution by which the Christians were governed for more than a 
hundred years after the first introduction of Christianity. Every 
society formed within itself a separate and independent republic ; and, 
although the most widely separated of these little states maintained 
a mutual and friendly intercourse of letters and deputations, the 
Christian world was not yet connected by any supreme authority or 
legislative council. As the numbers of the faithful gradually mul- 
tiplied they discovered the advantages which might result from a 
close union of their interests and designs. Towards the end of the 
second century the Churches of Greece and Asia adopted the insti- 
tution of provincial synods. It was soon established as a custom 
and as a law that the bishops of the independent Churches should 
meet in the capital of each province at the stated periods of spring 
and autumn. They were assisted in their deliberations by the advice 
of a few distinguished presbyters, and attended by the presence of a 
listening multitude. Their decrees, which were styled canons, regu- 
lated every important controversy of faith and discipline. The in- 
stitution of synods was so well suited to private ambition and to 
public interest that, in the space of a few years, it was adopted 
throughout the Avhole Empire. A regular correspondence was estab- 
lished between the provincial councils, which mutually communicated 
and approved their respective proceedings, and the universal Chris- 
tian Church soon assumed the form and acquired the strength of a 
great federative republic. 

As the legislative authoritj^ of the several Chui'ches was insensi- 
bly superseded by the use of councils, the bishops obtained by their 
alliance a much larger share of executive and arbitrary power; 
and as soon as they became connected by a sense of their common 



270 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

interest they were enabled to attack, with combined vigor, the orig- 
inal rights of their clergy and people. The bishops of the third 
century imperceptibly changed the language of exhortation into 
that of command, scattered the seeds of future usurpations, and sup- 
plied by Scripture metaphor and declamatory rhetoric their deficiency 
of force and reason. They magnified the unity and power of the 
Church as it was represented in the episcopal office, of which each 
bishop enjoyed an equal portion. Princes and magistrates, it was 
often repeated, might boast a claim to a transitory earthly dominion ; 
but it was the episcopal authority alone which was derived from 
the Deity, and extended itself over this and over another world. 
The bishops were the vicegerents of Christ, the successors of the 
apostles, and the mystic substitutes of the high priests of the 
Israelitish Church. By their exclusive privilege of conferring the 
sacerdotal order, they invaded the freedom of the clerical elections ; 
and if, in the administration of the Church, they still consulted the 
judgment of the elders, or the inclination of the people, they took 
great care to inculcate the merit of such a voluntary condescension. 
The bishops acknowledged the superior authority which resided 
in the assembly of their brethren ; but in the government of his pecu- 
liar diocese, each of them exacted from his flocks the same implicit 
obedience as if that favorite metaphor had been literally just, and 
as if the shepherd were of a superior nature to that of his sheep. 
This obedience, however, was not imposed without some efforts on 
one side and some resistance on the other. The democratic part of 
the constitution was, in many places, very warmly supported by the 
zealous or interested opposition of the inferior clergy. But their 
patriotism received the ignominious epithets of faction and schism ; 
and the episcopal cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the 
labors of many active prelates who, like Cyprian of Carthage, could 
reconcile the arts of a most ambitious statesman with the Christian 
virtues which secured him the character of a saint and martyr. 

The same causes which at first operated to destroy the equality 
of the presbyters introduced among the bishops a pre-eminence of 
rank and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction. As often as they 
met in the provincial synod, which happened each spring and autumn, 
the difference of personal merit and reputation was very sensibly 
felt among the members of the assembly and the multitude was 
governed by the wisdom and eloquence of the few. But the order 
of public proceedings required a more regular and less individious 
distinction ; the office of perpetual presidents in the councils of each 
Province was conferred upon the bishops of the principal cities ; and 
these aspiring prelates, who soon acquired the lofty titles of Metro- 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 271 

politans and Primates, secretly prepared themselves to usurp over 
their episcopal brethren a like authority to that which the bishops 
had so lately assumed above the college of presbyters. Nor was it 
long before an emulation of pre-eminence and power prevailed among 
the Metropolitans themselves, each of them affecting to display in 
the most pompous terms the temporal honors and advantages of the 
city over which he presided ; the number and wealth of the Chris- 
tians that were subject to their pastoral care ; the saints and martyrs 
that had arisen among them ; and the purity witli which they had 
preserved the orthodox faith as it had been handed down through a 
series of bishops from the apostle or apostolic disciple to which the 
founding of their church was ascribed. From every cause either of a 
civil or of an ecclesiastical nature it was easy to foresee that Rome 
must enjoy the respect, and might soon claim the obedience of the pro- 
vinces. The Roman Church was the greatest, the most numerous, 
and, in regard to the west, the most ancient of the Christian establish- 
ments, many of which had been founded by the labor of her mission- 
aries. Instead of one apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, 
or Corinth, or Ephesus, the city of the seven hills was supposed to 
have been honored with the preaching and martyrdom of two emi- 
nent apostles ; and the bishops of Rome ingeniously claimed the in- 
heritance of whatsoever prerogatives were attributed either to the 
person or the office of St. Peter. The bishops of Italy and the pro- 
vinces were disposed to allow them a primacy of order and associa- 
tion (such was the way they expressed it) in the Christian aristoc- 
racy. But the power of a monarch was rejected with abhorrence, 
and the aspiring genius of Rome encountered with the nations of 
Asia and Africa a more determined resistance to her spiritual than 
she had formerly to her temporal dominion. The bishop of Carthage, 
the patriotic Cyprian, who himself ruled with the most absolute sway 
the Church of Carthage and the provincial synods, opposed with res- 
olution and success the ambition of the Roman bishops, ai-tfully con- 
nected his own cause with that of the Eastern bishops, and like 
Hannibal, sought out new allies in the heart of Asia. If this Punic 
war was carried on without any blood being shed it was owing- 
much more to the weakness than to the moderation of the contending 
parties. Invectives and excommunications, which were their only 
weapons, they hurled at each other during the whole controversy 
with equal fury and devotion. 

The progress of ecclesiastical authority gave rise to the distinc- 
tion of the clergy and laity, which had before been unknown to the 
Greeks and Romans. The latter of these appellations comprehended 
the great mass of the Christian people, the former that select portion 



272 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

which had been set apart for the service of religion ; a class of men 
which has formed an important, though not always an edifying sub- 
ject of history. These mutual hostilities sometimes disturbed the 
peace of the early Church ; but their zeal and activity advanced the 
common cause, and the love of power, which, under the most plausi- 
ble disguises, could insinuate itself into the breast of bishops and 
martyrs, impelled them to increase the number of their subjects, and 
to enlarge the extent of the Christian Empire. They were, during 
the period we are considering destitute of any temporal force, and 
for a long time discouraged and depressed, rather than assisted by 
the civil magistrate ; but they had acquired, and they employed 
within their own society, the two most effectual instruments of 
power, rewards and punishments ; the former derived from the pious 
contributions, the latter from the spiritual apprehensions of their 
people. 

The way in which baptism was performed in the primitive 
Church appears. from the strongest historical evidence to have been 
by immersion. Dr. Mosheim, in his Church history, in speaking of 
the first century, says ; " The sacrament of baptism was administei-ed 
in this century without the public assemblies, in places appointed 
and prepared for the purpose, and was performed by immersion of 
the whole body in the baptismal font. 

At first it was usual for all who labored in the propagation of 
the Grospel to be present at that solemn ceremony ; and it was also 
customary that the converts should be baptized and received into the 
Church by those under whose ministry they had embraced the 
Christian doctrine. But this custom was soon changed. When the 
Christian Churches were well established and governed by a system 
of fixed laws, then the right of baptizing converts was vested in the 
bishop alone. This right, indeed, he conferred upon the presbyters 
and chorepiscopi, or country bishops, when the bounds of the Church 
were still further enlarged, reserving, however, to himself the confir- 
mation of the baptism which was administered by a presbyter. There 
were doubtless several circumstantial rites and ceremonies observed 
in the administration of this sacrament for the sake of order and de- 
cency. Of these, however, it is not easy, nor perhaps possible, to 
give a certain or satisfactory account, since upon this subject we are 
too much exposed to the illusion which arises from confounding the 
customs of the primitive times with those of succeeding ages." * 

In speaking of the practice of the same right in the second centu- 
ry he says : " The sacrament of baptism was administered publicly 
twice every year at the festivals of Easter and Pentecost, or Whit- 



* Moslieiin's Ecclesiastical Hist. Cent. I. 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 273 

suntide, either by the bishop, or the presbyters, in consequence of 
his authorization and appointment. The persons that were to be bap- 
tized, after they had repeated the creed, confessed and renounced 
their sins, and particularly the devil and his pompous allurements, 
were immersed under water, and received into Christ's kingdom by a 
solemn invocation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according to the 
exjjress command of our blessed Lord. After baptism they received 
the sign of the cross, were anointed, and by prayer and imposition 
of hands were solemnly commended to the mercy of Qod, and dedi- 
cated to his service, in consequence of which they received milk and 
honey, which concluded the ceremony. The reason of this particular 
ritual coincides with what we have said in general concerning the 
origin and multiplied ceremonies that crept from time to time into 
the Church." * In speaking of the same rite in the third cen- 
tury, he says : " There were twice a year stated times when baptism 
was administered to such as, after a long course of trial and prepar- 
ation, offered themselves as candidates for the profession of Chris- 
tianity. This ceremony was performed only in the presence of such 
as were already initiated into the Christian mysteries. The remission 
of sins was thought to be its immediate and happy fruit, while the 
bishop, by prayer and the imposition of hands, was supposed to con- 
fer those sanctifying gifts of the Holy Spirit that are necessary to the 
life of righteousness and virtue. We have already mentioned the 
principal rites that were used in the administration of baptism ; and 
we have only to add that none were admitted to this solemn ordi- 
nance until by the menacing and formidable shouts of the exorcist 
they had been delivered from the dominion of the prince of darkness 
and consecrated to the service of God. 

The driving out of this demon was noiv considered as an essen- 
tial preparation for baptism, after the administration of which the 
candidates returned home adorned with crowns and arrayed in Avhite 
garments as sacred emblems, the former of their victory over sin and 
the world, and the latter of their inward purity and innocence." f 
In speaking of the same right in tlie fourth century, after the Chris- 
tian religion was established in the Empire, he says : " Baptismal 
fonts were now erected in the porch of each Church for the more 
commodious administration of that initiating sacrament. Baptism 
was administered during the vigils of Easter and Whitsuntide, with 
lighted tapers, by the bishoj), and the presbyters commissioned by 
him for that purpose. In cases, however, of urgent necessity, and in 
such only, a dispensation was granted for performing that sacred 



* Moshcini'sKoclesiasticiilHist. Cent. II. t Id. Cent HI. 

Vol. II.— 18 



274 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

rite at other times than those now mentioned. In some places salt 
was employed as a symbol of purity and wisdom, and was thrown 
with this view into the mouth of the pei'son baptized : and a double 
unction was everywhere used in the celebration of this ordinance, 
one preceding its administration, and the other following it. The 
persons who were admitted into the Church by baptism were obliged, 
after the celebration of that holy ordinance, to go clothed in white 
garments during the space of seven daj^s." * And in his history of 
the Church in the eleventh century we find a passage which implies 
or proves that baptism by immersion was the rule even at that late 
period. Here, in a controversy that took place between the Greek 
and Latin Churches, Cerularius, the patriarch of Constantinople, 
complains among other things, " that in the rite of baptism they (the 
Latins) confined themselves to one single immersion." f At what 
time the baptism by sprinkling was introduced does not appear, but 
it may have been practised to some extent all along in the ages after 
Constantine. Granting all that has here been said with respect to 
the manner of baptism in the primitive Church, we still remark that 
carnal ordinances, however performed, are of no account in compar- 
ison with regeneration, which baptism symbolizes, and which is the 
all-important thing Christianity has in view to achieve. Circum- 
cision is nothing ; uncircumcision is nothing ; but the keeping of the 
commandments of God is everything. 

The way in which the Lord's Supper was administered in the 
primitive Church was as follows : " The professors, according to their 
means, brought with them oblations of bread and wine and other 
things which they offered as gifts to the Lord ; and hence both the 
ministers of the Church and the poor deriv^ed their subsistence. Of 
the bread and wine presented in these offerings such a quantity was 
separated from the rest as was required in the administration of the 
Lord's Supper. This was consecrated by certain prayers pronounced 
by the bishop, to Avhich the people assented by saying : Amen. The 
Holy Supper was distributed by the deacons, and this sacred rite 
was, in some churches, followed by the Agapae, or feasts of love, which 
in other churches preceded it." By this it plainl}" appears that the 
Christian priesthood was designed to be a substitute for the Jewish 
priesthood (the Christian bisliop being the substitute for the Jewish 
high-priest, the presbyters for the priests, and the deacons for the 
Levites) ; and that the Lord's Supper represented the whole sacrifi- 
cial ritual of the Jews, consisting of popular oblations and priestly 
sacrifices. The primitive mode of celebrating the Lord's Supper, as 



* Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Hist. Cent. lY. . t Id. Cent. XI. 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 275 

given above, was much altered in course of time, and was also con 
siderably varied according to localit_y. 

We do not find that a community of goods was practised in the 
primitive Church, at least to any noticeable extent ; the converts who 
embraced the new religion were permitted to retain the possession 
of their property, to receive bequests and inheritances, and to increase 
their separate property by all the lawful means of trade and industry. 
Instead of an absolute sacrifice, a moderate portion was accepted by 
the clergy ; and in their weekly or monthly assemblies every believer, 
according to the measure of his wealth or the exigency of the occasion, 
presented his voluntary offering for the use of the common fund. 
Nothing, however inconsiderable, was refused, but it was diligently 
inculcated that in the article of tithes the Mosaic law was still of 
divine obligation, and that since the Jews, under a less perfect dis- 
pensation, had been commanded to pay a tenth part of all they pos- 
sessed, it would become the disciples of Christ to distinguish them- 
selves by a superior degree of liberality, and to acquire some merit 
by resigning a superfluous treasure which must so soon be a,nnihilated 
with the world itself. The bishop was the natural steward of the 
Church ; the public stock was entrusted to his care without account 
or control ; the presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions, 
and the more dependent order of the deacons was solely employed 
in the management and distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue. 

If the vehement declamations of Cyprian are to be credited, there 
were too many among his African dispensing brethren who, in the 
execution of their charge violated every precept, not only of evangeli- 
cal perfection, but even of moral virtue. By some of these unfaithful 
stewards, the riches of the Church were lavished in sensual pleasures, 
by others they were perverted to the purposes of private gain, of 
fraudulent purchases and rapacious usury. But it appears reasonable 
that as long as the contributions of the Christian people were free 
and unconstrained, the abuse of their confidence could not have been 
very frequent, and the general uses to which their donations were 
applied reflected honor on the religious society. A decent portion 
was reserved for the maintenance of the bishop and his clergy ; a 
sufficient sum was set apart for the exj^enses of the public worship, 
of which the agapoe, or feasts of love, as they were called, constituted 
a pleasing part. The whole remainder was reserved for the poor. 

According to the discretion of the bishop, it was distributed to 
support widows and orphans, the lame, the sick, and the aged of 
the community ; to supply the wants of strangers and pilgrims, and 
to alleviate the misfortunes of prisoners and captives, more especially 
when their sufferings had been occasioned by their firm attachment 



276 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

to the cause of i-eligion. A generous intercourse of charity united 
the most distant provinces and communities, and the smaller con- 
gregations were cheerfully assisted by the alms of the more wealthy. 
Such an institution, which paid less regard to the merit than to the 
distress of the object, very materially conduced to the spread of 
Christianity. The humane among the Pagans, while they derided 
the doctrines, acknowledged the benevolence of the new sect. The 
prospect of speedy succour and of future protection allured into its 
hospitable fold many unhapp}^ persons whom the neglect of the 
world would have abandoned to want, sickness, and old age. There 
is also some reason to believe that numbers ot infants who, according 
to the inhuman practice of these times, had been exposed by their 
parents, were frequently rescued from death, baptised, educated, and 
maintained b}' the pious charity of the Christians. 

Every society has the right of excluding from its numbers such 
of its members as reject or violate those regulations which have been 
established by general consent. In the exercise of this power, the 
primitive Christian Church directed its censures chiefly against 
scandalous sinners, and particularly those who were guilty of murder, 
fraud, or incontinence ; against the authors or the abettors of any 
heretical opinion which had been condemned by the judgment of the 
episcopal order : and against those unhappy persons who, whether 
from choice or compulsion, had practised after their baptism any act 
of idolatrous worship. The consequences of excommunication were 
of a temporal as well as a spiritual nature. The Christian against 
whom it was pronounced was deprived of any part in the common 
fund. The ties both of religion and private friendship were to him 
dissolved, and he found himself shunned and suspected by those 
whom he had esteemed, or by whom he had been beloved. The 
situation of these exiles was in itself very painful and melancholy, 
and their apprehensions must in some cases at least have far exceeded 
their sufferings ; for in the state of their knowledge then they could 
hardly erase from their minds the awful impression that these eccle- 
siastical governors, by whom the}^ were condemned, possessed as the 
prerogative of their office the keys of hell and heaven. But the 
heretics who might be supported by the conscious rectitude of their 
intentions, and by the flattering hope that they alone had discovered 
the true way of salvation, endeavored to regain in their separate 
assemblies those comforts, temporal as well as spiritual, which they 
no longer enjoyed from the great societies. But almost all those 
who had reluctantly yielded to the allurements of vice and idolatry 
were sensible of their fallen condition, and anxiously desired to be 
restored to Christian communion. 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 277 

With respect to the treatment of these penitents two opinions, 
the one of justice, the other of mercy, divided the Primitive Church. 
The more rigid casuists refused them forever the meanest place in 
the community which they had disgraced or deserted ; and leaving 
them to the remorse of a guilty conscience indulged them only with 
a faint ray of hope that the repentance of their life might possibly 
be accepted by the Deity in lieu of eternal salvation. A milder 
sentiment was embraced in practice as well as in theory by the 
purest and most respectable of the Christian Churches. The door 
of reconciliation was seldom shut against the returning penitent, but 
a severe form of discipline was instituted, which, while it served as 
an expiation of his crime, might powerfully deter the spectators from 
imitating his example. Humbled by a public confession, emaciated 
by fasting, and clothed in sackcloth, the penitent lay prostrate at the 
door of the assembly, imploring with sighs and tears the pardon of 
his offences, and soliciting the prayers of the faithful. If the fault 
was of a verj- heinous character, whole years of penance were esteemed 
an inadequate satisfaction to the divine justice; and it was always 
by slow and painful gradations that the sinner, the heretic, or the 
apostate was admitted into the bosom of the Church. A sentence of 
perpetual excommunication was, however, reserved for some crimes 
of an extraordinary magnitude, and particularly for the inexcusable 
relapse of those penitents who had already experienced and abused 
the mercy of their ecclesiastical superiors. The exercise of the 
Christian discipline was varied according to the circumstances or 
the number of the guilty. 

Of the number of Christian martyrs who suffered for their prin- 
ciples under the rule of the pagan Emperors it is difficult to make a 
true estimate, since we have to rely only on the statements, often 
exaggerated, of ecclesiastical historians of the fourth or fifth centu- 
ries, who appear to have ascribed to the magistrates of Rome the 
same degree of implacable and unrelenting zeal as actuated them- 
selves against the heretics or the i:)olytheists of their own times. The 
celebrated number of ten persecutions has been determined by the 
ecclesiastical writers of the fifth century, who possessed a more dis- 
tinct view of the prosperous or adverse fortunes of the Church from 
the time of Nero to that of Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the 
ten plagues of Egypt and of the ten horns of the Apocalyptic beast, 
appears to have first suggested this calculation to their minds ; and 
in their application of the fulfilment of j^rophecy to the events of 
history they carefully selected those reigns, which were in fact the 
most hostile to the Christian cause. The martyrs devoted to death 
by the Roman magistrates were selected from opposite extremes. 



278 ' CEEATOE AND COSMOS, 

They were either bishops and presbyters, the persons most distin- 
guished among the Christians for their rank and influence, and whose 
example might strike terror into the whole sect ; or else they were 
the meanest and most abject among them, especially those of the 
servile condition, whose lives were esteemed by the ancients of little 
value, and whose sufferings were wont to be viewed by them with 
too much indifference. The learned Origen, who was intimately 
acquainted with the history of the primitive Christians, declares in 
express terms, that the number of martyrs was very inconsidei*able 
when compared with the whole number of Christians. This general 
assertion of Origen obtains an illustration in the particular testimony 
of Dionj^sius, who, in the great city of Alexandria, and under the 
reign of Decius, reckons but ten men and seven women who suffered 
for the profession of Christianity. The ecclesiastical writers before 
the fourth century content themselves with pouring forth a liberal 
effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without ascertaining or 
stating the precise number of Christians who were permitted to seal 
with their blood their belief of the Gospel. From the history of 
Eusebius, an ecclesiastical writer of the fourth century, it may be 
gathered that only nine bishops were punished with death in the 
violent persecution of Diocletian, his associates and successors. And 
in his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine he appears 
to state that in that province no more than ninety-two Christians 
were entitled to the appellation of martyrs ; but from other state- 
ments it is inferred there may have been a greater number. From 
the latter particular statement an important, though perhaps not 
very probable conclusion has been formed. According to the dis- 
tribution of the Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as 
about a sixteenth part of the Eastern Empire ; and since there were 
some Governors in some of the provinces who had kept their hands 
unstained with the blood of the Christians, it has been concluded 
that the country which gave birth to Christianity produced at least 
a sixteenth part of the martyrs of the Eastern Empire in that per- 
secution. The whole number, it is thought, might consequently 
amount to about fifteen hundred, a number which, if it be equally 
divided between the ten years of this persecution, will allow for 
each year about one hundred and fifty martyrs. Giving the same 
proportion to the provinces of Africa, Italy, and perhaps Spain, where 
at the end of two or three 3'ears the rigor of the penal laws was 
either suspended or abolished, the number of Christians in the Roman 
Empire, on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicial 
sentence during this persecution, will be about two thousand. Since 
doubtless the Christians were more numerous and their enemies more 



PRIMITIVE CHEISTIAK CHURCH. 279 

exasperated in the time of Diocletian, than they had ever been in 
any former persecution, this probable computation may teach us to 
estimate approximately the number of primitive Christians who may 
have sacrified their lives for the purpose of introducing Christianity 
into the world. 

The following circumstances tend to show that the treatment of 
Christians who were apprehended by the officers of the government, 
was not altogether so intolerable as it might be imagined to have 
been. 1 : The Christians who were condemned as a penalt}^ to work 
in the mines were permitted, through the humanity or neglect of 
their keepers, to build chapels, and freely to exercise their religion 
in the midst of their dreary habitations. 3 : The bishops were 
obliged to check or censure the forward zeal of the Christians who 
voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the magistrates. 
Some of those were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, who 
impetuously sought to terminate a miserable existence by a glorious 
death. Others were allured by a hope that a short confinement 
would expiate the sins of a whole life ; and others still were actuat- 
ed hj the less honorable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, 
and perhaps a considerable profit, from the alms which the people 
through charity bestowed on the prisoners. After the Church had 
triumphed over all her enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the 
captives appears to have prompted them to magnify the merit of 
their respective sufferings. A convenient distance of time and space 
gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction ; and the frequent 
instances which had been alleged of holy martyrs whose wounds 
had been instantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and 
whose lost members had been miraculously restored, were found 
extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every difficulty, 
and of silencing every objection. The most extravagant legends, 
as they tended to the honor of the Church, were applauded by the 
credulous multitude, countenanced by the clergy, and attested by 
the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history ; and thus a multi- 
tude of real or fictitious martyrs were objects of the worship of after 
ages. 

We shall conclude this sketch by a melancholy truth which ob- 
trudes itself on our mind, which has been seen and will be seen more 
fully from statements in this book ; that, even admitting without 
hesitation or question all that ecclesiastical histor}' has recorded or 
devotion has feigned concerning the subject of martyrdoms, it must 
still be acknowledged that the Christians, in the course of their intes- 
tine dissensions, have inflicted immensely greater severities on each 
other than they had experienced from the persecutions of Pagans or in 



280 CREATOR AMD COSMOS. 

fidels. During the dark ages which followed the subversion of the Ro- 
man Empire in the west, the Popes of Rome extended their dominion 
over the laity as well as the clergy of the Latin Church. The fabric 
of superstition which they had built up, and which might long have 
defied the feeble efforts of reason, was at length assaulted by a crowd 
of daring men who, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, as- 
sumed the popular character of Reformers. The Church of Rome 
defended by violence the Empire which she had acquired by decep- 
tion and fraud ; a system of pretended peace and benevolence was 
soon characterized by wars, massacres, and the institution of the 
"Holy Inquisition." As the reformers were animated by the love of 
civil, as well as of religious freedom, the Catholic princes connected 
their own interest with that of the clergy, and enforced by fire and 
the sword the terrors of spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, 
more than one hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V. are 
said to have suifered by the hand of the executioner, and this ex- 
traordinarj- number is attested hj Grotius, a man of learning and ge- 
nius, who appears to have preserved his moderation amid the fury of 
contending sects, and who wrote the annals of his own age and coun- 
try at a time when the art of printing had facilitated the means of in- 
telligence and increased the danger of detection. If we may believe 
the authority of Grotius, we must allow that the number of Protes- 
tants who were executed in a single small province, and in a single 
reign, far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three 
centuries, and in the whole Roman Empire. But if the improbability 
of the fact itself should prevail in our minds over the weight of evi- 
dence ; if Grotius should happen to be convicted of exaggerating, 
which does not yet appear to have taken place, we shall all be nat- 
urally led to inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful 
and imperfect records of ancient credulity. What degree of credit 
can be given to a courtly bishop or to a passionate or exaggerating 
declaimer, * who, under the patronage and protection of Constantine, 
enjoyed the exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions inflicted 
on the primitive Christians by the disregarded predecessors or van- 
quished rivals of their gracious sovereign ? 

• Eusebius and the author of the Treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum. 



CHURCH AND STATE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 281 

An Explanation of Revelation XIII to verse 11, showing 

ITS FULFILMENT IN THE CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN ChURCH AND 

State System, established at Constantinople by Con- 
stantine and his successors, with reference to the 
Parallel Prophecies op the Book of Daniel. 

We are now come to the point of time at which the established 
religion of tlie Roman Empire was changed from Paganism to Chris- 
tianity under Constantine and his successors ; and in order the better 
to elucidate this part of our subiect, we shall turn to the Xlllth 
chapter of the book of Revelation, and illustrate its fulfilment his- 
torically in the two general systems of the Christian religion, or 
rather the two systems of which this religion formed a constituent 
part : firsts that system of Church and State as established and prac- 
tised by Constantine and his successors in the Roman Empire: and 
second, that established by the Protestant reformers and princes in 
the sixteenth century, and still adhered to by their successors. The 
first ten verses relate to the former, the remaining part of the chap- 
ter to the latter system. Rev. ch. XIII., verse 1 : " And I stood 
upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, 
having seven heads and ten horns ; and upon his horns ten crowns (lit. 
diadems), and upon his heads names (not the name) of blasphemy." 

Here the prophet in his vision conceives himself standing upon 
the sandy sea-shore, and looking abroad upon the waters he sees a 
wild beast Oyipin-^ rising up out of the sea. This corresponds some- 
what Avith Daniel's vision of the four beasts coming up successively 
out of the sea, the last of which we understand in a sense to repre- 
sent the same with this : (See Dan. ch. VII.) This last beast has 
seven heads and ten horns, crowned : that in Daniel is not represent- 
ed as having seven heads, but as having ten horns which are not said 
to be crowned. That in Daniel symbolized the whole Roman 
Empire, considered as a power or government. Pagan as well as 
Christian, and comprising both the civil and religious branches 
of power. This represents the whole Christian Roman empire, also 
considered as a power or government, and likewise comprising both 
the civil and religious branches of power. The seven heads would 
here symbolise the whole Roman Empire as distinguished from any 
part of it united under one ruler ; also they would indicate the com- 
pleteness of human wisdom as distinguished from what individual 
men possess ; and, further, the number seven would indicate the sa- 
cred and secular elements, or in the ancient idea, the divine and hu- 
man combined. The character of this wisdom, whether beastl}' and 
serpentine, or belonging to the true man, and godlike, has to be de- 



282 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

termined from the other parts of the symbolic figure, of which the 
heads form a constituent part. The ten horns would represent the 
Empire to be made up of many different nations, which are severally 
governed by dependent rulers ; and the horns being crowned, or en- 
circled with diadems, would indicate these rulers, at least for the 
most part, to be crowned kings. The number ten would represent 
all the nations and their kings or rulers that would at any time be 
subject to the Roman Empire.* Having on his heads names of 
blasphemy indicates that the supreme ruler of the Empire would ar- 
rogate to himself the honors which belong only to the Deity ; and 
also that there would be blasphemous systems of worship established 
throughout the Empire. 

As Constantine was the first Roman Emperor that was called 
a Christian, and as under him and his immediate successors the 
change of the national religion from Pagan to Christian was brought 
about, we think it expedient to make our readers acquainted with 
the principal events in the life, and the principal points in the char- 
acter of that Emperor. This celebrated man was the son of Constan- 
tius, who was joint Emperor of the Romans with Galerius, Maximin, 
and Diocletian. The last-named was considered as supreme Emperor ; 
the three former were subordinate Emperors, that is, they governed 
their several divisions of the Empire in obedience to the great cen- 
tral authority vested in Diocletian. Thus Galerius was Emperor of the 
East and of Egypt ; Maximan of Italy and Africa ; and Constantius' 
of Gaul and Britain. 

Helena, the mother of Constantine, history decides to have been 
the daughter of an innkeeper, and Constantine to have been bom 
most probably at Naissus, in Dacia, which last was a province of the 
Empire extending along and stretching far inwards on both sides of 
the Danube. The city of Naissus was situated south of that river. 
The birth of Constantine is said to have occurred about the year 
274 A. D. When he was come to a mature age he did not follow 
his father Constantius to the West, but remained in the service of 
Diocletian, signalized his valor in the wars of Egypt and Persia, 
and gradually rose to the station of a tribune of the first order. The 
figure of Constantine was tall and majestic ; he was. dexterous in all 
his exercises ; courageous in war, affable in peace ; in his whole con- 
duct the active spirit of youth was tempered with habitual prudence ; 



* That this is so you may perhaps judge if you are informed that out of five different lists giv- 
en in Newton's Dissertations on Prophesy, each giving the particular nations which the writer 
supposed to make up the ten, no two of them agree. But a notable error which all Protestaut 
interpreters that we are acquainted with have committed was in confounding the symbolic 
beast of Revelation XIII. with that of Revelation XVII. and that of Daniel VII. There needs 
a very perceptible distinction to be made. 



CHUECH AND STATE OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 283 

and while his mind, was engrossed with ambition he appeared cold 
and insensible to the allurements of pleasure. Through the entreat- 
ies of his father he was at length induced to visit him at his seat of 
government in the West, and performing his journey from Asia Mi- 
nor, he reached the port of Boulogne, at the moment when his father 
was preparing to embark for Britain. Having accomplished the Brit- 
ish expedition and an easy victory over the barbarians of Caledonia, 
Constantius ended his life in the imperial palace in the city of York. 
His death was immediately succeeded by the elevation of Constan- 
tine, who was declared Emperor by the voice of the soldiers, on 
Jul)'' 25th, A. D., 306. The soldiers were effectually solicited in be- 
half of the son of their deceased Emperor. They were asked wheth- 
er they would hesitate for a moment between placing Constantine at 
their head, and the ignominy of calmly awaiting the arrival of some 
obscure stranger, on whom it might please Galerius, Emperor of the 
East, (Diocletian having ere now retired from office) to bestow the 
armies and provinces beyond the Alps. He artfully contrived not 
to show himself to the soldiers until they were prepared to salute 
him with the titles of Emperor and Augustus. The decent resistance 
which he chose to affect to the willingness of the ^Idiers was intend- 
ed to justify his usurpation ; nor did he yield to the acclamations of 
the army till he had prepared an epistle, which he immediately dis- 
patched to Galerius. Constantine informs him of the melancholy 
event of his father's death, modestly asserts his natural right to the 
succession, and respectfully laments that the affectionate violence of 
his troops does not permit him to solicit the Imperial purple in the 
regular and constitutional manner. Without either condemning or 
ratifying the choice of the British army, Galerius accepted the son 
of his deceased colleague as the sovereign of the provinces beyond 
the Alps ; but he gave him only the title of Caesar, and the fourth 
rank among the Roman princes, while he conferred the vacant place 
of Augustus upon his favorite Severus. At the time of his assump- 
tion of Imperial power at York, Constantine had reached the age of 
thirty-two years, and in the space of eighteen years after, he, by a 
succession of victories, vanquished the power and persons of three 
rival Emperors, and in the year 324 A. D. was recognized sole 
Emperor of the Romans. The foundation of Constantinople, and 
the establisliment of the Christian religion, were the immediate and 
memorable consequences of this revolution. 

The accounts transmitted to us of the date and probable cause of 
the conversion of Constantine are various. Lactantius, an ecclesias- 
tic of his court, appears impatient to proclaim to the world the glo- 
rious example of the sovereign of Gaul, who, in the first moment!? of 



284 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

his reign, acknowledged the true and only God. Eusebius, another 
ecclesiastic of the same court, has ascribed the conversion of Con- 
stantine to a miraculous sign which he saw displayed in the heavens 
whilst he meditated and prepared the expedition which resulted in 
the conquest of Maxentius and of Italy. A contemporary writer 
affirmed, with the most perfect confidence, that in the night which 
preceded the last battle against Maxentius, Constantine was admon- 
ished in a dream to inscribe the shields of his soldiers with the celes- 
tial sign of God, the sacred monogram of the name of Christ: that 
he executed the commands of heaven, and that his obedience and 
valor were rewarded b}^ the decisive victory of the Milvian Bridge. 
Nine years after his conquest of Rome, Nazarius describes an army 
of divine warriors, who seemed to fall from the sky ; he marks their 
beauty, their spirit, their gigantic forms, the stream of light which 
shone from their celestial armor, and their declaration that they were 
sent, that they flew to the assistance of the great Constantine. Eu- 
sebius says that in one of the marches of Constantine "he is report- 
ed to have seen with his own eyes the luminous trophy of the cross 
placed above the meridian sun, and inscribed with the following 
words : By This Conquer. This amazing object in the sky aston- 
ished the whole army as well as the Emperor himself, who was yet 
undetermined in the choice of a religion; but his astonishment was 
converted into faith by the vision of the ensuing night. Christ ap- 
peared before his eyes, and displaying the same celestial sign of the 
cross, he directed Constantine to frame a similar standard, and to 
march with an assurance of victory against Maxentius and all his 
enemies." 

Such are some of the causes which are ascribed by historians for 
the conversion of Constantine to the Christian religion ; and any 
candid mind may determine for itself whether that spirit corresponds 
to the spirit of Christ, which incites a man to the slaughter of his 
fellow-men ; or enquire why Christ did not come to him with a 
sword in his hand, and tell him to conquer by that. We must all 
allow that if God's spirit represented to him a cross, and told him to 
conquer by that, and he afterwards conquered by the sword and the 
horrors of war, he must have misunderstood or misapplied the lesson 
the vision was designed to teach him. The cross, in vision or other- 
■wise, indicates the self-denying and benevolent spirit of the Gospel. 
But Constantine made a real sign of the visionary cross, and set it 
up as a standard to fight under; and in this he manifested the very 
spirit of the Catholic Christianity he established, by instituting an 
outward sign or representation of Christ, under which he could act 
in direct opposition to the nature and spirit of the Lamb of God. 



CHURCH AND STATE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 285 

From this time onward the cross was highlj^ esteemed by the Ro- 
mans ; it was carried at the head of their armies : it was inscribed 
upon the shields of the soldiers : it was used as a preservative from 
every species of temporal and spiritual evil, by all classes of the 
citizens ; and it became the object of the superstitious veneration of 
all. 

Constantine came to the throne of the Empire through seas of 
blood ; and like some other great conquerors, he appears to have 
used religion as a footstool in his ascent to it. His public and private 
character do not justify the belief that he was a sincere convert to 
Christianity. "It must indeed be confessed," says Mosheim,* " that 
the life and actions of this prince were not such as the Christian 
religion demands from those who profess to believe its sublime doc- 
trines. It is also certain that from his conversion to the last period 
of his life he continued in the state of a catacJiumen, and was not re- 
ceived by baptism into the number of the faithful until a few days 
before his death, when that sacred rite was administered to him at 
Nicomedia, by Eusebius, bishop of that place. — For it was the custom 
of many in this century to put off their baptism till the last hour, 
that thus immediately after receiving, by this rite, the remission of 
their sins, they might ascend pure and spotless to the mansions of life 
and immortality." Thus the Avhole life of those Catholic Christians 
might be spent in a manner, however diabolical and depraved ; and 
their sins, however numerous and aggravated, might be washed away 
immediately before their death by the purifying virtues of the waters 
of baptism, so that they could ascend pure and spotless to the man- 
sions of life and immortality. What doctrine could be more hypo- 
critical and blasphemous than this ? The Christian writers of all 
ao-es since his time, both Catholic and Protestant, are wont to speak 
in rather exalted terms of the character of Constantine, the cause of 
which is, that he supported and established the Christian religion. 
But however this may be, the history of his time proves him to be, 
not only a crafty and cunning man, but a cruel and relentless tyrant. 
The former part of his life was exercised in bloody wars ; the latter 
was spent in arrogance and effeminate pride, and in the display of a 
suspicious, cruel, and merciless disposition. The wanton murder of 
his son Crispus in the year after he had convened the council of Nice, 
leaves an indelible stain upon his memory. The cause of the deatli 
of Crispus was nothing more than jealousy and suspicion on his part, 
on account of the esteemed merits and popularity of his son. The 
testimony of history is that he first bribed informers to testify against 

* Moslieim's Ecclesiastical History ; Century IV. 



286 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the prince, and the result was Crispus suffered a cruel and ignomini- 
ous death. After several battles fought between Constantine and the 
Emperor Licinius, who was his brother-in-law, to decide which of them 
should be greatest, the latter was reduced to the necessity of throwing 
himself at the victor's feet and imploring his clemency, which, how- 
ever, he did not long enjoy, for he was strangled by the order of Con- 
stantine in the year 325 A. D., the same year in which was held the 
Council of Nice. Much has been said about David murdering Uriah, 
that he might obtain his wife ; but David only had Uriah placed in 
front of the battle, yet it is called murder ; then what shall be said of 
the conduct of Constantine, or this great man-child of Christian writers 
(see Rev. XII.) towards his former colleague, his kinsman, and now 
humble suppliant, Licinius, in ordering him to be strangled to get 
him out of his way ? Lardner observes that " many ancient writers 
charge Constantine with a breach of faith in this matter." But these 
are not the only crimes of the kind alleged against Constantine : he 
had already despatched his father-in-law, Maximian, with whose son, 
Maxentius, he was at war at the time of his pretended conversion. 
After this he put to death Bassianus, to whom he had married his 
sister Anastasia. The Csesar Licinius, the younger, a youth of amiable 
manners, was involved in the ruin of Crispus ; and the stern jealousy 
of Constantine was unmoved by the prayers and tears of his own sister 
pleading for her son, whose rank was his only crime, and whose death 
she did not long survive. The story of these unhappy princes, the 
nature and evidence of their guilt, the forms of their trials, and the 
circumstances of their death were buried in mysterious obscurity, and 
the courtly bishop Eusebius, who has celebrated in an elaborate work 
the virtues and piety of his hero, observes a prudent silence on the 
subject of these tragic events. Next we have to mention Fausta, the 
wife of Constantine, and daughter of Maximian, who was put to death 
in a shoj-'t time after the two princes. It is asserted by Zosimus that 
he sent and had her suffocated in a bath, which for that purpose had 
been heated to an extraordinary degree ; although it may appear that 
the remembrance of a conjugal union of twenty years, and the honor of 
their common offspring, the destined heirs to the throne, might have 
availed to soften the obdurate heart of Constantine, and persuaded 
him to suffer his wife, however culpable she might appear to him, to 
expiate her offences in a solitary prison. The deatlis of her son and 
nephew, with the execution of a great many respectable, and perhaps 
innocent friends who were involved in their fall, may have been suffi- 
cient to justify the discontent of the Roman people, and to explain the 
satirical verses affixed to the2:)alace gate, comparing the splendid and 
bloody reign of Nero and of Constantine. Under such circum- 



CHURCH AND STATE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 287 

stances it might aigue some degree of candor in Constantino to de- 
cline being numbered among the faithful till he was past committing 
such monstrous crimes ; but to assure him that his blood-guiltiness 
could in the end be washed away with a little water, was one of the 
most impious delusions of the anti-Christian priesthood which he 
established. This, however, Avill become more apparent as we pro- 
ceed. The Emperor, although he usurped the sceptre by treason, 
forthwith assumed to himself the character of vicegerent of the Deity. 
To the Deity alone he was accountable for the use or abuse of his 
power; and his subjects were indissolubly bound by their oath of 
fidelity to a tyrant who had violated or might violate every law of 
nature or of society. 

The gratitude of the Christian Church exalted the virtues and 
excused the failings of a patron who acted generously toward it, 
seated Christianity on the throne, and established it in the temples 
of the Roman world. The mysteries of the Christian faith and 
worship were concealed from the eyes of the laity with an affected 
secresy ; but the severe rules of discipline which the bishops had 
instituted were relaxed by their prudence in favor of an imperial 
proselyte, whom it was so important to allure by every gentle con- 
descension into the pale of the Church : and Coustantine was per- 
mitted, at least by their tacit consent, to enjoy most of the privileges 
before he had contracted any of the obligations of a Christian. In- 
stead of retiring from the congregation when the voice of the priest 
dismissed the vulgar multitude, he prayed with the faithful, disputed 
with the bishops, expatiated on the most sublime, the most subtile 
and intricate subjects of theology, celebrated with sacred rites the 
vigil of Easter, and publicly declared himself not only a partaker, 
but in an important sense an liierophant of the Christian mysteries. 
In his last visit to Rome the Emperor disclaimed and insulted the 
superstition of his ancestors by refusing to lead the military proces- 
sion of the equestrian order, and to offer the public vows to Jupiter 
of the capitol. 

Many years before his baptism and deatli he had declared to the 
world that neither his person nor his image should ever more be seen 
within the walls of an idolatrous temple ; while he had distributed 
through the provinces a variety of medals and pictures which rep- 
resented the Emperor in ah humble and suppliant posture of Chris- 
tian devotion. The Greek Church, which celebrates the festival of 
this imperial saint, seldom mentions the name of Constantine with- 
out adding the title of Equal to the Apostles. 

The • irresistable power of the Roman Emperors was from this 
time displayed in the important and dangerous change of the national 



288 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

religions. The terrors of a military force silenced the faint and un- 
supported murmurs of the Polytheists. The exact balance of the 
two religions did not long continue, and the piercing eye of ambition 
and avarice soon discovered that the profession of Christianity might 
contribute to the interests of the present as well as of a future life. 
The hopes of wealth and honors, the example of an Emperor, his 
exhortations, his irresistible smiles or his terrible grimaces, diffused 
conviction among the venal and obsequious crowd which usually fill 
the departments of a palace. The cities which signalized a zeal for 
Christianity by a voluntary destruction of their temples were dis- 
tinguished by municipal privileges and rewarded with popular dona- 
tions ; and Constantinople, the new capital of the East, gloried in 
the singular advantage, that it was never profaned with the worship 
of idols. As the lower classes of society are governed mainly by 
imitation, the conversion of those who possessed any eminence of 
birth or power, or of wealth, was soon followed by dependent multi- 
tudes. The salvation of the common people was easily effected, if 
it be true that in one year twelve thousand men were baptized at 
Rome, besides a proportionate number of women and children ; and 
that a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, had been promised 
by the Emperor to ever}- convert. 

It had been established before by a fundamental principle of the 
Roman constitution that every order of citizens, the sacred as the 
civil, was alike subject to the laws ; and that the care of religion was 
the right and duty of the civil magistrate. Constantine did not 
persuade himself that by his conversion he had forfeited any part 
of the imperial prerogatives, or that he was incompetent to give laws 
to a religion \'\'hich he had protected and embraced. The Roman 
Emperors still continued to exercise a supreme jurisdiction over the 
ecclesiastical order, and the sixteenth book of the Theodosiau code 
represents, under a variety of titles, the authority which they assum- 
ed and exercised as the supreme heads of the Catholic Church. 

After the defeat of Licinius, his last rival, the victorious Emper- 
or proceeded to lay the foundations of a cit}' upon the shores of the 
Thracian Bosphorus, destined to reign in future time the mistress of 
the East, and to survive the Empire and religion of Constantine. As 
he urged, himself, the progress of the work with the greatest zeal 
and energy, the walls, the porticos, and the principal edifices of this 
magnificent city were completed in the space of about ten years ; 
upon Avhich the founder celebrated with games and festivals the 
foundation of the new seat of Empire. As often as, during the 
reign of his successors, the birthday of the city returned, the statue 
of Constantine, of gilt wood, framed by his order, and bearing in its 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 289 

right hand a small image of the genius of the place, was erected on 
a triumphal car. The guards, carrying lighted tapers, and clothed 
in their richest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession as it 
moved through the hippodrome. When it came opposite to the throne 
of the reigning Emperor he rose from his seat, and with grateful 
reverence adored the memory of his predecessor. At the festival of 
the dedication an edict, engraved on a column of marble, bestowed 
the title of Second or New Rome upon the new city. But the name 
of Constantinople has prevailed over that honorable epithet, and 
after the revolution of over fifteen centuries still perpetuates the 
fame of its author. Rome had some time before begun to be neglect- 
ed by the Emperors : Diocletian, who may be called the immediate 
^predecessor of Constantine, as sole Emperor, having taken up his 
residence for some time at Sirmium, and then at Nicomedia. 

The foundation of a new capital was connected with the estab- 
lishment not only of a new form of religion, but with that of a new 
form of civil and military administration. The manly pride of the 
ancient Romans, content with substantial power, bad left to the 
vanity of the eastern nations the forms and ceremonies of ostenta- 
tious greatness. But when they lost even the semblance of those 
virtues which were derived from their republican freedom, the sim- 
plicity of their manners was insensibly corrupted by the stately 
affectation of the courts of Asia. The distinct view of the complicat- 
ed system of policy inti'oduced by Diocletian, improved by Constan- 
tine, and completed by his immediate successors within a period of 
one hundred and thirty years, not only amuses the fanc}' with the 
singular picture of a great Empire, but tends to illustrate the secret 
and internal causes of its rapid decay.* The distinction of personal 
merit and influence so conspicuous in a republic, so feeble and ob- 
scure under a monarchy, were abolished by the despotism of the 
Emperors, who substituted in their stead a severe subordination of 
rank and office, from the titled slave who was seated on the steps of 
the throne, to the meanest instruments of arbitrary power. This 
multitude of abject dependents was interested in the support of the 
actual government from the dread of a revolution which might at 
once confound their hopes and intercept the reward of their services. 
In this divine hierarchy, (for such it is frequently styled), every rank 
was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity was 
displayed in a variety of trifling and solemn ceremonies, which it 
was a study to learn and a sacrilege to neglect. The purity of the 
Latin Language was debased by adopting in the intercourse of pride 

* See Tlieodosiau Code, and Notitia Dignitatum Imperii. 
Vol. II.— 19 



"290 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and flattery, a profusion of epithets which Cicero would scarcely have 
understood, and which Augustus would have rejected with contempt. 
The principal officers of the Empire were saluted, even by the 
Emperor himself, with the high sounding and plausible titles of Your 
Sincerity, Your Gravity, Your Excellency, Your Eminence, Your 
Sublime and Wonderful Magnitude, Your Illustrious and Magnifi- 
cent Highness. The codicils, or patents of their office were curious- 
ly emblazoned with such emblems as were adapted to explain its 
nature and high dignity ; the image or portrait of the reigning Em- 
perors ; a triumphal car ; the book of mandates placed on a table, 
covered with a rich carpet, and illuminated by four tapers; the alle- 
gorical figures of the provinces which they governed ; or the appella- 
tions and standards of the troops they commanded. Some of these 
official ensigns were exhibited in their halls of audience ; others pre- 
ceded their pompous march whenever they appeared in public; and 
every circumstance of their demeanour, their dress, their ornaments, 
and their train was calculated to inspire a deep reverence for the 
representatives of supreme majesty. To an observer, this new im- 
perial system of the Roman government might have presented the 
appearance of a splendid and magnificent theatre, in which was dis- 
played one object more prominent and conspicuous than the rest, — 
the Emperor, — which inspired the beholders with awe and terror, 
and in which the players of every character and degree repeated the 
language and imitated the passions of their original model. 

All the magistrates of sufficient importance to find a place in the 
general state of the Empire,were accurately divided into three classes. 
1. The Illustrious. 2. The Respectable. 3. The Honorable. In the 
times of Roman simplicity the last-mentioned epithet was used vague- 
ly only as an expression of deference, till it became at length the pecu- 
liar and appropriated title of all who were members of the senate, and 
consequently of all who, from that venerable body, were selected to 
govern the provinces. The vanity of those who from their rank or 
office might claim a superior distinction above the rest of the sena- 
torial order, was afterwards indulged with the new appellation of 
Respectable ; but the title of Illustrious was always reserved to some 
eminent personages who were obeyed and reverenced by the two- 
subovdinate classes. It was communicated only : 1. To the consuls and 
patricians; 2. To the praetorian prsefects, with the praefects of Rome 
and Constantinople. 3. To the masters-general of cavalry and in- 
fantry ; and, 4. To the seven ministers of the palace who exercised 
their trusty functions about the sacred person of the Emperor. 
Among those illustrious magistrates who were esteemed co-ordinate 
with each other, the seniority gave place to the union of dignities. 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 291 

By the expedient of honorary codicils, the Emperors who were fond 
of multiplying their favors might sometimes gratify the vanity, 
though not the ambition, of their courtiers. In the times of the 
Roman republic, the consuls were the first magistrates of the state, 
and derived their power from the choice of the people. But from 
the reign of Diocletian, even these vestiges of popular liberty were 
abolished, and the consuls, whose office was now become merely 
nominal, were appointed by the will of the Emperor ; and their 
office was finally abolished in about the year 541, by the Emperor 
Justinian. Such is a concise view of the hierarchy of the state of 
the Christian Roman Empire, as established by Constantine. 

In the fourth century, the age which we are now considering, 
there were violent controversies among the Christian sects, especial- 
ly upon the subject of the Trinity. Three different hypotheses were 
formed concerning the nature of the divine Trinity. ■ 1 : According 
to the first hypothesis, which was maintained by Arius and his fol- 
lowers, the Word, or Logos, was a dependent and spontaneous pro- 
duction, created from nothing by the will of the Father. The Son, 
by whom all things were made, had been begotten before all worlds 
and the longest period of time which man can conceive could be com- 
pared only as a fleeting moment to the extent of his duration ; yet this 
duration was not infinite, and there had been a time which pre- 
ceded the generation of the Logos. On this only begotten Son the Al- 
mighty Father had bestowed his ample Spirit, and impressed the efful- 
gence of his glory. Visible image of invisible perfection, he beheld, at 
an immeasurable distance beneath his feet, the thrones of the bright- 
est archangels ; yet he shone only with a reflected light, and like the 
sons of the Roman Emperors, who were invested with the titles of 
Caesar, or Augustus, he governed the universe in the obedience to 
the will of his Father and Monarch. 2 : In the second hypothesis, 
which was supported by the Tritheists, the word, or Logos, possessed 
all the inherent, incommunicable perfections of tlie supreme God. 
Three distinct and infinite minds Or substances, three co-equal and 
co-eternal beings composed the Divine essence ; and it would have 
■ implied contradiction that any of them should not have existed, or 
that they should ever cease to exist. The advocates of this system 
which seemed to establish three independent Deities, attempted to 
preserve the unity of the First Cause, so conspicuous in the design 
and order of the world by the perpetual concord of their administra- 
tion and the essential agreement of their will. They discovered a 
faint resemblance of this unity of action in the societies of men, and 
even of the inferior animals. The causes which disturb their har- 
mony proceed only from the imperfection and inequality of their 



292 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

faculties; but the omnipotence which is guided by infinite wisdom 
and goodness cannot fail of choosing the same means for the accom- 
plishment of the same ends. 3 : The third hypothesis, which was 
maintained by the followers of Sabellius, maintained that three beings, 
who by the self-derived necessity of their existence, possess all the 
divine attributes in the most perfect degree ; who are eternal in dur- 
ation, infinite in space and intimately present to each other, and to 
the whole universe, irresistibl}^ force themselves upon the mind, as 
one and the same being, who, in the economy of grace, as well as in 
that of nature, may manifest himself under different forms, and be 
considered under different aspects. By this hypothesis, a real sub- 
stantial Trinity is refined into a Trinity of names and abstract mod- 
ifications, which siibsist only in the mind which conceives them. The 
Logos is no longer a person, but an attribute ; and it is only in a 
figurative sense that the epithet of Son can be applied to the eternal 
reason or speech, which was with God from the beginning, and by 
which, not by whom, all things were made. The incarnation of the 
Logos they reduced to a mere inspiration of the divine wisdom, 
which filled the soul and directed all the actions of the man Christ 
Jesus. Thus, after revolving round the theological circle, we find 
that the Sabellian ends where the Nazarene and the Ebionite had 
begun. 

In the Council of Nice, held in the year 325, A, D., at which 
Council Constantine was present, the Tritheists, or Trinitarians, 
gained the day. The consubstantiality of the Father and the Son 
was established by this Council, and has been unanimously received 
as the fundamental article of the Christian faith by the Greek, the 
Latin, the Oriental, and the Reformed Churches. The triumphant 
party here and henceforward are styled the Orthodox, in contradis- 
tinction to heretics, or Unitarians. 

The orthodox Nicene Fathers, in decreeing the Son to be of the 
same substance with the Father, considered the word substance as 
synonymous with the word nature ; and they illustrated their mean- 
ing by affirming that three men, as they belong to the same common 
species, are consubstantial, (Greek, homoousion) to each other. This 
pure and distinct equality was tempered on the one hand by the in- 
ternal connection and spirtual penetration which indissolubly unites 
the divine persons ; and, on the other, by the pre-eminence of the 
Father, which was acknowledged, so far as it was compatible with 
the independence of the son. The Orthodox, after their victory in 
the Council of Nice, have always treated with greater severity the 
heretics who degraded, than those who annihilated, the person of the 
Son. In the Council of Constantinople, convened under the aus- 



CHUKCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE. 293 

pices of the Emperor Theodosius, in the year 381, A. D., or about 
fifty years after the death of Constantine, it Avas decreed that the 
Holy Spirit was consubstantial and equal with the Father and the 
Son. And thus, and at this time, was the system of the Trinity com- 
pleted, and the doctrine of it established by law throughout the 
Roman Empire. And Theodosius was the first Roman Emperor who 
was baptized in the faith of the Trinity. 

On the death of Constantine, which happened at Nicomedia, 
whither he had gone to enjoy the benefit of the fresh air, in the year 
337, A. D., his body was transported back to the City of Constanti- 
nople, and there adorned with the vain symbols of royalty, the purple 
and diadem, was deposited on a golden bed in one of the apartments 
of the palace whicli, for that purpose, had been splendidly furnished 
and illuminated, and there kept to await the arrival of some of the 
sons of Constantine, who all happened to be absent from the city, in 
different parts of the Empire, in the command of armies, at that 
time. The forms of the court were strictly maintained. Everyday, 
at the appointed hours, the principal officers of the state, the army 
and the palace, approaching the person of their deceased sovereign 
with bended knees and a composed countenance, offered their re- 
spectful homage as seriously as if he had been alive before them. 
This theatrical representation was for some time continued ; nor 
could flatterers neglect the opportunity of remarking that Constan- 
tine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of heaven, had reigned after 
his death. But the same ministers and generals who bowed in such 
reverential awe before the inanimate corpse of their deceased Emperor, 
were engaged in a secret conspiracy to exclude his two nephews, 
Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he had assigned 
them in the succession of the Empire. Their fate, as well as the 
funeral of Constantine, was deferred till the arrival of Constantius, 
the second of the sons of Constantine, who, from his comparative 
nearness to the imperial city at the time of the decease, was the first 
of the sons to arrive. 

As soon as he had taken possession of the palace, his first care 
.was to remove the apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn oath, 
which he pledged for their security. His next business was to find 
some specious pretence which might release his conscience from the 
obligation of his promise. The arts of fraud were made to subserve 
the designs of cruelty, and a manifest forgery was put into the hands 
of Constantius, in which the Em^jeror is made to express his opinion 
that he had been poisoned by his brothers ; and conjures his sons to 
revenge his death and consult their own safety by the punishment 
of the guilty. In the production and delivery of this forgery it is 



294 CREATOR AND COSMOS 

said, on the authority of one respectable historian, that Easebius, 
bishop of Nieomedia, was the chief instrument. Whatever reason 
these princes alleged in defence of their life and honor, and against so 
incredible an accusation, they were silenced bj^ the furious clamors of 
the soldiers, who declared themselves at once their enemies, their 
judges, and their executioners. The spirit and the forms of legal 
proceedings were violated in a promiscuous slaughter, which involved 
the two surviving brothers of Constantine, seven of his nephews, of 
whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were accounted the most illustri- 
ous, the patrician Optatus, who had married the late Emperor's sister, 
and the Prsefect Ablavius, whose power and riches had inspired him 
with some hopes of obtaining the throne. We may add that Constan- 
tius himself had espoused the daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he 
had given his sister in marriage to his cousin Hannibalianus. Of so 
numerous a family of the imperial race Gallus and Julian, the sons 
of Julius Constantius, the brother of the late Emperor, alone remained 
from the hands of the assassins. This massacre was succeeded by a 
fresh division of the Roman world, which was ratified in a personal 
interview between the three brothers. Constantine, the eldest, 
obtained with a certain pre-eminence, the possession of the capital. 
Thrace and the provinces of the East were allotted for the govern- 
ment of Constantius ; and Constans was acknowledged as the 
sovereign of Italy, Africa, and the West. After this partition three 
years had scarcely elapsed before a war broke out between Constan- 
tine and Constans, in which the former was slain, and latter succeeded 
to his dominions, A. D., 340. The fate of Constans, the conqueror, 
was delayed about ten years longer, when he was overcome and 
slain by an aspirant to the throne, the usurper Magnentius, A. D., 
350. Constantius, the now surviving Emperor, waged war against 
the usurper Magnentius, and conquered him ; and he died in the 
year 361, as he was marching against his cousin Julian. Such were 
Constantine and his sons, whom the orthodox Christian world cele- 
brated as the great builders and supporters of their establishment. 
And the sons of Constantine, though guilty of the most horrid and 
barbarous crimes, are yet honored and applauded under the beautiful 
name of a Christian profession, following the example of their father, 
as Mosheim expresses it "in continuing to abrogate and efface the 
ancient superstitions of the Romans, and other idolatrous nations, 
and to accelerate the progress of the Christian religion throughout 
the Empire." * But observe what follows: " This flourishing pro- 
gress of the Christian religion was greatly interrupted, and the 

* Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Hist. Cent. I. 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 295 

Church reduced to the brink of destruction, when Julian, the son of 
Julius Constantius, was placed at the head of affairs." * What now 
is the matter? Although this prince had been educated in the bosom 
of Christianity, " yet he apostatized from that divine religion,'' says 
Mosheim. And what, pray, was the cause of his apostatizing ? The 
answer is : " It was partly owing to his aversion to the Constantine 
family, who had imbrued their hands in the blood of his father, 
brother, and kinsmen." It appears, therefore, it was not from the 
peaceful religion of the Gospel that he apostatized, but from that of 
bloody murderers. There is quite a difference between these two 
religions, that established by Constantine and his successors, and 
that of the Gospel of Christ. " Julian," adds Mosheim, " affected in 
general to appear moderate in religious matters, unwilling to trouble 
any on account of their faith, or to seem averse to any sect or party." 
And because he allowed equal liberty to all, — or, as Robinson ex- 
presses it: " The just and gentle Julian, because he headed neither 
party, and put off the purple unstained with the blood of heretics, — 
both sides agree to execrate as a diabolical apostate." 

And strange as it may seem, this mild and equitable government of 
Julian is by some of the most eminent orthodox Avriters and divines 
included in the flood which the dragon poured out of his mouth to 
destroy the woman, i. e., the church, and her son Constantine, the 
first Christian Emperor, whom they are wont to represent as this man- 
child. (See representation in Rev. ch. XII.) But we have examin- 
ed this man-child that they have exalted, not only to God and to his 
throne, but above all that is called God ; and we have found in Con- 
stantine and his immediate successors, and in the system, civil and 
religious, which they introduced, the true representation in its incipi- 
ency of the beast which the prophet saw rising up out of the sea, having 
seven heads and ten horns. And here is the place for us to speak 
with respect to the symbolic sea up out of which this symbolic beast 
came. 1 : The countries of the Roman Empire which were the theatre 
of the actions of the Roman armies are situated for the most part 
round the Mediterranean Sea, or the Great Sea of Daniel VII, out 
of which the latter prophet also saw his four beasts ascending. This 
may help to show where this power would arise, or, in other words, 
the seat and locality of it. 2 : Constantine erected his new capital 
upon the shores of the Thracian Bosphorus, and between the Grecian 
Archipelago and the Black Sea ; so that this doubtless helps to show 
the principal seat and locality of this power. 3 : The sea, properly 
speaking, out of which this power arose would symbolise an unsettled 

• Julian was the cousin and successor of Constantius, the last of the sons of Constantine. 



296 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

state of the Empire, wars, commotions, and intestine discords of 
State and Church. We have seen that the life of the first Christian 
Emperor was eminently one of war and commotion until he had 
vanquished all his opponents and made himself sole master of the 
Empire. We have seen what an exceedingly unsettled state of af- 
fairs the change of the whole national religion must have necessi- 
tated ; which change was begun by Constantine, but was not wholly 
accomplished until the age of Theodosius, over fifty years after the 
death of the former. We have seen that Constantine gave not only 
a new religion but a new and magnificent capital or seat of govern- 
ment, and a new form of civil policy and administration to the state. 
Also, the time at which this power arose, in the beginning of the 
fourth century, leaves no doubt whatever but that we make a proper 
application of the prophecy ; this fact will appear more clear before 
we have finished our explication of this chapter. The vision in Rev. 
Ch. XIII, 1-11, refers to the whole Roman Empire, east as well as 
west, and west as well as east, beginning with Constantine and with 
the establishing of the Christian religion, and whose proper seat of 
government was at Constantinople. Verse 2 of our prophecy is : 
*' And the wild beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet 
were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion ; 
and the dragon gave him his power and his seat (lit., throne) and 
great authority." This wild beast, it is seen, comprises in itself the 
characteristics of the four beasts, of Daniel VII, the first of which 
was a lion, symbolizing the Babylonian Empire; the second like a 
bear, the Medo-Persian, the third like a leopard, the eastern Grecian 
Empire of Alexander and his successors ; and the fourth, the beast 
with the ten horns, which overcame all the rest and stamped them 
under its feet, symbolising the Roman Empire, which overcame them 
all, and comprises here in itself all their characteristics. Also, the 
vision of Nebuchadnezzar's image, Dan. II., verses 31—46, is a 
parallel prophecy to that of the four beasts in Dan. VII., and bears 
the same relation to this in Rev. XIII. as the latter does. The sym- 
bol is easily understood from its characteristics; the leopard is furious 
and quick to spring upon his prey ; the bear's feet are singularly ef- 
fective for retaining that prey and tearing it to pieces ; and the lion's 
mouth indicates boldness, arrogance, and power of speech, as well as 
physical force. The dragon giving him his power and his seat, and 
great authority, indicates that one system, or form of government, 
would yield to another, which would be established and exercised in 
its stead. Here it means that the old Pagan Roman system of gov- 
ernment, civil and religious, would yield to the Christian system of 
government, civil and religious : and that the seat, literall}^ the throne 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 297 

wherever that happened to be, as at old Rome, Milan, Sirmium, Ni- 
comedia, which were all seats of the Roman Emperors at different 
times before the period which we are now considering : (but here the 
seat of Empire is Constantinople :) should be given up with all the 
authority and power that appertained to it. This power was yielded 
up by all opposing Pagan powers to Constantine, who inaugurated a 
new system of government, which was completed gradually by his 
successors. 

As we have to view this system in its twofold aspect of civil and 
religious, it is in place to remark here upon some of the most eminent 
orthodox Fathers who were present at, and succeeded the first 
Catholic, or universal Council, that of Nice. These men were con- 
tinually commenting and improving upon the canons, decrees, and 
doctrines of the Nicene Council. A conspicuous member of this 
first Council was the deacon Athanasius, afterwards a canonized 
saint, who is celebrated as the composer of the creed which begins 
thus : "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that 
he hold the Catholic faith," that is, as established in the Councils 
of Nice and Constantinople, the faith of the Roman Empire, of the 
Greek and Roman Churches ; in short the Catholic faith : " which 
faith," it goes on to say, " except every one do keep, whole and un- 
defiied, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."* This creed 
which is yet professed, even in some Protestant Churches, we must 
certainly confess is an insult to reason and a dishonor to the Most 
High. "What a strange amount of assumption and arrogance in any 
man or combination of men to condemn to eternal misery all who do 
not choose to believe in the dogmas which such saw fit to impose 
by the allurements of the secular arm! This faith, as the Athan- 
sian creed goes on to explain, is the doctrine of the Trinity, or rather 
Tritheism, which, as it explains it, is beyond the power of man to un- 
derstand. Athanasius,however,was a zealous and ardent supporter of 
his doctrine of the Trinity : he was, in short,the acknowledged leader 
in his time of the Trinitarian party. Soon after the Council of Nice, 
ne became bishop of Alexandria, from which position he was banished 
three several times by the power of his opponents, the Arians, and 
restored after an interval, each time by the power of his own party. 
In this age the Trinitarians and Arians, i. e.. Unitarians, appear 
to have been pretty equally divided in numbers, (the Arians, perhaps, 
being considerably more numerous, but the Trinitarians having on 
their side the ruling power,) and to have been both imbued to an 

* This creed is now generally admitted not to have been composed by him whose name it 
bears, but is commonly attributed to Vigilius Tapsensis, who lived at the close of the fifth 
century. 



298 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

equal degree with, the spirit of fanaticism and persecution. The 
. Arians when in power persecuted the Trinitarians, and the latter the 
former in like manner : and the whole of these proceedings of bitter- 
ness and persecution simply exemplified the outworking of the prin- 
ciple of evil that is in man, which we have had occasion to remark 
upon before, and as will be seen more fully as we proceed. 

Ephraim, the Syrian, acquired an immortal name by the multitude 
of his writings in which he combatted the sectaries. Hilary, bishop 
of Poictiers, is immortalized b}"^ his twelve books concerning the 
Trinity, which he wrote in opposition to the Arians. The following 
is the strain in which he speaks of the heresies of his time : " It is a 
thing equally deplorable and dangerous that there are as many creeds 
as opinions among men, as many doctrines as inclinations, and as 
many sources of blasphemy as there are faults among us ; because 
we make creeds arbitrarily, and explain them as arbitrarily. The 
Homoousion (the con substantiality of the Father and Son) is rejected 
and received and explained away by successive synods. The par- 
tial or total resemblance of the Father and the Son is a subject of 
dispute for tliese unhappy times. Every year, nay every moon, we 
make new creeds to describe invisible mysteries. We repent of 
what we have done, we defend those who repent, we anathematize 
those whom we defended. We condemn either the doctrine of 
others in ourselves, or our own in that of others ; and reciprocally 
tearing one another to pieces we have been the cause of each other's 
ruin." This teaches us that human beings are radically in every 
age much the same : in the fourth century as well as now, and now 
as well as then ; there are about as many different opinions on re- 
ligion as there are human beings. And if we now-a-days have less 
wrangling and contention and bloodshed on account of religion, it is 
owing to religion becoming more pure, being made more comprehen- 
sible to the human mind ; and to a higher state of general education 
and of civilization existing among the people. But let men be in the pos- 
session of ever so little knowledge, they still can cultivate the good 
principle and develop the godly character in themselves ; and knowing 
ever so much they should not for a moment neglect to cultivate and 
develop these. Rufinus, presbyter of Aquileia, was famous for his com- 
mentaries on several passages of the S •ii[)tures, and his bitter contest 
with St. Jerome. " He would," says Mosheim, * " have obtained a 
very honorable place among the Latin writers of this century had it 
not been his misfortune to have the powerful and foul-mouthed 
Jerome for his adversary." But the glory of these and of all other 

* Mosheim' s Ecclesiastical History; Century IV 



CHUBCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 299 

ecclesiastical writers and saints of this age was eclipsed by that of 
St. Augustin. Mosheim says " The fame of Augustin, bishop of 
Hippo, in Africa, filled the whole Christian world." He gained much 
honor in his controversy with Pelagius, suppressing the Pelagian 
heresy almost in its beginning, and establishing the Catholic doc- 
trines of the Imputation of Original Sin, Election, and Reprobation ; 
and of salvation by mere grace without any foresight of faith, or re- 
gard to good works, which have darkened Christendom even to the 
present day. The African bishops, with Augustin at their head, main- 
tained the Catholic faith even against the bishop of Rome, who 
esteemed Pelagius sound in the faith ; and by their exhortations, 
letters and writings won over the Roman Pontiff to their side. Pela- 
gius and his doctrines were condemned with the utmost severity at 
Rome, and also in the famous council at Ephesus, A. D., 431. " In 
short," says Mosheim, " the Gauls, Britons, and Africans by their 
councils, and the Emperors by their edicts and penal laws demolish- 
ed this sect in its infancy." "While Genseric," says Robinson, "was 
defending the Arian faith at the head of eighty thousand men, Augus- 
tin,who had no command over the sword, was inflaming his hearers 
with violent passions by urging them to hate one another for their 
speculations." * In one of his sermons the following is worthy of notice. 
The discourse is about the strait gate, and this, according to Catho- 
lic faith, cannot be good works, or obedience to the Gospel law, but the 
wounded side of Jesus. " By this strait gate of the side of Christ," 
says he, " the converted thief entered, the penitent Jew, every con- 
verted Pagan : but the wicked Arian heretic turns his back upon 
him and goes out. He is one of those of whom St. John says ; 
They went out from us, — O you Arian heretic ! " " Several Catholic 
historians observe," says Robinson, " for the glory of God, for the 
honor of his providence, and for the benefit of the Church, that the 
very day on which Pelagius was born in Britain to shed darkness 
over the Empire, St. Monico lay in with St. Augustin in Africa, to 
dispel the darkness, and throw light and sunshine and mid-day 
splendor over the minds of mankind." " Just so," say they, 
"when heretics appeared in the Western world, did not God by his 
Spirit excite Pope Innocent to erect the most holy office of the Inqui- 
sition. From this bitter and bloody fanatic of Africa proceeded two 
hundred and thirty-two pamphlets. He understood the ten com- 
mandments in a spiritual sense : and Thou shalt not kill, signified, 
thou shalt not kill an orthodox believer. The command did not pro- 
tect the life of a heretic. St. Augustin, that renowned Catholic ora- 



• RobiBson's Ecclesiastical Researches. 



300 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

cle, had once himself been a professed Manicheean, and had he re- 
mained so he might have remained a stranger to the diabolical work 
of persecuting others for their religious opinions, and perhaps have 
been exempt from the just charge of his having insulted the reason 
and abused the rights of mankind. But when he returned from his 
errors, as Mosheim chooses to express it, and became a true orthodox 
Catholic, then, indeed, the whole force of his much admired genius 
and flowing eloquence was employed in stirring up persecution 
against the heretics ; and he and other such saintly men endeavored 
to inflame the passions of those in power, to extirpate the root of this 
"horrible disease," which so much troubled their Catholic peace. 
Through the influence of Augustin and other orthodox saints severe 
laws were enacted by the Emperors against the Manichaeans, who 
are said in the fourth century to hijive increased far above the other 
denominations of heretics in numbers and influence. Their assem- 
blies were prohibited, heavy penalties were imposed upon their 
teachers, they were branded with infamy, and deprived of all rights 
and privileges, as citizens. The society of the Donatists also suffered 
immense cruelties ; numbers ot them were banished, and many of 
them persecuted with brutal barbaritj' until they came to enjoy 
peace during the short reign of the Pagan Emperor Julian, who per- 
mitted the exiles to return to their homes, and restored them and 
all other persecuted sects to the enjoyment of their former liberty. 
But no sooner did the self-styled orthodox attain the exercise of 
power again after the death of Julian than the scene changed ; and 
none among them appeared more fit to perform the cruel work of 
making the blood of heretics to flow than St. Augustin. " He," 
says Mosheim, "instigated against them, not only the Province of 
Africa, but also the whole Christian world and the Imperial court." 
The Mother of Abominations, of which we shall have occasion to 
speak more afterwards, could not at that age of apostacy have con- 
ceived and brought forth a more genuine offspring to help to fill up 
the cup of her inexpressible wickedness, than that " learned and in- 
genious prelate " St. Augustin, a divine oracle to her adulterous seed, 
but a most contemptible tool in the eyes of the virtuous.* The 
Donatists had expressly remonstrated against appeals to the civil 
power in cases of religion. "The implacable Austin," says Robin- 
son, " had spent almost half a century in banishing, butchering and 
driving all dissenters into corners ; and there he stood crowing to 
hail the return of day." f But the Donatists recovered for a time 
their former liberty and tranquillity, by the protection they received 

* Vide " Christ's Second Appearing." t Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches. 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 301 

from the Vandals who conquered Africa ; but as the Vandal king- 
dom was brought to k close in 534, A. D., hence orthodoxy and- per- 
secution once more overwhelmed that ill-fated country, Africa. 
" Councils, canons, edicts, and all imaginable instruments of oppres- 
sion came rolling in like a tide." The constitution of the Catholic 
Church from the period of the Nieene Council, inspired the priest- 
hood with a growing ambition to rid the Empire of everyone that would 
not conform to their ideas. Heretics stood principally in their way ; 
therefore the greatest champion in detecting and accusing heretics, 
however contrary to the Gospel the means he employed, stood hioh- 
est on the list of Catholic heroes and canonized saints. It Avas easy 
to see that there could be no room either for truth or charity where 
the continued strife was who should be greatest. And the revenues 
■which flowed from the government to those ghostly hierarchs prompt- 
ed them to still higher degrees of ambition by which the common 
people were trampled under foot, or at best considered as necessary 
tools for promoting their opulence and grandeur, and supporting 
them in luxury and idleness. To show that this was the real genius 
of this imperious hierarchy the following particulars suffice: "Ma 
ny of the privileges," says Mosheim, "which had foimerly belonged 
to the presbyters and people were (after Constantine) usurped by 
the bishops. Their first step was an entire exclusion of the people 
from all part in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs." * " In 
episcopal order the bishop of Rome was the first in rank, and was 
distinguished by a sort of pre-eminence over all other prelates. Pre- 
judices, arising from a great variety of causes, contributed to estab- 
lish his superiority ; but it was chiefly owing to certain circumstan- 
ces of grandeur and opulence by which mortals for the most part 
form their ideas of pre-eminence and dignity." " The bishop of 
Rome surpassed all his brethren in the magnificence and splendour 
of the Church over which he presided ; in the riches of his revenues 
and possessions, in the number and variety of his ministers ; in his 
credit with the people, and in his sumptuous and splendid manner of 
living. These dazzling marks of human power had such a mighty 
influence upon the minds of the multitude, that the see of Rome 
became a most seducing object of sacerdotal ambition. Hence it 
happened that when a new Pontiff was to be elected by the suffrages 
of the people, the city of Rome was generally agitated with dis 
sensions, tumults, and cabals, whose consequences were often de- 
plorable and fatal. The intrigues and disturbances which prevailed 
in the city in the year 366, when, upon the death of Liberius, anoth- 
er Pontiff was to be chosen in his place, are some proof of what we 



• Mosheim'B Eccie>*Jastical History : Centurj' IV. 



302 CREATOE AND COSMOS. 

have now advanced. Upon this occasion one party elected Damasus 
to that high dignity, while the opposite party chose Ursicinus, a 
deacon of the vacant church, to succeed Liberius. This double 
election gave rise to a dangerous schism, and to a sort of civil war 
within the city of Rome, which was carried on with the utmost bar- 
barity and fury, and produced cruel massacres and desolations. This 
inhuman contest ended in the victory of Damasus." Such was the 
degree of lawless power to which these degenerate plants of the vine 
of Sodom had already attained, and which evidently proceeded in a 
great degree from the anti-Christian authority which they derived 
from the emperor, their head, and from the secular power. This ap- 
pears from what follows from Mosheim : " The additions made by the 
Emperors and others to the wealth, honors and advantages of the 
clergy were followed by a proportionable augmentation of vices and 
luxury, particularly among those of that sacred order wha lived in 
great and opulent cities ; and that many such additions were made 
to that order after the time of Constantine is a matter that admits 
of no dispute." Hence there was a principal cause of their ambition, 
a sordid thirst for temporal glory ; and hence the historian observes ; 
" The bishops on the one hand contended with each other in the most 
scandalous manner concerning the extent of their respective juris- 
dictions; while on the other hand they trampled upon the rights of 
the people, violated the privileges of the inferior ministers, and imi- 
tated in their conduct and in their manner of living, the arrogance, 
voluptuousness, and luxury of magistrates and princes. This perni- 
cious example was soon followed by the several ecclesiastical orders. 
The bishop by degrees divested the presbyters of their ancient priv- 
ileges and their primitive authority, that they might have no impor- 
tunate protesters to control their ambition or oppose their proceed- 
ings ; and principally that they might engross to themselves or dis- 
tribute as they thought proper the possessions and revenues of the 
Church. Hence it came to pass that at the end of this (fourth) cen- 
tury there remained no more than a mere shadow of the ancient gov- 
ernment of the Church." Admitting that there did remain a mere 
shadow, there must be an essential difference between the shadow 
and the substance. But it appears evident there did not remain 
even a distinct resemblance of the primitive Christian Church, if we 
compare the arrogance, voluptuousness, luxury, and cruelty of the 
clergy, and the barbarity, fury and inhuman contests and cabals of 
their subjects Avith what the Gospel represents Jesus to have taught 
his disciples ; "But Jesus called them and saith unto them : Ye 
know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise 
lordship over them ; and their great ones exercise authority upon 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OE THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 303 

them. But so shall it not be among you ; but whosoever shall be 
great among you shall be your servant, and whosoever will be 
chiefest shall be servant of all," Mark X. 42-45. How diametrically 
opposite appear the whole proceedings of this Catholic hierarchy, 
even in the fourth century : The bishop lording it over the presby- 
ters; the presbyters over inferior officers, and the lower class of 
hierarchy setting themselves up as great ones over the common peo- 
ple; and priests and people; and the civil power tyrannizing with 
relentless cruelty over reputed heretics, whose lives of virtue, and 
perhaps of ignorance, exposed them alone as common prey to this 
ravenous and beastly legal power of State and Church. This is the 
Church which had been denominated the blessed Mother of saints 
and of great saints, and even of Saint Constantine the Great, under 
whose reign President Edwards could affirm that that great building 
which had been erecting since the fall rose to so great a height ! 
This is that great hierarchy, and these the effect of that Catholic 
Gospel for which he could affirm that no other cause could be de- 
vised but the power of God.* Doubtless that proverb is true : 
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof 
are the ways of death. 

The destruction of Paganism in the days of Theodosius (378-395 
A. D.) is the most notable example which history affords of the ex- 
tirpation of any ancient and popular superstition. The Christians, 
more especially the clergy, had supported with impatience the pru- 
dent delays of Constantine, and the impartial toleration of the elder 
Valentinian, " nor could they deem their conquest perfect or secure so 
long as their adversaries were suffered to exist." The influence which 
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and his brethren had acquired over the 
youthful Emperor Gratian, and his successor, Theodosius the Younger, 
was employed to infuse the principles of persecution into the minds 
of their imperial proselytes. Two specious principles of religious 
jurisprudence were established b}^ the orthodox, from whence they 
deduced a direct and rigorous conclusion against the subjects of the 
Empire who still adhered to their ancient religion, namely, that the 
magistrate is in some measure guilty of the crimes which he neglects 
to prohibit or to punish ; and that the idolatrous worship of fabulous 
deities and real demons is the most abominable crime against the 
Creator. The laws of Moses and the examples of Jewish history 
were commonly quoted and applied by the clergy to the reign of 
Christianity. They excited the zeal of the Emperors to vindicate 
their own honor and that of the Deity; and the Pagan temples 

* History of Redemption. 



304 CREATOR AifD COSMOS. 

throughout the Empire were subverted about sixty years after the 
conversion of Constantine. In a full meeting of the senate at 
Rome the Emperor Theodosius, then visiting that city, proposed, 
according to the ancient forms of the Republic : Whether the wor- 
ship of Jupiter or that of Christ should be the religion of the Romans ? 
The liberty of suffrages which, through respect for the senate, he 
affected to allow, was destroyed by the hopes and fears which the 
presence of this conqueror inspired; and his arbitrary exile of 
Symmachus, the ablest and most popular statesman of those times, 
was a sufficient admonition that it might be dangerous to oppose his 
wishes. On a division of the Senate Jupiter was degraded by a very 
large majority ; and historians regard it as a matter of surprise that 
there should be any members courageous enough to declare by their 
speeches and votes that they were still attached to an abdicated 
deity. The hasty conversion of the senate must, however, be 
attributed to fear or to sordid motives ; for many of their number 
betrayed afterwards on every favorable occasion their secret disposi- 
tion to throw aside the odious mask of dissimulation. But they 
gradually became fixed in the new religion, as the cause of the 
ancient became hopeless. They yielded to the will of the Emperor, 
to the fashion of the times, and to the entreaties of their wives 
and children, who were instigated and influenced by the rest 
of the nobility. The Bassi, the Paullini, the Gracchi adopted 
the Christian religion ; and the luminaries of the world, the vener- 
able assembly of Catos (such are the high-flown expressions of Pru- 
dentius) were impatient to strip themselves of their pontifical gar- 
ments ; to cast the skin of the old serpent, to assume the snowy 
robes of baptismal innocence, and to humble the pride of the consular 
fasces before the tombs of the martyrs. The industrious citizens 
and the populace who were supported by the public liberality filled 
the churches of the Lateran and the Vatican with an increasing 
throng of devout proselytes. The decrees of the senate which pro- 
scribed the worship of idols were ratified b}^ the general consent of 
the people of Rome ; the splendor of the capitol was defaced, and 
the temples, 424 of which still remained in the city of Rome, and 
the statues of the gods in every quarter of the city, were abandoned 
to ruin and contempt. Thus Rome submitted to the new religion ; 
and the dependent provinces had not yet lost their respect for the 
name and authorit}^ of Rome. The Pagan religion was abolished in 
the provinces as early as the year 420 A. D. The ruin of this ancient 
superstition is described by the Sophists of that and the succeeding 
age as a dreadful and amazing calamity which covered the earth with 
darkness and restored the ancient dominion of chaos and of night. 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 305 

They relate in solemn and pathetic strains that the temples were 
converted into sepulchres, and that the holy places which had been 
adorned with the statues of the gods were basely polluted by the 
relics of the christian martyrs. " The monks, a race of filthy animals, 
to whom Eunapius is inclined to refuse the name of men, are the 
authors of the new worship which, in the place of those deities that 
are conceived by the understanding, has substituted the meanest and 
most contemptible slaves. The hands of those infamous malefactors 
who for the multitude of their crimes have suffered a just and ignomi. 
nious death, their bodies still marked by the impression of the lash 
and the scars of those tortures Avhich were inflicted by the sentence 
of the magistrates ; such (continues Eunapius) are the gods which 
the earth produces in our days ; such are the martyrs, the supreme 
arbitrators of our praj^ers and petitions to the Deity, Avhose tombs 
are now consecrated as the objects of the veneration of the people." 
We may conceive of the surprise of the sophist, who was a spectator 
of this revolution which raised those obscure victims of the laws to 
the rank of celestial deities. The respect which the Christians had 
had for the martyrs of their faith was exalted by time and victory 
into religious adoration ; and they associated the most illustrious of 
the Scripture Saints and Prophets to the honors of the martyrs. In 
the age which followed the conversion of Constantine, the Emperors, 
the Consuls, and the Generals of armies were accustomed devoutly 
to visit the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul upon the Ostian road, 
and afterwards in the Vatican, where, as was supposed, the bones of 
these spiritual heroes were deposited. The new capital of the Roman 
world, unable to produce any ancient and domestic trophies, was 
enriched by the spoils of dependant provinces. The bodies of St. 
Luke, St. Andrew, and St. Timothy were torn from their obscure 
graves, where, if they had ever been buried, they had reposed for 
near three centuries, and transported in solemn pomp to the Church 
of the Apostles, which Constantine had founded in his new city. 
About fifty years after the same city was honored by the presence 
of Samuel, the judge and prophet of Israel. His ashes, deposited in 
a golden vase and covered with a silken veil, were delivered by the 
bishops into each other's hands. The relics of Samuel were i-eceived 
by the people with the same joy and veneration which they would 
have shown the living prophet. The highways from Palestine to 
the gates of Constantinople were thronged with a procession, and 
the Emperor Arcadius, the son and successor of Theodosius, at the 
head of the most illustrious members of the senate and Church 
advanced to meet his extraordinary guest, who had always claimed 
the homage of kings. The example of Rome and Constantinople 
Vol. II.— 20 



306 CEEATOB AND COSMOS. 

confirmed the faith, and discipline of the Catholic world. The 
honors of the saints and martyrs, after a feeble and ineffectual 
murmur of profane reason, were universally established, and in the 
days of St. Ambrose and St. Jerome something was still deemed 
wanting to the sanctity of a Christian Church till it had been con- 
secrated by some portion of holy relics which attracted and influenced 
the devotion of the faithful. 

In the long period of twelve centuries which passed between the 
age of Constantine and that of Luther, the worship of saints and 
relics corrupted the pure and perfect simplicity of the Christian model, 
and the symptoms of degeneracy are discernible in the first genera- 
tion which adopted and cherished this pernicious and abominable 
innovation. The satisfactory experience that the relics of the saints 
and martyrs were more valuable than gold or precious stones stimu- 
lated the clergy to multiply the treasures of the Church. With little 
regard for truth or probability they invented names for skeletons, 
and actions for names ; and the fame of men of Apostolic times was 
darkened by religious fictions. 

To the genuine and primitive band of martyrs they added myriads 
of imaginary heroes, that had never existed except in the imagination 
of crafty and credulous legendaries ; and there is ever}- reason to 
suspect that Tours might not be the only diocese in which the bones 
of a malefactor were adored instead of those of a saint. This su- 
perstitious practice, which tended to increase the temptations to 
fraud and credulity, insensibly extinguished the light of history and 
of reason in the Christian M^orld. But the progress of supei-stition 
and idolatry would have been much less rapid and victorious had not 
the faith of the people been assisted by the seasonable aid of visions 
and miracles, to ascertain the authenticity and virtue of the most 
.suspicious relics. 

In the reign of the younger Theodosius, Lucien, a presbyter of 
Jerusalem and the ecclesiastical minister of the village of Caphar- 
gamala, about twenty miles from the city, related a very singular 
dream, which, to remove his doubts, had been repeated to him on 
three successive Saturdays. A venerable figure stood before him in 
the silence of the night with a long beard, a white robe, and a gold 
rod, and announced himself by the name of Gamaliel, and revealed 
to the astonished presbyter, that his own corpse, with the bodies of 
his son Abbas, his friend Nicodemus, and Stephen the first martj^r of 
the Christian faith, were secretly buried in the adjacent field. He 
added with some impatience that it was time to release himself and 
his companions from their obscure prison ; that their appearance 
•would be salutory to a distressed world; and that they had made 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 307 

choice of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jerusalem of their situation 
and their wishes. The doubts and difficulties which still retarded 
the important discovery were successivel}'' removed by new visions, 
and the ground was opened by the bishop in the presence of an as- 
sembled multitude. The coffins of Gamaliel, of his son, and of his 
friend were found in regular order ; but when the fourth coffin, which 
contained the remains of Stephen, was shewn to the light, the earth 
trembled, and an odor such as that of Paradise was smelt, which in- 
stantly cured the various diseases of seventy-three of the bystanders. 
The companions of Stephen were left in their peaceful residence at . 
Caphargamala, but the relics of the first martyr were transported to 
a church consecrated to their honor on Mount Zion ; and the minute 
particles of these relics were acknowledged in almost every province 
of the Roman Empire to possess a divine and miraculous virtue. 
St. Augustine attested the numerous prodigies which were wrought 
in Africa by the relics of St. Stephen. The bishop of Hippo solemnly 
declares that he has selected those miracles only which were publicly 
certified by the persons who were either the objects or the spectators 
of the power of the martyr. Many prodigies were omitted or for- 
gotten, and Hippo had been less favorably treated than the other 
cities of the province. And yet he enumerates seventy miracles, of 
which three were resurrections from the dead, in the space of two 
years, and within the limits of his own diocese. But, it is strange 
this great saint does not say he Avas the object or spectator of any 
of these miracles himself. Besides, notice that ominous number 
seventy^ as well as three, in his enumeration. If we enlarge our view 
to all the dioceses and all the saints of the Christian world of that 
age, it will not be easy for us to calculate the fables and the decep- 
tions that issued from this inexhaustible source. The innumerable 
miracles of which the tombs of the martyrs were the perpetual thea- 
tre revealed to the credulous believers the state and constitution of 
the visible world, and the religious speculations appeared to be 
founded on the firm basis of experience. Whatever might have been 
the condition of the souls of the vulgar in the long interval between 
the dissolution and resurrection of their bodies, it was evident that 
the superior souls of the martyrs and saints did not consume that 
portion of their existence in silent and inglorious sleep. The enlarge- 
ment of their intellectual faculties must have surpassed the measure 
of the human imagination, since it was proved by experience that 
they were capable of hearing and understanding the various petitions 
of their almost innumerable votaries, who at the same moment of 
time, and in the most distant parts of the world, invoked their names 
and their assistance. The confidence of the petitioners appears to 



'608 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

have been founded on the persuasion that the saints that reigned 
with Christ, cast an eye of pity upon the earth ; that they were 
warmly interested in the welfare of the Catholic Church, and that 
the individuals who imitated their pious and faithful examples, were 
the peculiar and favorite objects of their tender regard. Sometimes 
indeed their friendship might be influenced by considerations of a 
less exalted kind ; they viewed with partial affection the places which 
had been consecrated by their birth, their residence, their death, their 
burial, or the possession of their relics. The meaner passions of pride, 
■ avarice and revenge might be deemed unworthy of a celestial breast, 
yet the celestial saints themselves condescended to testify their 
grateful approbation of the liberality of their votaries : and the 
sharpest bolts of punishment were hurled against those impious 
wretches who violated their magnificent shrines, or discredited their 
supernatural power. Atrocious indeed would have been the guilt, 
and strange the scepticism of those men, if they had obstinately re- 
sisted the proof of a divine agencj', while the elements, the whole 
range of animal creation, and even the secret and subtile operations 
of the human mind, were compelled to obey. 

At Minorca, it was said, the relics of St. Stephen converted in 
eight days 545 Jews, with the help, indeed, of some seasonable severi- 
ties, such as burning their synagogue, driving the obstinate infidels to 
stand amongst the rocks, &c. The immediate and almost instantaneous 
effects which were supposed to follow the prayer, or the offence, 
satisfied the Christians of the ample measure of favor and authority 
which the saints enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme Deity ; and 
it seemed almost superfluous to enquire whether they were continu- 
ally obliged to intercede before the throne of grace ; or whether 
they were not permitted to exercise, according to the dictates of 
their justice and benevolence, the delegated power of their subordi- 
ate deityship. The imagination, which was raised only by a painful 
effort to the contemplation and worship of the Infinite Deity, eagerly- 
embraced such inferior objects of adoration as were more proportion 
ed to its gross preception and imperfect faculties. 

The sublime and simple doctrine of the primitive Christians was 
gradually corrupted, and the hierarchy of heaven, already clouded 
with metaphysical subtilties, which put out of the question the con- 
sideration of the supreme and only God, was degraded by the in- 
troduction of a popular mythology which effectually restored the 
reign of Pol3'theisra. As the objects of religion were gradually re- 
duced to the standard of the imagination, those rites and ceremonies 
were introduced which seemed to most powerfully aifect the senses of 
the vulgar. If in the beginning of the fifth century Origen or Cy- 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 309 

prian had been raised from the dead to assist at the festival of some 
popular saint or martyr they would have gazed with astonishment 
and indignation on the profane spectacle, which had succeeded to 
the pure and spiritual worship of a primitive Christian congregation. 
As soon as the doors of the church were thrown open they must have 
been offended vi^ith the smoke of incense, the various perfumes of 
flowers, and the glimmer of lamps and tapers, which diffused at noon- 
day a gaudy, superfluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. 
If they should approach the balustrade of the altar they must make 
their way through a prostrate crowd, consisting for the most part of 
strangers or pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the vigil of the 
feast; and who already felt the strong intoxication of fanaticism, 
perhaps some of wine. They devoutly imprinted their kisses on the 
pavements and walls of the sacred edifices, and they directed their 
frequent prayers to the bones, the blood, or the ashes of the saint, 
which were usually concealed by a linen or silken veil from the eyes 
of the votaries. 

The Christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs in the hope 
of obtaining from their effectual intercession every sort of spiritual, 
but more especially of temporal blessings. They implored the pre- 
servation of their health or the cure of their infirmities, the fruitful- 
ness of their barren wives, or the safety and happiness of their chil- 
dren. Whenever they were about to undertake any distant or dan- 
gerous journey they implored the holy martj-rs to be their guides 
and protectors on the road ; and if they returned without having 
expei'ienced any misfortune the}'^ again hastened to the tombs of the 
martyrs to express with grateful thanksgivings their obligations 
to their celestial patrons. 

The walls of the temples were hung around with symbols of the 
favors which thej'' had received ; eyes, and hands and feet of gold 
and silver, and edifying pictures, which could not long escape the 
abuse of indiscreet and idolatrous devotion represented the image, 
the attributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint. The same uni- 
form spirit of superstition and idolatr}- might suggest in the most 
distant ages and countries the same methods of affecting the sense, 
and of deceiving the credulity of mankind ; but it is clearly seen, 
and must be confessed, that the priesthood of the Catholic Church 
imitated the model of the superstition which they were impatient to 
destroy; and some may incline to believe that they substituted a 
worse system of superstition instead of Pagan Polytheism. In their 
destruction of Paganism the bishops persuaded themselves that the 
ignorant rustics would more readil}^ renounce the superstitions of 
Paganism if thej^ found some resemblance, some compensation in the 



310 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

bosom of Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved in less 
than a century the final conquest of the Roman Empire; but the 
victors themselves insensibly adopted the arts and practices of their 
vanquished rivals. Here we find, even in this transition state from 
Paganism to Christianity, how easily men glide into idolatry ; how 
insensibly they are overcome by those arts and practices which they 
condemn in others ; how that, engrossed with carnal ideas, the 
Christian priesthood allowed the worship of saints, relics, and images 
to corrupt the pure and simple primitive Christian model. The bish- 
ops of that daj persuaded themselves that the Pagans would more 
willingly renounce Polytheism and embrace Christianity, if thej^ 
found in it something compensatory for the old religious rites and 
ceremonies to which they had been accustomed, just as if one form 
of idolatry were anj' better than another ; and the Reformers of 
eleven centuries after, possessed with the same idea, made the same 
mistake in retaining many of the man-made doctrines of the old 
Catholic Church. 

But to proceed with the prophecy in ch. XITL, verse 3, is : 
" And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded (lit. slain) to 
death ; and his deadly wound was healed ; and all the world won- 
dered after (lit. behind) the beast." The seer in his vision saw this 
wounded head as a very remarkable appearance. It here refers to 
the cit}'- of Rome, wounded and trodden down by war, and the adja- 
cer.fc country of Italy which was subjected to the same ravages of 
war as the city ; and this head represented in resources and impor- 
tance one-seventh of the Roman Empire. Rome was on several oc- 
ccasions during the decline of the Empire taken and sacked by the 
barbarians ; as by Alaric, king of the Goths, in the year 410 A. D. ; 
by Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 455 A. D. ; by Anthemius and 
Ricimer in 472 A. D., and by Odoacer, a Gothic king who governed 
Rome and Italy from the year 476-490 A. D. ; and by the Goths 
and Romans it was repeatedly taken and retaken till the year 552 
A. D. But the deadly wound was healed in a degree by the re-con- 
qxiest of Rome by Narses, the General of the Emperor Justinian, 
after which, for a period of about two centuries, Rome, with the 
adjacent provinces, was governed by an officer called Exarch, who 
resided at Ravenna and governed as the lieutenant of the Emperor, 
at Constantinople. These Exarchs, of whom there were eighteen 
successive ones, were invested with civil, military, and even ecclesi- 
astical power. Their immediate jurisdiction, which was afterwards 
given to the Pope, extended over the modern Romagna, or the 
States of the Church, the marshes or valleys of Ferrara and Com- 
machio, five maritime cities from Rimini to Ancona, and a second 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 311 

inland Pentapolis, between the Adriatic coast and the Appennines. 
Also three subordinate provinces of Rome, Venice, and Naples, 
which were separated by hostile lands from the palace of Ravenna, 
acknowledged, both in peace and war, the supremac}' of the Exarch. 
But this deadly wound came to be completely healed by the con- 
quests of Rome and Italy, 754-800, by Pepin and Charlemagne, 
kings of France, who donated to the bishop of Rome the patrimony 
over which he has ruled, as a temporal as well as an ecclesiastical 
prince, till within our own time. Thus that part of his dominions 
seemed to have been taken clearly away from the Roman Emperor 
who resided at Constantinople, and to have become the independent 
kingdom of tlie Pope, supported by the kings of France, and after- 
wards by the Emperors of Germany. But although this was so in 
effect yet the Emperors who reigned at Constantinople never gave 
up their claim to those dominions which were formerly governed by 
the Exarch, now by the Pope, but always reckoned them as their 
lawful right. " And all the world wondered after the beast." The 
word e,-i<r(i), here translated " after," literally signifies " behind " or 
"backwards," so that it reads "all the world wondered behind 
the beast," and it means that the attention of mankind would be 
attracted in another direction, and towards some other wonderful 
object than the proper seat of government, and the proper supreme 
head of the Empire. The Popes of Rome waxed very great in the 
four centuries which intervened since the reign of Constantine, 
through the influence which their peculiar position and circumstan- 
ces gave to them ; and they were now waxed doubly great and 
strong, through the liberality and assistance of the Western poten- 
tates. The Emperor thus effectually lost not only part of his jurisdic- 
tion, but a good share of the homage and admiration which accrued to 
him from mankind ; and while the power and influence of the Pope 
henceforth constantly increased, that of the Emperor as constantly 
decreased, until at length the Latin Crusaders took Constantinople 
itself, and Latins ruled it for somewhat over fifty years, 1204-1261, 
when it was again taken by the Emperors of the Eastern Roman 
line, who reigned over it till it was finally captured by the Turks in 
1453. 

Verse 4. " And they worshipped the dragon which gave power 
to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying : Wlio is like to 
the beast ? Who is able to make war with him ? " The prophet in 
his vision takes in ages at a glance. The Spirit of God sees the 
past, present, and future as present. Here they are seen worshipping 
the draoron, or the government and religion of the old Pagan Roman 
Empire, and the beast, or the government and religion of the Chris- 



312 CKEATOK AXD COSMOS. 

tian Roman Empire ; but the di-agonic power is evidently passed 
away; for their acclamations are all in praise of the beastly power. 
But in a sense these two powers "were adored together. The Pagan 
Eoman Emperors received from their subjects divine homage. On 
state occasions the Emperor sat on his throne, surrounded by the 
busts and images of the Emperors that had preceded him ; and the 
principal subjects of the Empire were accustomed to present them- 
selves before him in the attitude of worship, and so adore not only 
the living Emperor, but the busts and statues of all the dead ones 
which were then on exhibition. The same worship was given to the 
Christian Roman Emperors, and the mode and manner of this wor- 
ship was brought to a more blasphemous refinement than ever be- 
fore by the Pagan Diocletian, the immediate predecessor of Constan- 
tine, who introduced the court ceremonial of Eastern tings into the 
court of the Emperors ; and so it continued, but still waxing worse, 
during the reign of the Christian Emperors. Of course the vulgar 
multitude could only worship the Emperor at a distance, with their 
reverential exclamations : "Who is like unto him ! Who is able to 
make war with him ! " When the crusaders were passing Constan- 
tinople on their first expedition the generals and officers were de- 
tained and compelled to do homage to the Emperor Alexius, he 
thereby showing them that he still considered the Western provin- 
cials as his liege subjects. High on his throne the Emperor sat mute 
and immoveable : His Majesty was adored by the Latin princes, 
dukes, and counts ; and they submitted to kiss either his feet or his 
knees, an indignity which their own writers are ashamed to confess, 
and unable to deny. In about a century after, however, when the 
crusaders were passing on their fourth expedition they took the city 
and held it for a time, the Emperors going into exile, as we have 
mentioned. It has always been considered a privilege b}'' the Catho- 
lics to be allowed the rare honor of kissing the Pope's toe. " Who 
is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him ? " This 
last expression shows that the secular power of the Romans, or the 
Emperors who comprised in their person both the sacred and secular 
branches of power, is principally meant. Tliis great combination of 
sacred and secular power, — the sacred, which, as the vicegerency of 
God on earth, claimed all spiritual power over the souls and bodies 
of men ; the secular power of the Romans, which claimed to have won 
universal Empire b}' the force of its arms, — might well be an object 
of astonishment to the vulgar multitude, and cause the watching 
nations to cry : " Who is able to make war with it ? " Verse 5 ; 
"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and 
blasphemies : and power was given unto him to continue (lit., to do 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 313 

or make, (-";/>«£) forty-two months." It is not said by whom this 
mouth was given, as it was said that the dragon gave him his power, 
his throne and great authority. It symbolizes principally the eccle- 
siastical or spiritual force of the Empire, that is, of the Catholic 
Church. The mouth here given evidently means the same with that 
mentioned in Daniel, ch. VII. ver. 8, where it is said that in the 
little horn were eyes like the eyes of man (not only of a man) and a 
mouth speaking great things. The mouth, as the eyes, pertains not 
to an individual man alone, but to the whole power which it sym- 
bolizes. Thus, though the spiritual power was represented especially 
in the Emperor as the supreme head of the Catholic Church; and 
though it was recognized in the Pope more than in any other indi- 
vidual bishop of that church, yet the symbol does not refer to these 
two, or to either one of them exclusively, but to the whole Catholic 
hierarchy. The reference in Dan. XI. 36, &c., appears to have in 
view the whole Roman power in its various characters. 

" Speaking great things and blasphemies." Doubtless these 
*' great things " mean the same as, and much more than that expres- 
sion in the New Testament " great swelling words of vanity," which 
are spoken hj men puffed up with pride, actuated by arrogance and 
ambition, and filled with carnal ideas, following the lust of the flesh 
and of their own perverse hearts, strangers to God and to all godli- 
ness, and therefore enemies of themselves and of their species. Blas- 
phemy means, generally, impiety against God. This takes place in 
various ways, as for example, by detracting from the Deity the honors 
vphich belong to him: the setting up and worship of other gods or 
idols besides the true and only God, the invisible and infinite Deity ; 
the assuming and arrogating of men to themselves the honors and 
prerogatives which belong only to Deity. When men give to idols, 
or false gods, or deified human beings any divine honors, they 
detract from the true God what properly belongs to him, just as 
they do when they neglect to perform the important duties which 
they owe to him. When men allow or require themselves to be 
worshipped by their fellow human beings, as did the Christian 
Roman Emperors, the Popes, and as do modern Christian princes, 
they assume and arrogate to themselves the honors which belong 
only to God. It may be truly said that the Christian Emperors 
did exalt themselves above all that is called God. And the Popes 
either permitted or compelled themselves to be exalted to such a 
high pitch of divinity as they have been, even higher than anything 
that is known to have been called God. The truly godly man is 
the most truly humble. Men commit blasphemy when they i^ermit 
or require themselves to be called by any of the titles which are 



314 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

appropriated to the Supreme God. But the blasphemies here referred 
to principally are those implied in the doctrines of the Orthodox^ 
Catholic Church. The Greek and Roman churches have long been 
polluted by the worship of saints and martyrs, relics, and images.^ 
Both these, as also the Oriental Christian, and some of the Reformed 
Churches worship the Trinitj^ which to worship is dishonoring to 
God.* The Greek and Roman Churches have other gods in their 
celestial hierarchy, such as the Virgin Mary, the worshipping of any 
of which is blasphemy. " If we understand what prayer is," says 
Origen, a learned Christian writer of primitive times, " it will appear 
that it is never to be offered to any originated being, not to Christ 
himself, but only to the God and Father of all, to whom our Saviour 
himself prayed and taught us to pray." And in a book of prayers 
which is used in one of the Protestant Churches it goes on thus : 
" O God, the Father of heaven, have mercy upon us, miserable sin- 
ners ; O God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us, 
miserable sinners ; O God, the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the 
Father and the Son, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners ; O holy, 
blessed and glorious Trinity, three persons and one God, have mercy 
upon us, miserable sinners." Nobody can understand the foregoing 
as merely a Trinity of names, nor do we know that any one pretends 
to do so : there appear to be three objects prayed to, and to pray to 
more than one divine being, and that no conceivable object, either of 
the sense or of the imagination, is displeasing to God. And the 
Pope of Rome has lately put the capstone on the blasphemous 
fabric by declaring himself infallible. In the Council of Nice held 
in 325 A.D., the equal Deity of the Son with the Father was 
decreed: in that of Constantinople, held in 381, A. D., the equal 
Deity of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son was decreed ; 
in that of Chalcedon, held in 451, it was decreed that in Christ there 
were two natures, perfect God and perfect man ; and thus the suc- 
cessive Councils held from time to time have added to the number 
of the celestial hierarchy of the Christian Church, which deities all 
subsisted merely in the imagination that created or creates them. 

" And power was given him to continue forty-two months." In 
the language of prophecy a day is usually put for a year, and thus 
reckoning thirty days for each month, that is, three hundred and 
sixty days for a prophetic year, this power was to continue for twelve 
hundred and sixty years. And if we reckon from the Reformation 



* The worship of the Trinity proper is the worship of man; the worship of the Trinity of 
the creeds is the worship of some complex idea which nobody can understand, but which eacli 
one tries to have some sort of conception of. 



CHUECH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 315 

begun by Constantiiie in the fourth century to the Protestant Re^ 
formation in the sixteenth century, reckoning from and to the mean 
times in wliich these Reformations were effected, we shall find that 
this period of time coincides. (See Rev. ch. XI. 2, 3, and ch. XII., 
6 also, for the time.) In the continuation of our prophecy, verse 6 
reads : " And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to 
blasjiheme liis name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in 
heaven." This he does by means of the " mouth " that was given 
him, by the Catholic hierarchy, especially in the persons of the Em- 
perors and Popes, arrogantly claiming to itself the honors which 
belong to God alone, by its arbitrarily assuming the right of con- 
trolling the conscience and reason of all mankind, as well as of being 
the arbiter of their eternal destinies, by which it extended its power 
as far as the fears of its ignorant and superstitious votaries ; by its 
undue use of the instrument of excommunication, and anathematiz- 
ing, cursing by " bell, book and candle-light," &c., esjiecially in the 
case of the multitudes of heretics and nonconformists, which were 
in all the orthodox Christian ages condemned to temporal and eternal 
misery by the exercise of this power. This hierarchy beyond all 
doubt blasphemed the name of God and his tabernacle, that is, his 
true church, here his true and humble and persecuted ones ; and 
them that dwell in heaven, that is, true worshippers of God, the truly 
godl}'- people, wherever they were found within the jurisdiction of 
the Catholic hierarchy. The tabernacle was a movable temple of the 
Hebrews in the days of their wanderings in the wilderness ; so here 
the tabernacle means the true Church of God on earth ; and those 
who dwell in it, or his true and faithful people, wherever they are, 
and however difficult to be recognized among mankind, are said to 
dwell in heaven. See Hebrews VIII. 2, and IX. ; Rev. XV. 5. In 
general throughout the book of Revelation wherever the word hea- 
ven is used it means the Church of God on earth. And thus when 
in verse 7 of chapter XII. of the Book of Revelation, it is said that 
there was war in heaven, it means, not that thei-e was war away 
above the clouds in realms unknown and unexplorable by us; but 
that there was a spiritual contest of the Church in tlie world, with 
the world, and with all the powers and contrivances of the spiritual 
adversary, as in the contest of the primitive Church with polytheism 
which resulted in a reformation of the old system under Constantine 
and his successors, and to which this heavenly war refers ; as well as 
to the war Avaged by the witnesses for the truth in all the ages after- 
wards against Catholic polytheism and idolatry. The prophecy does 
not say how long or how short that contest in heaven would last; 
the langua^je simply informs us that sucli a contest would take place 



316 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and what its results should be. But we know that spiritual contest 
began with Christianity, and is going on ever since ; Michael and 
his angels, the Spirit of God, fighting against the dragon, the spirit 
of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and prevailing over them. 
Paul, in his epistles, explains the kingdom of heaven to be righteous- 
ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, (Romans ch. XIV., ver. 
17,) and this belongs to one as to many, and to many as to one. Ver. 
7 : " And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to 
overcome them ; and power was given him over all kindreds and 
tongues and nations." This making war with the saints, and over- 
coming them, has reference to the great power of the Empire, which 
was always exercised in compelling conformity to the orthodox doc- 
trines of the Catholic Church, which were universally established 
therein by law. The Emperor, the supreme head of the Church, 
and of course the bishop of Rome, were always considered as the 
pillars and supporters of rigid orthodoxy, and the reference in this 
verse is especially to the Catholic hierarchy using the secular power 
of the Empire in compelling submission to the established faith. And 
power was given him, literally over " every tribe, and people, and 
tongue." This certainly is all-inclusive language, and it has reference 
to the Roman Empire considered as the world, which throughout the 
New Testament is spoken of as such. The orthodox doctrines of 
the Catholic Church were established in every portion of the Empire 
from the Caledonian rampart to the frontiers of Persia, and from 
Mount Atlas in Africa to the frontiers of Scythia and Germany ; so 
that heretics and nonconformists had no place to go if not beyond 
the frontiers of the Empire, from the arm of persecution and com- 
pulsion. And even Caledonia, Scythia, Germany, and other nations 
which lay outside of the Empire proper, were afterwards brought to 
a profession of the orthodox faith through the labors of the mission- 
aries of the Catholic Church ; missionaries who were often accom- 
panied by an army of soldiers or dragoons, and enforced their tenets 
by the sword. A religious society sprung up in the Eastern Roman 
Empire in the latter part of the seventh century, called the Pauli- 
cians, which is thus described by Gibbon the historian : " The name 
of Paulicians is derived by their enemies from some unknown and 
domestic teacher; but I am confident that they gloried in their af- 
finity to the apostle of the Gentiles."—" The Paulician teachers 
wei*e distinguished only by their Scriptural names, by the modest 
title of fellow-pilgrims, bv the austerity of their lives, their zeal or 
knowledge, and the credit of some extraordinary gifts of the Holy 
Spirit. But they were incapable of desiring, or at least of obtaining 
the wealth and honors of the Catholic prelacy ; such anti-Christian 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 317 

pride they bitterly censured ; and even the rank of elders or presby- 
ters was condemned as an institution of tlie Jewish Synagogue." 

In their persecution by the Roman Emperors the historian says : 
" After a mission of twenty-seven years Sylvan us (this was the prin- 
cipal founder of their society) who liad retired from the tolerating 
government of the Arabs, fell a sacrifice to the Roman persecution. 
The laws of the pious Emperors, which seldom touched the lives of 
less odious heretics, proscribed without mercy or disguise the ten- 
ets, the books and the persons of the Motanists and the Manichteans ; 
the books were delivered to the flames ; and all who should presume 
to secrete such writings, or to profess such opinions, were devoted 
to an ignominious death. A Greek minister, armed with legal and 
military powers, appeared at Colonia to strike the shepherd, and to 
reclaim, if possible, the lost sheep. By a refinement of cruelty Sim- 
eon placed the unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his disciples, 
who were commanded, as the price of tiieir pardon and the proof of 
their repentance, to massacre their spiritual father. They turned 
aside from the impious office ; the stones dropped from their filial 
hands ; and of the whole number only one executioner could be 
found, a new David, as he is styled by the Catholics, who boldly 
overthrew the giant of heresy. This apostate, Justus was the name, 
again deceived and betrayed the unsusjiecting brethren : and a new 
conformity to the acts of St. Paul may be found in the conversion of 
Simeon ; like the apostles he embraced the doctrines he had been sent 
to persecute, renounced his honors and fortunes, and acquired among 
the Paulicians the fame of a missionary and a martyr. They were 
not ambitious of martyrdom, but in a calamitous period of one hun- 
dred and fifty years their patience sustained whatever zeal could in- 
flict ; and power was insufficient to eradicate the obstinate vegeta- 
tion of fanaticism and reason. From the blood and ashes of their 
first teachers a succession of teachers and congregations repeatedly 
arose."- — " The feeble Michael the first, the rigid Leo, tlie Armenian, 
were foremost in the race of persecution ; but the prize must doubt- 
less be adjudged to the sanguinary devotion of Theodora, who re- 
stored the images to the Oriental Church. Her inquisitors explored 
the cities and mountains of the lesser Asia, and the flatterers of the 
Empress have afiirmed that in a short reign one hundred thousand 
Paulicians were extirpated by the sword, the gibbet, or the flames.""* 

Great numbers of the Vandals, Suevi, Goths and Burgungians 
are said to have embraced Christianity of their own accord in the 
fifth century. But from what follows it is not difficult to see what 



* Milman's Gibbon's Rome, Cli. LIV. 



318 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

it was that they embraced. Mosheim says : " All these fierce and 
^valiike nations judged a religion excellent in j)roportion to the suc- 
cess that crowned the arms of those who professed it, and esteemed 
consequently that doctrine the best whose j^rofessors had gained the 
greatest number of victories. When therefore they saw the Romans 
possessed of an Empire much more extensive than that of any other 
people, they concluded that Christ, their God, was of all others the 
most worthy of religious homage." * Clovis, king of the Franks, was 
at this period the most famous trophy of their Catholic grace. " His 
conversion to the Christian religion is dated from the battle he fought 
with the Alemans in the year 496, in which, when the Franks began 
to give ground, and their affairs seemed desperate, he implored the 
assistance of Christ, and solemnly engaged himself by a vow to wor- 
ship him as his God if he rendered him victorious over his enemies." 
Victory ensued. Clovis was the same year baptized at Rheims with 
three thousand of his subjects who followed his example. It is said 
that Remigius, bishop of Rheims, having preached to Clovis, and 
those who had been baptized with him, a sermon on the sufferings 
and death of Jesus,, the king on hearing him cried out : " If I had been 
there with my Franks that should not have happened."' f This maj- 
serve as a specimen to show the spirit that animated these ignorant 
and barbarous converts, as well as their misunderstanding of Christ 
and his harmless religion. But this is not all; wonderful miracles 
are said to have been wrought at the baptism of this first Christian 
king of France, which lying tales, Mosheim observes, " are utterly 
unworthy of credit." He further adds that '■'• pious frauds were very 
commonly practised in Gaul and Spain at this time in order to cap- 
tivate the minds of a rude and barbarous people, who wei*e scarcely 
susceptible of a rational conviction." " The impudence of imposters 
in contriving false miracles was artfully proportioned to the creduli- 
ty of the vulgar ; while the sagacious and the wise, who perceived 
these cheats, were obliged to silence, by the dangers which threat- 
ened their lives and fortunes if tliey detected the artifice. The pru- 
dent are silent, the multitude believe, and impostors triumph." 

In the sixth century the conversion of several barbarous nations 
is dated ; among whom were the Abasgi, the Heruli, the Alans, the 
Lazi, and Zani. " These conversions," says Mosheim, " however 
pompously they may sound, were extremely superficial. All that 
was required of these darkened nations amounted to an oral profes- 
sion of their faith in Christ, to their abstaining from sacrifice to the 
gods, and their committing to memory certain forms of doctrine ; so 



* Mosheim'8 Ecclesiastical History, Century V t Id. Cent. V. 



CHUKCIl A^•D STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 319 

that even after their conversion to Christianity they retained their 
.primitive ferocity and savage manners, and continued to distinguish 
themselves by the most horrid acts of cruelty and rapine, and the 
practice of all sorts of wickedness." * It would appear that where 
such a religion as tliis is called Christianity, and such savage and 
cruel and rapacious wretches are called Christians, the meek, mild 
and self-denying followers of Jesus ought to have some other name ; 
rather call them heretics, fanatics, wild enthusiasts, or persons disor- 
dered in their brains. 

In the sixth century also, a vast multitude of Jews were convert- 
ed to Christianity, and added to the Church. " Many," says Mos- 
heim, '■ were brought over to the truth by the persnasion and in- 
fluence of the Emperor Justinian." " It must, however, be acknow- 
ledged," says he, •' that these conversions were owing to the libera- 
lity of the Christian princes or to the fear of punishment, rather 
than to the force of argument or the love of truth. In Gaul the 
Jews were compelled by Childeric to receive the ordinance of bap- 
tism, and the same despotic method of converting was practised in 
Spain." These Jews, therefore, must have found themselves in 
error still worse than the first. 

About the same time the Catholic Gospel was propagated in Bri- 
tain among the Anglo-Saxons, and the Caledonian tribes : and also in 
Germany among the Bohemians, Thuringians, and Boii. But it must 
be confessed, even by Mosheira, " that the converted nations now 
mentioned retained a great part of their former impiety, superstition, 
and licentiousness ; and that, attached to Christ by a mere outward 
and nominal profession, they in effect renounced the purity of his 
doctrine, and the authority of his Gospel by their flagitious lives, 
and the sujDerstitious and idolatrous rites and institutions which 
tliey continued to observe." Thus, these barbarous nations, through 
the despotic power of their more barbarous conquerors, are compel- 
led to make a mere outward or nominal profession of Christianity, 
without amending their lives or quitting their former idolatrous 
practices. 

Pope Gregory, called the Great, sent into Britain, in the year 
596, A. D., forty Benedictine monks, with Augustin at their head. 
This monk Augustin, on account of his labors in propagating the 
Catholic Gospel in Britain, is styled the British Apostle, and was 
the first Archbishop of Canterbury. After his arrival in England he 
converted the heathen temples into places of Clu'istian worship ; and 
Gregory, in his epistle to the Anglo-Saxon converts, permits them 



t Id. Cent. VI. 



320 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

to sacrifice in honor of the saints on their respective holidays the 
victims which tlie}^ had formerl}^ offered to the gods. 

The same account of the celestial light and the divine Gospel runs 
through the seventh century, and St. Columban, St. Gal, and St. 
Kilian, and other great saints are said to convert Franks, Frieslan- 
ders, and other nations to the religion of Jesus. But again Mosheim 
confesses with respect to these gospelizers that " many of them dis- 
covered in the course of their ministry the most turbulent passions, 
arrogance and ambition, avarice and cruelty. And instead of gain- 
ing souls to Christ they usurped a despotic dominion over their ob- 
sequious proselytes ; and exercised a princely authority over the 
countries where their ministry had been successful." " The conver- 
sion of the Jews seemed at a stand in this century, though in many 
places they were barbarously compelled by the Christians (rather 
anti-Christians,) to make an outward and feigned profession of their 
faith in Christ." * 

The Emperor Heraclius, incensed against that miserable people 
by the insinuations, as it is said, of the ecclesiastics, persecuted them 
in a cruel manner, and ordered multitudes of them to be inhumanly 
dragged into the Christian Churches in order to be baptized by com- 
pulsion. The same odious method of converting was practised in 
Spain and Gaul. 

In the eighth century, Boniface, on account of his missionary 
labors and holy exploits, was distinguished by the honorable title of 
the Apostle of the Germans. But notwithstanding the eminent 
services he is said to have rendered to Christianity, Mosheim con- 
fesses that he " often employed violence and terror, and sometimes 
artifice and fraud, in order to multiply the number of Christians." 
It would be too tedious to pursue these Catholic gospelizers through 
all their tyrannical movements. Charlemagne in the .«ame century 
commenced hostilities in behalf of the Church against those Saxons 
who inhabited Germany : " that valiant people," says Mosheim, 
" whose love of liberty was excessive and whose aversion to the 
resti'aints of sacerdotal authority was inexpressible." Yet this valiant 
people, who had hitherto stood their ground against the fraud and 
violence of monks and bishops, at last, overcome by the fear of pun- 
ishment and the imperious language of victory, suffered themselves 
to b6 baptized, though with the greatest reluctance. For, according 
to the iniquitous law which these savage gospelizers had enacted, 
" every Saxon who contemptuously refused to receive the sacrament 
of baptism was to be punished with death." f 

Such were the exploits of Charlemagne in the service of Chris- 

* Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cent. VII. T Id. Cent. VIII. 



CHtJKCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE. 321 

tianity, for which " succeeding generations," says Mosheim, " can- 
onized his memory, and turned this bloody warrior into an eminent 
saint." But if Dr. Mosheim truly saw the absurdity of such an im- 
pious turn, how was it possible that he could canonize great num- 
*bers of such monstrous characters in his history under the name of 
Christians, and turn their absurd and ridiculous doctrines, with their 
pernicious effects, into the Grospel of Christ and the benign religion of 
Jesus ? These that Ave have quoted are only a few example for ill- 
ustration. We shall turn to them again by-and-bye, in illustrating 
chapter XVII. of Revelation. 

Such warfare did the great Catholic Church wage with all to 
whom it came for twelve hundred and sixty years, until it overcame 
them ; so that it could in a sense be said just before the outbreak of 
the Reformation that it had gotten dominion over all kindreds and 
tongues and nations; and that all who dwelt upon the earth, that is, 
in the now enlarged Roman world, worshipped or succumbed to it, 
all whose names were not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world : see verse 8. It is a com- 
forting thought that in this universal dominion of spiritual despotism, 
superstition, and prostration there were a few who remained as wit- 
nesses for the truth, who amid persecutions, tribulations, affliction and 
death gave their testimony for the truth against error, superstition, and 
idolatry : always a few whose names were written in the Lamb's 
Book of Life. " My Father that gave them Me is greater than all, 
and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. " The 
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them 
his covenant." The blood of all those who were slain in the coun- 
tries of Europe and Avestern Asia on account of their witness for the 
truth, or against the errors of the Catholic system, during the long 
reign of this Catholic Empire, attests the infallible truth of the pro- 
phecy which we are considering. If it was written in letters of ink 
it was recorded fulfilled by this all-prevailing Power in letters of 
blood. 

Verse 9 : "If any man have an ear, let him hear." The idea to 
be conveyed here is that what was said concerning this beast is es- 
pecially worthy of our attention ; but the proposition being in a 
conditional mood, and the ear symbolising the understanding, indi- 
cates that all would not be able to understand aright concerning it. 
Let men be ever so conversant with history, tliey will not under- 
stand true i^ropliecy aright except they be imbued witli the same 
spirit as originally suggested it to the mind of the proi)het. Verse 10 : 
" He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity ; lie tliat 
killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the 
Vol. IL— 21 



■322 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

patience and the faith of the saints." Literally : He that leadeth 
into captivity goeth into captivity; but, doubtless, this is a present 
tense with future meaning. No power that we know to have ever 
existed on the earth made so many captives as the Pagan and Chris- 
tian Roman power. No power ever wielded more universal and 
effectual dominion over the bodies and minds of men than the latter 
power did. Captivity of reason and of conscience is the most debas- 
ing kind of servitude ; and this is the very kind of captivity which 
this Catholic system effected during the long period of its ascendency, 
and which it affects to-day where its power and influence prevail. 
But the idea of strict and retributive justice is here contained, and 
it is meant that this captivating power should be taken captive as a 
recompense for its crimes, which was gradually and constantly ful- 
filled in the case of the Roman Empire whose seat was at Constanti- 
nople, Avhich lost its provinces one after another, and on all sides, 
so that at the time of the capture of the city by the Turks in 1453, 
the city was all that remained in the jurisdiction of the Emperor. 
And we see it also gradually and eminently fulfilled in the decline 
of those powers which constituted and supported the bishop of Rome 
as a temporal prince. Austria, a Papal German Empire, becomes 
humbled gradually and loses her power and prestige among the na- 
tions. And France, which has always been a supporter of the bishops 
of Rome, is conquered successively, and has her noblest sons brought 
into captivity by the Anglo-Saxon and German powers, and is de- 
prived of her territories, both colonial and national. The Pope also 
lost his temporal power as an indirect result of the late war between 
Germany and France ; the influence of the Papacy is gradually di- 
minishing, so that to-day there is not one countr}^ in Europe or in 
the world, which can be said, as it was said all were formerly, to be 
governed civilly and religiously by the influence of the Papacy. 

We believe that the influence of the Papacy will continue for a 
long time yet in the world; but it is such an influence, being de- 
prived of any secular force, as can produce no effect if men Avill not 
voluntarily yield themselves to it ; and it will be gradually dimin- 
ishing and consuming until it becomes insensible among mankind, 
and a new and better order of things has arisen in its place. The 
Greek branch of the Catholic Church has to a great extent been ex- 
tirpated long ago, with all its idolatry, by the Mahometans. It still 
remains the established Church of Russia, supported by the will and 
power of the Emperor, its head ; and so it will be likely to remain 
so long as the present system of Church and State government re- 
mains to Russia, and until some much-desired change takes place 
there, which will cause that Church, with its idolatrous doctrines 



CHUKCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE KOMAN EMPIEE. 323 

and practices, to be set aside and discarded, to make place for another, 
a simpler, purer, and better religion. It should be a subject of desire, 
and of prayer by all true Christians that God would raise up a good 
man as Emperor of Russia, who, as the present Emperor is enfran- 
chising the national serfs, may enfi-anchise Russia from that old and 
erroneous system of religion, and substitute and support a better, a 
truer religion in its stead. Many of the Emperors of Russia are com- 
mendable for the good sense they have displayed ; and we hope that 
any of the Emperors into whose hands this book may come will give 
the attention to this subject which its importance deserves. "Here 
is the patience and the faith of the saints," that is, in all the evolu- 
tions and exercises of this beastly power the faith and patience of 
the true servants of God should be severely tried ; tried even to per- 
secution, deprivation, exile, and death. Faith and patience are the 
distinguishing characteristics of the saints in every age and country ; 
and nowhere and in no age have their patience and faith been put to 
severer tests than in the Roman Empire during the long period of 
its Church and State domination. 

Few remarkable changes were made in the constitution of the 
Court or Government established at Constantinople, from the days 
of Constautine the First to tiie capture of the city by the Turks. For 
over a thousand 3^ears, from Vespasian to Alexius Comnenus, the 
Caesar was the second person, or at least the second degree, after the 
supreme title of Augustus, was more freely communicated to the 
sons of the reigning monarch. The Emperor Alexius now interposed, 
(about A. D., 1100) a new and supereminent dignity. This title 
was compounded of the names Augustus and Emperor, forming in 
the Greek- the high-sounding title of Sebastocrator. He was exalted 
above the Csesar upon the first step of the throne ; the public accla- 
mations repeated his name ; and he was distinguished from the Em- 
peror only by some peculiar ornaments of the head and feet. The 
Emperor alone could assume the purple buskins, and the close dia- 
dem or tiara which imitated the fashion of the Persian Kings. It was 
a high pyramidal cap of cloth or silk, almost concealed by a jjrofu- 
siou of peai'ls and jewels; the crown was formed by a horizontal 
circle, and two arches of gold ; at the summit or point of their inter- 
section, was placed a globe or cross, and two strings or lappets of 
pearl depended on either cheek. Instead of red, the buskins of the 
Sebastocrator and Csesar were green ; and on their open coronets, or 
crowns, the precious gems were more si)aringly distributed. Beside, 
and below the Csesar, Alexius created the titles of Panhypersebastos, 
and the Protosebastos, titles which imply a priority and superiority 
above the simple name of Augustus ; and this sacred and primitive 



324 CKEATOE AND COSMOS. 

title of the Roman princes was degraded to the kinsmen and serA'ants 
of the Emperor of Constantinople. To their favorite sons and 
brothers, the Emperors imparted the more lofty appellation of Lord, 
or Despot, Avhich was illustrated with new ornaments and preroga- 
tives, and placed immediately after the person of the Emperor him- 
self. The five titles of Despot, Sebastocrator, Caesar, Panhyperse- 
bastos, and Protosebastos, were usually confined to the Emperor's 
own kinsmen, — in modern language, the princes of the blood. Some 
few changes were also gradually introduced into thegrade of officers 
pertaining to the palace, the treasury, the fleet and army ; and the 
branches of the civil administration ; old titles, as in the case of 
Augustus, descending in the scale, and newly invented ones being 
placed above them. 

But the most lofty titles, and the most humble .postures which 
have been applied to the Supreme Being were prostituted by flattery 
or fear, or compulsion to the Emperors, creatures of the same nature 
as those by whom they were given. The mode of adoration, of fall- 
ing prostrate and kissing the feet of the Emperor, which was first 
borrowed by Diocletian from the court of Persia, Avas continued and 
aggravated till the last age of the Roman Empire of the East. Ex- 
cepting only on Sundays, Avhen it was waived from a motive of re- 
ligious pride, this humiliating reverence was exacted from all who 
entered the Emperor's presence, from the princes invested with the 
diadem and purple, and from the ambassadors Avho represented their 
independent sovereigns, the Caliphs of Asia, Egypt, or Spain, the 
Kings of France and Italy, and the Latin Emperors of ancient Rome, 
after these kingdoms and states had been organized from the dis- 
membered provinces of the Empire. It appears, however, that am- 
bassadors occasionally refused to perform the required homage. In 
his transactions of business, Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, had the 
audacity to assert the free spirit of a Frank, and the dignity of his 
master Otho, the newly-created Emperor of the West, about A. D., 
1000. Yet his sinceritj^ cannot disguise the abasement of his first 
audience. When he approached the throne the birds of the golden 
tree began to warble their notes, which were accompanied by the 
roarings of tAvo golden lions. With his two companions the ambas- 
sador was compelled to bow and to fall prostrate, and thrice to touch 
the ground with his forehead. He arose, but in the short interval 
the throne had been hoisted from the floor to the ceiling, the figure 
of the Emperor appeared in new and more gorgeous apparel, and the 
interview was concluded in haughty and majestic silence. The 
bishop of Cremona, in his narrative, represents the ceremonies of the 
court of Constantinople. In the morning and evening of each day, 



CHUECH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE KOMAN" EMPIKE. 325 

the civil and military officers attended their duty in the palace : 
their labors were repaid by the sight, perhaps by the smile, of their 
lord ; his commands were signified by a nod or a sign ; but all earthly 
greatness stood silent and submissive in his presence. In his regular 
or extraordinary processions through the capital, he unveiled liis 
person to the public view ; the rites of policy were connected with 
those of religion, and his visits to the principal churches were regu- 
lated by the calendar of the Greek Church. On the eve of these 
processions, the gracious or devout intention of the monarch was 
proclaimed by the heralds. The streets were cleared and purified ; 
the pavement was strewed Avith flowers , the most precious furniture, 
gold and silver plate, and silken hangings were displayed from the 
windows and balconies ; and a' severe discipline restrained and si- 
lenced the tumult of the populace. The march was commenced by 
the military officers at the head of their troops ; they were followed 
in long order b}^ the magistrates and ministers of the civil govern- 
ment ; the person of the Emperor was guarded by his eunuchs and 
domestics ; and at the church door he was solemnly received by the 
patriarch and his clergy. The applause did not proceed alone from 
the rude and spontaneous voice of the crowd. The most convenient 
stations were occupied by the bands of the blue and green factions 
of the circus ; and their furious contests, which, in.preceding ages 
had shaken the capital, were, in the later ages of the Empire, insen- 
sibly sunk to an emulation of servitude. From either side they 
echoed in responsive melody the praises of the Emperor ; their 
poets and musicians directed the choir ; and long life and victory 
were the burden of every song. The same acclamations were per- 
formed at the hall of audience, the banquet and the church ; and as 
an evidence of boundless sway, they were repeated in the Latin, 
Gothic, Persian, French, and even English languages l)y tlie merce- 
naries who sustained the real or fictitious characters of these nations. 

In the palace the Emperor was the first slave of tlie ceremonies 
which he imposed ; the rigid forms Avhich regulated ever}" word and 
gesture continually besieged him in the palace and in his rural soli- 
tude. But the lives and fortunes of millions depended on Ids arbi- 
trary will ; and the firmest minds, sujjerior to the allurements of 
pleasure and luxury, may be allured by the active pleasures of com- 
manding their equals. The legislative, ecclesiastical, and executive 
powers were centered in the person of the monarch, and the last 
vestiges of the authority of the senate had been finally eradicated by 
the Emperor Leo, surnamed the Philosopher, in the latter part of 
the ninth century. 

In the church of St. Sophia, {ho T'^.mjieror was solemnly croA^-ncd 



326 CREATOR ANIT COSMOS. 

by the Patriarch; at the foot of the altar the representatives of the 
people pledged their passive and unconditional obedience to his 
government and family. On his side he engaged to abstain as much 
as possible from the capital punishments of death and mutilation ; he 
subscribed with his own hand his Orthodox creed; and he promised 
to obey the decrees of the general Councils and the canons of the 
holy Catholic Church. But his assurance of mercy was vague and 
indefinite: he swore, not to liis people, but to an invisible judge; 
and, except in the inexpiable guilt of heresy, the mijiisters of the 
Church were always prepared to j^reach the indefeasible right, and to 
absolve the transgressions of their sovereign. The ecclesiastics of 
the Greek Church were themselves the subjects of the civil magis- 
trate ; at the nod of a tj-rant the bishops were created, or transferred, 
or deposed, or punished with mutilation or with an ignominious death. 
Whatever might be their wealth and influence they could never suc- 
ceed, perhaps owin.^ to their immediate proximity to their master, in 
the establishing of an independent republic as the Latin clergy ; and 
the Patriarch of Constantinople condemned what he may have se- 
cretly envied, the temporal greatness of his Eoman brother. In the 
lapse of centuries a lethargy of servitude had stultified the minds, 
and superstition had rivetted the chains of the Eastern Romans. Tn 
the wildest tumults of rebellion they never aspired to the idea of a 
free state; and the private character of the prince appears to have 
been the only source and measure of their public happiness. 

The reigns of most of the Roman Empei'ors of Constantinople are 
remarkably distinguished by ferocious cruelty and the most diabolical 
crimes. We have already given some idea of the character and ac- 
tions of Constantine the Fir-st, and his immediate successors. Our 
space prevents us from giving even the shortest accounts Avhich 
might be given of the character and reign of each successive Emperor 
who reigned at Constantinople for eleven centuries from the death of 
Constantius, the last of the sons of Constantine the First, in 361, 
A.D., to the complete subversion of the Empire by the Turks, in 1453 
in the reign of Constantine the Twelfth. In this long period there 
reigned a great many successive Emj)erors, about ninety in all, as 
the lives of many of them were cut short b}' the hand of violence and 
by various causes. But we tliink it requisite to give a few examples 
out of many, which might be adduced, Avhicli may help to display 
their character. 

Theodosius, under whose reign and auspices the Council of Con- 
stantinople was convened, A.D., 381, in which Council it was decreed 
that the Holy Spirit is equal Avith the Father and the Son, thus, as j\Ios- 
heim expresses it, giving the '■ finishing touch " to the Trinity, caused. 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 621 

according to the most moderate accounts, seven, but according to other 
respectable authorities, fifteen thousand people to be butchered at 
Thessalonica, because his lieutenant and one or two of the officers of 
his staff had been killed by the rabble of that city. The people of 
Thessalonica were treacherously invited in the name of the Emperor 
to the games of the circus; and such -was their desire for those 
amusements that every consideration of fear or suspicion was disre- 
garded by the numerous spectators. As soon as the assembly was 
complete, the soldiers, mostly barbarians, who had secretly been 
posted round the circus, received the signal, not for the races, but of 
a general massacre. The promiscuous carnage continued three hours 
without discrimination of strangers or natives, of age or sex, inno- 
cence or guilt. A foreign merchant, who had himself no concern in 
the murder of the officers, offered his own life and all his wealth to 
supply the place of one of his two sons ; but while the father hesitat- 
ed with equal tenderness which he should choose, while he Avas un- 
willing to condemn either, the soldiers determined his suspense by 
plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the 
helpless youths. The apology of the executioners, that they were 
obliged to produce the prescribed number of heads, serves only to 
increase b}^ an appearance of design and order the horrors of this 
massacre. The diabolical crime of the Emperor was aggravated by his 
long previous residence at Thessalonica ; (he now resided at Milan, 
whence he transmitted his murderous orders.) The situation of the 
unfortunate city, the dress and faces of its inhabitants were familiar, 
and ever present to his imagination afterwards. 

The emperor Phocas, A. D., 602, who had been formerly a cen- 
turion, on coming to the throne which he usurped, put to deatli the 
Emperor Maurice, his wife, five sons and three daughters. On the 
approach of Phocas Avith a large army to the city, Maurice, with his 
wife and family, escaped in a bark to the Asiatic shore, to Chal- 
cedon. Thither tlie ministers of death were despatched by Phocas : 
they dragged the aged Maurice from his sanctuary ; and his five sons 
were successively murdered before the eyes of their agonized 
parent. At each stroke which he felt in his heart, he found strength 
to repeat a pious ejaculation : " Thou are just, O Lord, and thy 
judgments are righteous ; " thereby, it might appear, showing tho 
miserable state of abject and servile superstition in which his mind 
was. In his last moments, such was the rigid attachment to truth 
of this man, that he exposed to the soldiers the pious falsehood of a 
nurse who presented her own child instead of a royal infant. The 
tragic scene thus far was closed by the execution of the Emperor 
himself. The bodies of him and his five sons were cast into the sea ; 



828 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

their heads were exposed at Constantinople to the insults or pity of 
the multitude ; and it was not till signs of putrefaction had appeared 
that Phocas connived at the interment of these remains. 

The discovery or the suspicion by Phocas of a conspiracy which 
was entered into against his life by the instrumentality of the wife 
of Maurice, caused him to put her and her three daughters also to 
death. A matron who, for her virtue, commanded the respect and 
compassion of mankind, the daughter, wife, and mother of Emperors, 
was tortured like the vilest malefactor to extort a confession of her 
design and associates ; and she, with her three daughters, was be- 
headed at Chalcedon on the same ground which had been stained 
with the blood of her husband and five sons. After such examples, 
it appears superfluous to enumerate the meaner victims of the rage 
and fury of Phocas. Their condemnation was seldom preceded by 
the forms of trial, and their punishment was embittered by the re- 
finements of cruelty ; their eyes were pierced, their tongues were 
torn from the roots ; their hands and feet were cut off ; some expired 
under the lash, others in the flames ; others again were transfixed 
with arrows ; and a simple, speedy death was a mercy they were 
rarely favored with. The hippodrome, the scene of the pleasures 
and liberties of the Romans, was polluted with heads, and limbs, and 
mangled bodies ; and even the companions of Phocas appeared sensi- 
ble that they could not depend upon his favor or their services to 
protect them from his tyranny. He himself, finally, after suffering 
a variety of insult and torture, had his head severed from his body 
after a reign of ten years, by Heraclius, who came to the throne in 
much the same manner as he did. 

The violence and danger which attended the reigns of the East- 
ern Roman Emperors may be noticed from the fact that in the space 
of six centuries, which intei'vened between the Emperors Heraclius, 
and the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins, there reigned at 
least sixty Emperors, which would leave an average proportion of 
only ten years for the reign of each Emperor. This is far below the 
average length of the reign of monarchs, according to the clu-onolog- 
ical rule of Sir Isaac Newton, who from the experience of more 
■recent and regular monarchies has defined about eighteen or twenty 
years as the term of an ordinary reign. 

The practice of mutilation as a penalty for crime was very fre- 
quent in the Eastern Roman Empire ; the cutting out of the tongue, 
the pulling out of the teeth, the cutting off of the nose, of the feet, 
and hands ; the pricking and putting out of the eyes ; and tortures 
and pains of an astonishing variety were inflicted upon human 
beings. The whole history of this Empire and of the EmjDcrors 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 329 

presents generally such a uniformly horrible scene as to thoroughly 
disgust the reader and to send a thrill of horror through his whole 
being. 

Constantine IV, 668-685, had bestowed on his two brothers, 
Heraclius and Tiberius, the title of Augustus, but with no substan- 
tial power. At their secret instigation, the troops of the province 
of Anatolia approached the city on the Asiatic side, demanded for 
the royal brothers the partition or exercise of sovereignty, and sup- 
ported their seditious claims by a theological argument. They were 
Christians, they said, and Orthodox Catholics, the sincere votaries 
of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Since there are three equal 
persons in heaven it is reasonable there should be three equal persons 
on earth. The Emperor invited these divines to a friendly confer- 
ence, in which they might propose their arguments to the senate ; 
they accepted the invitation, but the prospect of their bodies hang- 
ing on a gibbet, in the suburb of Galata, reconciled their companions 
to the unity of the reign of Constantine. He pardoned his brothers 
and their names were still pronounced in the public acclamations : 
but on the repetition or suspicion of a similar offence, these princes 
were deprived of their titles and noses in the presence of the Catholic 
bishops who were assembled at Constantinople in the sixth general 
council. 

On the death of Constantine IV, the Empire devolved to Jus- 
tinian the Second. His passions were sti'ong, his understanding was 
feeble ; and he was intoxicated with a foolish pride that his birth 
had given him the command of millions, of whom the smallest com- 
munity would not have chosen him for their local magistrate. His 
favorite ministers were two beings belonging to two classes of men 
the least susceptible of human sympathy, a eunuch and a monk ; to 
the one he gave the charge of the palace, to the other the finances : 
the former corrected the Emperor's mother with a scourge ; the other 
suspended the insolvent tributaries with their heads downwards over 
a slow and smoky fire. Justinian enjoyed the sufferings and braved 
the revenge of his subjects for about ten years, till the measure of 
his crimes, and of their patience, was full. A successful revolution 
by Leontius deprived him of his nose, and banished him to Crira 
Tartary, now called the Crimea. He continued ten years in exile, 
and was again restored to his throne by the assistance of a Scythian 
king. In the mean time Leontius had been in liis turn dethroned, 
and mutilated, and imprisoned by a usurper who called liiniself Ti- 
berius. Justinian, on taking possession of the city, liad tliese two 
usurpers dragged into the liippodrome, the one from liis palace, the 
other from his prison. Before their execution, Leontius and Tiberius 



330 CREATOR AiJD COSMOS. 

were cast in chains before the throne of the Emperor ; and Justinian 
planting a foot on each of their necks, contemplated about one hour 
the chariot race, while the fickle people shouted in the words of the 
Psalmist : " Thou shalt trample on the asp and the basilisk, and on 
the lion and the dragon shalt thou set thy foot ! " His pleasures 
were inexhaustible in the infliction of tortures; neither private 
virtue nor public service could expiate the guilt of active or even 
passive obedience to a government established in his absence ; and 
during the six years of his new reign he considered the axe, the cord 
and the rack as the only instruments of royalty. But his most im- 
placable hatred was directed against the Chersonites, (the inhabi- 
tants of Crim Tartary,) who he believed had insulted him in his ex- 
ile, and violated the laws of hospitality. He imposed a grievous tax 
on Constantinople in order to supply the preparation of a fleet and 
army to invade that distant country. " All are guilty, and all must 
perish," was the mandate of the cruel Justinian, and he entrusted 
the execution of his bloody project to his favorite, Stephen, who 
was known by the epithet of the " Savage." Yet even the savage 
Stephen imperfectly accomplished the intentions of his sovereign. 
By the time he was ready to attack, the greatest part of the inhabi- 
tants had withdrawn into the country, and the minister of vengeance 
contented himself with reducing the youth of both sexes to slavery, 
with roasting alive seven of the principal citizens, with drowning 
twenty in the sea, and reserving forty-two in chains to receive their 
doom from the mouth of the Emperor. On their return the fleet 
was wrecked upon the rocky shores of Anatolia, and Justinian ap- 
plauded the obedience of the Euxine, which had involved in its 
watery bed so many thousands of his subjects and enemies ; but the 
tyrant was still insatiate for blood ; and despatched a second ex- 
pedition to exterminate the remains of the proscribed colony. In 
the short interval the Chersonites had returned to their city. The 
imperial troops, unwilling and unable to execute the revenge of 
Justinian, escaped his displeasure by abjuring his allegiance ; they 
invested Bardanes, under the name of Philippicus, with the purple ; 
and, under the newly-created Emperor, steered back to the harbors 
of Sinope and Constantinople. On their arrival every tongue was 
ready to pronounce, and every hand to execute, the death of the 
tyrant. Destitute of friends and deserted by his guards, the stroke 
of an assassin ended his life. His son, Tiberius, had taken refusfe in 
a church, his aged grandmother guarded the door ; and the innocent 
youth, suspending round his neck the most formidable relics, em- 
braced with one hand the altar, with the other the wood of tlie true 
cross. But the popular fur}-, deaf to his cries, and trampling on his 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 331 

superstition, put an end to his life. And thus was extinguished the 
race of Heraclius, after a reign of one hundred years. 

The new Emperor was after a very short reign, seized in his pal- 
ace, bound, blinded, and deposed ; another, Anastasius the Second, 
was elevated in his place, who also was soon deposed ; and another, 
Theodosius the Third, also, both of whom submitted to Leo, and 
were permitted to embrace the ecclesiastical profession. The restless 
Anastasius risked and lost his life in treasonable enterprise ; but 
Theodosius died a natural death. The simple word Health, which 
he inscribed on his tomb, attests his confidence of philosophy or re- 
ligion ; and the fame of his miracles was long preserved among the 
people of Ephesus. The ecclesiastical profession was sought and 
obtained by unsuccessful usurpers and deposed Emperors: but its 
acceptance could be considered as only a descent in the scale of 
honor, for the reigning Emperor was always the supreme head of the 
Catholic Church, and the high priest of the nation. 

The reign of Constantine V., 741-775, of thirty-four years, is said 
to have been a long butchery of whatever was holy or innocent or 
noble in the Empire. He assisted in person at the execution of his 
victims, viewed their agonies, listened to their groans, and indulged 
without satiating his appetite for blood. A plate of noses was ac- 
ceptable to him as a grateful offering, and his domestics were often 
scourged or mutilated by his own royal hand ; his lust confounded 
the eternal distinction of sex and species, and he seemed to extract 
some unnatural delight from the objects most offensive to human 
sense. Although the annals of those times are considerably obscure, 
owing to the vices which so generally prevailed as almost to extin- 
guish the light of history, yet the numbers of the bishops and monks, 
the generals and magistrates who are said to have suffered under his 
reign, are recorded ; the names were conspicuous, the executions 
were public, the mutilation visible and permanent. 

But with all his inexpressible vices, Constantine V. is represented 
as possessed of some merit. He appeared on horseback in the field 
at the head of the legions ; and although the fortune of liis arms 
was various, he triumphed by sea and land, on the Euphrates and 
the Danube, in civil and barbarian war ; and he peopled some of 
the Thracian territories with new colonies. 

Leo IV., 775-780, the son of the Fifth, and the father of the 
Sixth Constantine, was desirous to associate with himself his infant 
son. The royal infant, at the age of five years, was crowned, with 
his mother Irene, and the national consent was ratified by every cir- 
cumstance of pomp and solemnity that could dazzle the eyes or blind 
the conscience of the people. An oatli of fidelity was administered 



332 CREATOE AND COSMOS. 

in the palace, the church, and the hippodrome to the several or- 
ders of the state, who adjured the holy names of the Son and Mother 
of God : " Be witness, O Christ, that we will watch over Constan- 
tine, the son of Leo ; expose our lives in his service, and bear true 
allegiance to his person and prosperity." They pledged their faith 
on the wood of the true cross, and the act of their agreement was 
deposited on the altar of St. Sophia. The first to swear, and the 
first to violate their oaths were the five sons of Constantine the Fifth 
by a second marriage ; and the story of these princes is singular and 
tragic. The right of primogeniture excluded them from the throne ; 
their elder brother had unjustly defrauded them out of a legacy of 
about ten millions of dollars ; they did not deem some vain titles 
a sufficient compensation for their wealth and for power : and they 
repeatedly conspired against their nephew before and after the death 
of his father. 

Their first attempt was passed over ; for the second offense they 
were condemned to the ecclesiastical state : and for the third, Ni- 
cephorus, the eldest, was deprived of his eyes, and his four brothers 
were punished, as a milder sentence, by the amputation of their 
tongues. After five years confinement they escaped to the church 
of St. Sophia, and displayed a pathetic spectacle to the people. 
" Countrymen and Christians," cried Nicephorus, for himself and 
his tongueless brethren, " behold the sons of your Emperor, if you 
can still recognize our features in this miserable state. A life, an 
imperfect life, is all that the malice of our enemies has spared. It 
is now threatened ; and we now throw ourselves on 3-our compas- 
sion." The presence of a minister checked the rising murmur of the 
people. The princes were taken to the palace, and embarked for 
Athens, where they were finally plunged in darkness and oblivion. 
The young Emperor himself was afterwards blinded by the cruel 
ambition of his mother Irene. Her emissaries assaulted the sleeping 
prince, and stabbed their daggers with such precipitation and violence 
into his eyes as if they meant to execute a mortal sentence. Yet the 
blind son of Irene survived many years, oppressed by t>he court and 
forgotten by the world. 

To the bloody deed of Irene superstition has attributed a subse- 
quent darkness of seventeen days, during which many vessels in mid- 
day were driven from their course, as if the sun, a fiery globe, so 
vast and so remote, had sympathized with a few atoms of this revolv- 
ing planet. But the Roman world for five years after bowed to the 
government of Irene ; and as she moved through the streets of Con- 
stantinople the reins of her four milk white steeds were held by as 
many patricians, who marched on foot before the golden chariot of 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE. 333 

their Empress. But these patricians were, for the most part, eunuchs ; 
and their base ingratitude justified for them on this occasion the pop- 
ular hatred and contempt. Raised, enriched, and entrusted with 
the first dignities of the Empire, they perfidiously conspired against 
their benefactress ; the great treasurer, Nicephorus, was invested 
with the purple, introduced as her successor into the palace, and 
crowned at St. Sophia by the venal Patriarch. He banished Irene 
to the Isle of Lesbos, where she is said to have earned a scanty sub- 
sistence by her labors with the distaff. Irene was one of those sov- 
ereigns of Constantinople who sustained and favored the worship of 
the images. 

The character of Nicephorus was stained with three odious vices, 
hypocrisy, ingratitude, and avarice ; his want of virtue was not re- 
deemed by any superior talents, nor his want of talents by any pleas- 
ing qualifications. Unskilful and unfortunate in war, he was slain 
by the Bulgarians ; and the advantage of his death overbalanced in 
the public opinion the destruction of a Roman army. 

The famous and unfortunate Bardanes, who was a rebel in the 
time of Nicephorus, had once consulted an Asiatic prophet, who, 
after prognosticating his fall, announced the fortunes of his three 
principal ofl&cers, Leo, the Armenian, Michael, the Phrygian, and 
Thomas, the Cappadocian — the successive reigns of the two former, 
the fruitless and fatal enterprise of the third. The prediction was 
verified or produced by the event. Ten years after the crown was 
offered to the same Leo in the Thracian camp, he being the first in 
military rank, and the secret author of the mutiny. As he hesitated 
accepting it, " With this sword," said his companion, Michael, " I 
will open the gates of Constantinople to your imperial sway, or 
instantly plunge it into your bosom, if you obstinately resist the 
just desires of your fellow-soldiers." The compliance of the Armen- 
ian was rewarded with the Empire, and he reigned seven and a 
half years under the name of Leo. V., 813-820. Educated in the 
camp, and ignorant both of laws and letters he introduced into his 
civil government the rigor and cruelty of military discipline"; but if 
his severity was sometimes dangerous to the innocent, it was always 
formidable to the guilty. His religious inconstancy gained for him 
the epithet of Cameleon, but some Catholic writers have acknowl- 
edged that the life of Leo, the Iconoclast (image-breaker) was useful 
to the State. The zeal of his companion, Michael, he repaid with 
riches, honors, and military command ; and his subordinate talents 
were beneficially employed in the public service. Yet the Phrygian 
was dissatisfied with receiving as a favor only a scanty portion of 
the prize which he had bestowed on his equal ; and his discontent, 



334 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

which sometimes evaporated in hasty words, at length assumed a 
more tlireatening and hostile aspect against a prince whom he repre- 
sented as a cruel tyrant. The tyrant, however, repeatedly detected, 
admonished, and dismissed the old companion of his arms, till feav 
and resentment prevailed over gratitude ; and Michael, after a 
scrutiny into his actions and designs, was convicted of treason and 
sentenced to be burned alive in the furnace of the private baths. 
The devotion of the Empress Theophano was fatal to her husband 
and family. The twenty-fifth of December had been fixed for the 
execution; she urged that the anniversary of the Saviour's birth 
would be profaned by this inhuman spectacle, and Leo reluctantly 
consented to a respite. But on the vigil of the feast his sleepless 
anxiety prompted him at the dead of night to visit the chamber in 
which his enemy was confined; he perceived him released from his 
chain and stretched on his jailor's bed in a profound slumber. Leo 
was alarmed at these signs of security and intelligence ; but though 
he retired with silent steps, his entrance and exit were noticed by a 
slave who lay concealed in a corner of the prison. Under the pre- 
tence of requesting the aid of a spiritual confessor, Michael informed 
the conspirators that their lives depended on his discretion, and 
that a few hours were left to secure their own safety, and the deliv- 
erance of their friend and country. On the great festivals a chosen 
band of priests and chanters were accustomed to be admitted into 
the palace by a private gate to sing matins in the chapel : and Leo, 
who, as high priest, regulated with the same strictness the discipline 
of the choir and of the camp,' was seldom absent from these early 
devotions. In the ecclesiastical habit, but with swords under theii 
robes, the conspirators mingled with the profession, lurked in the 
angles of the chapel, and awaited, as the signal of their onslaught, 
the intonation of the first Psalm by the Emperor himself. The 
imperfect light and the uniformity of dress might possibly have 
favored his escape while they directed their assault against a harm- 
less priest ; but they soon discovered their mistake and encompassed 
upon all sides their royal victim. Without a weapon and without 
a friend, he grasped a weighty cross and stood at bay against the 
hunters for his life ; but as he asked for mercy, " This is the hour, 
not of mercy, but of vengeance," was the inexorable reply. The 
stroke of a sword separated from his body the right arm with the 
cross, and Leo was slain at the foot of the altar. 

A memorable reverse of fortune was exhibited in Michael the 
Second, who, from a defect in his speech, was surnamed the Stam- 
merer. He was snatched from the furnace of fire to the sovereignty 
of the Empire ; and, as at that early hour, and in the tumult a 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 335 

smith could not readily be found, the fetters remained on his legs 
several hours after he was seated on the Imperial throne. The 
blood which had been the price of his elevation was unprofitably 
spent. On the throne he retained the ignoble vices of his origin, 
and Michael lost his provinces with as supine an indifference as if 
they had been the inheritance of his fathers. His title was disputed 
by Thomas, the last of the military triumvirate, who transported 
into Europe eighty thousand barbarians from the banks of the 
Tigris and the shores of the Caspian. He undertook the siege of 
Constantinople, but the city was defeinded by spiritual and carnal 
weapons. A Bulgarian king was induced to assault the camp of the 
Asiastics, and Thomas had the weakness, or the misfortune, to fall 
alive into the hands of the conquerors. His hands and feet were 
amputated ; he was placed on an ass, and, amid the insults of the 
populace, was led through the streets of the capital, which he 
sprinkled with his blood. The depravity of manners, as savage as 
they were corrupt, is marked by the presence of the Emperor him- 
self at this inhuman spectacle and procession. Deaf to the doleful 
lamentations of his suffering fellow-soldier, he incessantly pressed 
the discovery of more accomplices, till his curiosity was checked by 
the inquiry of an honest or guilty minister : " Would you give 
credit to an enemy against the most faithful of your friends ? " 

The character of Theophilus, the son and successor of Michael, 
was distinguished by the abuse of his arbitrary power. His justice 
was fashioned on the model of the Oriental despots, who, in personal 
and irregular acts of authority, consult the reason or passion of the 
moment, without measuring the sentence by the law, or the penalty 
by the offence. A poor woman threw herself at his feet to complain 
of a powerful neighbor, the brother of the Empress, who had raised 
his palace wall to such an inconvenient height as to exclude her 
humble dwelling from light and air. On the fact being proved, 
instead of granting, like any ordinary judge, sufficient for damages 
to the plaintiff, the Emperor adjudged to her use the palace and the 
ground. Nor was Theodosius content with giving this extraordinary 
satisfaction ; in his zeal he converted a civil trespass into a criminal 
act, and the unfortunate patrician was whipped and scourged in the 
public place of Constantinople. For some slight offences, some 
defects of equity or vigilance, the principal ministers, a prefect, a 
quiBstor, a captain of the guards, were banished or mutilated, or 
scalded with boiling pitch, or burned alive in the liippodrome. This 
extraordinary rigor may be thought to have been justified in some 
measure by the consequences; since, after a scrutiny of seventeen 
days, not a complaint or abuse could be found in the court or city, 



336 CREATOR Al^D COSMOS. 

intelligence which gratified the pride of the monarch; and it might 
be alleged that the people could be ruled only with a rod of iron, 
and that the public interest is the motive and law of the supreme 
judge. Yet, in the crime, or the suspicion of treason, that judge is, 
of all others, likely to be the most credulous and partial. 

A Persian prince died at Constantinople, leaving an only son. At 
the age of twelve years, the royal birth of Theophobus Avas revealed, 
and he appeared not unworthy of his birth. He was educated in 
the Byzantine palace, advanced with rapid stej)s in the career of 
fortune and glory, received in marriage the Emperor's sister, and 
was promoted to the command of thirty thousand Persians, who, 
like his father, had fled from the Mahometan conquerors. These 
troops were desirous of deserting from the Emperor, and erecting 
the standard of their native king, but Theophobus rejected their 
offers, disconcerted their schemes, and escaped from them to the 
camp or palace of his brother-in-law. By a generous confidence, if 
not a sense of gratitude, Theophilus might have secured a faithful 
and able guardian for his wife and infant son, to whom, in the flowei 
of his age, he was about to leave the inheritance of the Empire. 
But his jealousy was exasperated by envy and disease ; he suspected 
and feared the virtues which might either supplant or oppress their 
weakness ; and the dying Emperor demanded the head of the Persian 
prince. With savage delight, he gazed upon the familiar features of 
his brother-in-law and benefactor. "Thou art no longer Theopho- 
bus," he said, and sinking on his couch he added, with a faltering 
voice : " Soon, too soon, I shall be no more Theophilus." His last 
choice entrusted his wife Theodora with the guardianship of the 
Empire, and his son Michael, who was left an orphan in the fifth 
year of his age. 

The restoration of image-worship, and final extirpation of the 
Iconoclasts, has endeared the name of Theodora to the Greek 
Church. After thirteen years of a frugal administration, 829-842, 
she perceived her influence declining; but the second Irene appears 
to have imitated only the virtues of her predecessor. Instead of 
conspiring against the life or government of her son, she retired from 
the throne without a struggle, though not without a murmur, to the 
solitude of private life, deploring the ingratitude, the vices, and the 
inevitable ruin of the worthless youth. 

Among the successors of Nero and Elagabalus, Pagan Emperors, 
we have not yet, in the course of our illustrations of the characters 
of the Christian Emperors, found the imitation of their vices, the 
character of a Roman prince who considered pleasure as the object 
of life, and virtue as the enemy of pleasure. Whatever maternal 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OE THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 337 

care Theodora might have bestowed upon the youthful education of 
Michael the Third, her unfortunate son considered himself an Em- 
peror before he was a man. If the ambitious mother labored to 
check the progress of his reason, she could not restrain the outbreaks 
of his passion ; and her selfish policy was amply recompensed by the 
contempt and ingratitude of the headstrong youtli. At the age of 
eighteen, he rejected the authority of his mother, without feeling 
his own incapacity to govern the Empire himself. With Theodora, 
all gravity and prudence retired from the court. Their places were 
supplied by the alternate dominion of vice and folly, and it was im- 
possible, without forfeiting the public esteem, to acquire or jjreserve 
the Emperor's favor. The millions of gold and silver which had been 
accumulated for the service of the state he lavished on the vilest of 
men who flattered his passions and shared his pleasures ; and in a 
reign of thirteen years the richest of sovereigns was compelled to 
strip the churches and the palace of their precious furniture. Like 
Nero, he delighted in the amusements of the theatre, and sighed 
when surpassed in the accomplishments in which he should have 
been ashamed to excel. 

Yet the studies of Nero in music and painting indicated some 
symptoms of a liberal taste ; the more ignoble arts of Michael the 
Third were confined to the chariot-race of the hippodrome. The 
four factions, distinguished by their colors, which had long agitated 
the peace, still amused the idleness of the capital. For himself, the 
Emperor assumed the blue livery. The three rival colors were dis- 
tributed to his favorites ; and in the vile, though eager emulation, 
he forgot the dignity of his office and the safety of his dominions. 
He silenced the messenger who presumed to divert his attention by 
announcing to him an invasion in the most critical moment of the 
race ; and by his comrhand the importunate beacons were extin- 
guished which too frequently spread the alarm from Tarsus to Con- 
stantinople. The most skilful characters in the performances of the 
circus obtained the first place in his confidence and esteem. Their 
merit he profusely rewarded. He feasted in their houses and pre- 
sented their children at the baptismal font ; and while he applauded 
his own popularity he affected to blame the cold and stately reserve 
of his predecessors. The strength of Michael was consumed by un- 
natural lusts, love and intemperance. In his midnight revels when 
his passions were inflamed by wine, he was provoked to issue the 
most sanguinary commands : and if any feelings of humanity were 
left, he was induced with the return of sense to approve the salutary 
disobedience of his servants. But a remarkable feature in the 
character of Michael is his profane mockery of the religion of his 
Vol. II.— 22 



B38 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

country. The religion of the Eastern Romans might indeed excite 
the contemptuous smile of a philosopher ; but his smile would have 
been rational and temperate ; and he would have condemned the 
ignorance and folly of a youth who insulted the objects of public 
veneration, even though they were ridiculous. A buffoon of the 
court was invested in the robes of the Patriarch : his twelve me- 
tropolitans, among whom the Emperor ranked himself, assumed their 
ecclesiastical paraphernalia ; they used or abused the sacred vessels 
of the altar ; and in their bacchanalian feast the communion was 
administered in a nauseous compound of vinegar and mustard. Nor 
were these impious spectacles attempted to be concealed from the 
view of the citizens. On the day of a solemn festival the Emperor, 
with his bishops, or buffoons, rode on asses through the streets, en- 
countered the real Patriarch at the head of his clergy ; and by their 
licentious shouts and obscene gestures disordered the gravity of the 
Christian procession. The devotion of Michael appeared only in 
some offence to reason or piety ; he received his theatrical crowns 
from the statue of the Virgin : and he violated an imperial tomb for 
the sake of burning the bones of Constantine the Iconoclast. By 
such extravagant conduct the Emperor became as contemptible as 
he was odious ; every citizen was impatient for the deliverance of 
his country ; and even his favorites Avere continually apprehensive 
that a caprice might snatch away what a caprice had bestowed. In 
the thirteenth year of his reign, and in the hour of drunkenness and 
sleep, Michael the Third was murdered in his chamber by Basil the 
Macedonian, the founder of a new dynasty, whom the Emperor had 
raised to an equality of rank and power. 

Among the warriors who promoted the elevation of Nicephorus, 
the seventh successor of Basil the Macedonian, and served under his 
standard, was an Armenian, named John Zimisces. The stature of 
Zimisces was below the ordinary standard ; but though diminutive 
in size he was distinguished by strength and beauty as well as by 
great courage and success in war. By the jealousy of the Emperor's 
brother he was degraded from the office of general of the East to 
that of director of the posts, and murmuring, he was chastised with 
degradation and exile. But Zimisces was numbered among the many 
lovers of the Empress Theophano, the wife of Nicephorus. On her 
intercession he was permitted to reside at Chalcedon in the vicinity 
of the capital. Her generosity was repaid in his clandestine and 
amorous visits to the palace : and upon their consultation, Theophano 
consented with alacrity to the death of her unlovely and penurious 
husband. Some bold and trusty conspirators were concealed in her 
private apartments ; in the darkness of a winter's night Zimisces. 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 339 

with his principal companions, embarked in a small boat, crossed the 
Bosphorus, landed at the palace stairs, and silently ascended a ladder 
of ropes which was cast down by the female attendants. Neither his 
own suspicions, nor the warnings of his friends, nor the fortress 
which he had erected in the palace could protect Nicephorus from a 
domestic foe, his wife, at whose command every door was thrown 
open to the assassins. As he slept on a bear-skin on the floor he was 
roused by their noisy intrusion, and thirty daggers glittered before 
his eyes. The murder was protracted by insult and cruelty. Ziraisces, 
after ordering the wounded Emperor to be dragged to his feet, and 
heaping insults upon him, to which the suffering man only replied by 
invoking the name of the " Mother of God," with his own hand 
plucked his beard, while his accomplices beat out his teeth with the 
hilts of their swords ; and then trampling him on the floor he drove 
his sword into his skull. As soon as the head of Nicephorus was 
shown from the window, the people consented, and Zimisces was de- 
clared Emperor, 969-976. On the day of his coronation he was con- 
fronted by the Patriarch on the threshold of St. Sophia, who charged 
his conscience with the deed of treason and blood, and required as a 
sign of his repentance that he would separate himself from his more 
criminal associate. This sally of apostolic zeal was nowise offensive 
to the new Emperor, since he could neither love nor trust a woman 
who had repeatedly violated the most sacred obligations ; and Theo- 
phano, instead of sharing the imperial fortune, was dismissed with 
ignominy from his bed and palace. In their last interview she dis- 
played a frantic and impotent rage ; accused the ingratitude of her 
lover ; assaulted with words and cuffs her son Basil, as he stood 
silent and submissive in the presence of a superior colleague : and 
avowed her own prostitution in proclaiming the illegality of his 
birth. She was exiled ; her meaner accomplices were punished ; 
and the guilt of Zimisces was forgotten in the splendor of the virtues 
which he displayed. In this age of darkness and degeneracj'- he fre- 
quently exhibited his valor in conquest upon the banks of the Tigris 
and the Danube, the ancient boundaries of the Roman world. In 
his last return from Syria he observed that the most fruitful lands of 
the new provinces were possessed by the eunuchs. "And is it for 
them," he exclaimed, with honest indignation, "that we have fought 
and conquered? " This complaint was re-echoed to the palace ; and 
the death of Zimisces is strongly marked with the suspicion of poison 
administered by the eunuchs. 

Andronicus, one of the royal princes, had to go into exile on ac- 
count of his crimes, in order to keep out of the power of the reign- 
ing Emperor, Manuel. The death of the latter, and the minority of 



340 CEEATOR Ais^D COSMOS. 

the Emperor, his son, who was now only twelve or fourteen years 
old, opened the way for the return of Andronicus, 1180-1185. Be- 
fore his return he had held communication with the authorities of 
the city, in which he affected the greatest loyalty to the young Em- 
peror and the Empire. His correspondence with the Patriarch and 
the patricians was aptly seasoned with quotations from the Psalms 
of David and the Epistles of St. Paul, and he j^atientiy waited till 
he was called to her deliverance by the voice of his country. His 
professions of loyalty and religion were taken for the language of 
his heart ; and all opposition giving way before him, he was admit- 
ted to the city as the saviour of the Empire. It was his first care to 
occupy the palace, to salute the Emperor, to confine his mother, to 
punish her minister, and to restore the public order and tranquillity. 
He then visited the tomb of Manuel ; the spectators were ordered to 
stand aloof ; but as he bowed in the attitude of prayer, they heard, 
or thought they heard, the following murmur of triumph or revenge : 
" I no longer fear thee, my old enemy, who hast driven me, a vaga- 
bond, to every climate of the earth. Thou art safely deposited 
iinder a seven-fold dome, from whence thou canst never rise till the 
signal of the last trumpet. It is now my turn, and speedily will I 
trample on thy ashes and thy posterity." From his subsequent 
tyranny we may impute such feelings to the man at the moment ; 
but we will not afiirm positively that on this occasion he gave an 
articulate sound to his secret thoughts. In the first months of his 
reign his designs were veiled by a specious resemblance of hypocrisy : 
the coronation of Alexius, the young son of Manuel, was performed 
with the usual solemnity ; and his perfidious guardian, holding in 
his hands the symbols of the body and blood of Christ, most fervently 
declared that he lived, and was ready to die, for the service of his 
beloved pupil. But his numerous attendants were instructed to 
maintain that the sinking Empire must perish in the hands of a 
child ; that the Romans could only be saved by a veteran prince, 
bold in arms, skilful in policy, and taught to reign by the long ex- 
perience of fortune and of mankind ; and that it was the duty of 
every citizen to prevail upon Andronicus to undertake the burden 
of the public care. The young Emperor was himself persuaded to 
join his voice to the public acclamations, and to solicit the association 
of a colleague, who, on his elevation, instantly degraded him from 
the supreme rank, secluded his person, and verified the rash declara- 
tion of the Patriarch that Alexius might be considered as dead, as 
soon as he was committed to the custody of his guardian. But his 
death was preceded by the imprisonment and execution of his 
mother. After blackening her reputation and inflaming against her 



CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 341 

the passions of the multitude, the tyrant accused and tried the Em- 
press for a treasonable correspondence with the King of Hungary. 
His own son, a youth of honor and humanity, expressed his abhor- 
rence of this flagitious act, and three of the judges had the merit of 
preferring their conscience to their safety ; but the obsequious tribu- 
nal, without requiring any proof, or hearing any defence, condemned 
the Empress ; and her unfortunate son was prevailed on to subscribe 
the sentence of her death. The Empress was strangled : hei' corpse 
was buried in the sea ; and her memory was wounded by the insult, 
most offensive to female vanity, a false and ugly representation of 
her handsome form. The fate of her son was not long deferred ; he 
was strangled with a bow-string ; and the tyrant, insensible to pity 
or remorse, after survej'ing the dead body of the youthful Emperor, 
struck it rudely with his foot, and exclaimed : " Thy father was a 
knave, thy mother a whore, and thj^self a fool ! " The Roman scep- 
tre, the reward of his crimes, was held by Andronicus, for about 
three years and a half, as the guardian or sovereign of the Empire. 
His government displayed a singular contrast of vice and virtue. 
When he gave way to his passions, he was the scourge, when he con- 
sulted his reason, the father of his people. But the ancient proverb, 
that bloodthirsty is the man that returns from banishment to power, 
and which we have seen to be verified in the case of Justinian H. in 
such a remarkable degree, was now again verified in the life of An- 
dronicus. His memory was stored with a black list of the enemies 
and rivals that had traduced his merit, opposed his greatness, or in- 
sulted his misfortune, and, as Justinian, the only comfort of his exile 
was the sacred hope and promise of revenge. The necessary extinc- 
tion of the young Emperor and his mother imposed the fatal obliga- 
tion of extirpating the friends who hated and might punish him, the 
assassin ; and the repetition of murder rendered him less willing 
and less able to forgive. A horrid narrative of the victims whom he 
sacrificed by poison and the sword would be less expressive of his 
cruelty than the appellation of the " halcyon days," which was ap- 
plied to a rare and bloodless week of repose. The tyrant strove to 
transfer on the laws and the judges some portion of his guilt; but 
the mask had fallen, and his subjects could no longer mistake the 
true author of their calamities. The noblest of the citizens, more 
especially those who, by descent or alliance, might dispute the in- 
heritance of the throne, escaped from the monster's den. Nice or 
Prusa, Sicily or Cj'prus, were their places of refuge ; and as their 
flight was already criminal, they aggravated their offence, began open 
revolt, and assumed the imperial title. Yet Andronicus resisted the 
daneei's and swords of liis most formidable enemies. Nice and Pusar 



342 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

he reduced and chastised ; the Sicilians were contented with the pil- 
lage of Thessalonica; and the distance of Cj'prus rendered it no more 
propitious to the rebels than to the tyrant. His throne was subvert- 
ed by a rival without merit, and a people without arms. Isaac An- 
gelus, a descendant in the female line from the Great Alexius, was 
marked as a victim by the prudence or suspicion of the Emperor. 
In a moment of despair, Angelus defended his life and liberty ; slew 
the executioner, and flew to the Church of St. Sophia. The sanct- 
uary was insensibly filled with a curious and mournful crowd, who in 
his fate prognosticated their own. But their lamentations were soon 
turned to curses, and their curses to threats; they dared to ask: 
" Why do we fear ? Why do we obey. We are many, and he is one ; 
our patience is the only bond of our slavery." With the dawn of 
the day the city burst into a general sedition ; the prisons were 
thrown open ; the coldest and most servile were roused to a defense 
of their country, and Isaac, the second of his name, was raised from 
the tomb, or the sanctuary, to the throne. Unconscious of his dan- 
ger the tyrant was absent, withdrawn from the toils of state, in com- 
pany with his wife and mistress, in one of the beautiful islands of the 
Propontis. On the first alarm, he hastened to Constantinople, im- 
patient for the blood of the guilty ; but he was astonished by the 
silence of the palace and the tumult of the city, and his general 
desertion by mankind. Andronicus proclaimed a free pardon to his 
subjects ; but they neither desired, nor would grant forgiveness ; he 
offered to resign the crown to his son Manuel ; but his son's virtues 
could not expiate his crimes. The sea was still open for his retreat, 
but the news of the revolution had flown along the coast. When 
fear had ceased, obedience was no more ; the imperial galley was 
pursued and taken by an armed brigantine; and the tyrant was 
dragged to the presence of Isaac Angelus, loaded with fetters, and a 
long chain round his neck. His eloquence, and the tears of his 
female companions pleaded in vain for his life ; but instead of the 
process of a legal execution, the new monarch abandoned him to the 
fury of the numerous sufferers whom he had deprived of a father, a 
husband, or a friend. His teeth and hair, an eye and a hand, were 
torn from him as a poor compensation for the loss, and a short respite 
was allowed him, that he might feel the bitterness of death. Astride 
on a camel he was carried through the city, and the basest of the 
populace delighted to heap insults on their fallen Emperor. After a 
thousand blows and outrages, Andronicus was hung b}^ the feet be- 
tween two pillars that supported the statues of a wolf and a sow ; and 
every hand that could reach the public enemy, inflicted on his body some 
mark of ingenious or brutal cruelty till two furious or friendly 



CHUKCH AND STATE SYSTEM OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 343 

Italians plunged their swords into his body, and released him from 
all punishment. In this long and painful agony, " Lord have mercy 
upon me," and, "Why will you bruise a broken reed," were the 
words which he kept continually repeating. 

Isaac Angelus was afterwards dethroned in consequence of hLs 
own vices and the ambition of his brother; and their discord intro- 
duced the Franks to the conquest of Constantinople, 1204. 

Such are only a few examples out of many which might be ad- 
duced to illustrate the character of the Eastern Roman Emperors, 
and of that monarchy established at Constantinople. In the inter- 
vals of the Byzantine dynasties the succession is rapid and broken, 
and the name of a successful candidate is speedily erased by a more 
fortunate competitor. Many were the paths that led to the summit 
of royalty : the fabric which was raised by a rebellion was soon over- 
thrown by the stroke of a conspiracy, or undermined by the silent 
arts of intrigue. The favorites of the soldiers or people, of the sen- 
ate or clergy, of the women and eunuchs were alternately clothed 
with the purple. The means of their elevation was base, and their 
end was often contemptible or tragic, some of them being poisoned 
by their wives ; and such crimes as we have been reviewing were 
practised till the last age of the Eastern Empire. And what must 
have been the amount of crime committed, and suffering inflicted in 
the way of mutilation, and whipping, and torture, and all sorts and 
species of cruelties and death throughout the Empire for a period of 
over eleven hundred years? for we may certainly believe that the 
example of the capital was followed, at least to some extent, in all 
the provinces by the governors and local magistrates ! Truly such a 
contemplation sends a thrill of horror to our heart, and brings a tear 
of sympathy and commiseration to our eye ! Truly, the contempla- 
tion of such a scene is enough to soften the most obdurate and un- 
sympathizing heart ! Who can now any longer doubt that the sym- 
bol of the " wild beast," with all the marks of a ferocious wild beast 
which we have considered in the beginning of chapter XIII. of Rev- 
elation, has here had its exact fulfilment? The truth is, this is just 
its fulfilment, as we have all through illustrated, attempt to disguise 
it as we may. Who of us will now dare speak of the Pagan cruel- 
ties of Nero and Domitian, of Decius and Diocletian, while we have 
ourselves such monsters calling themselves Christian ; monsters who 
surpassed in wickedness even most of the examples of Paganism with 
which we are acquainted, and who had been the supreme heads of the 
Catholic church, the high priests of the Empire, for twelve hundred 
years. 



344 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 



An Explanation of Chapter xvii. Revelation, showing its 
Fulfilment in the Roman Catholic Church and State 
System established by the Popes and the Western 
Rulers, especially Charlemagne and the German Em- 
perors, WITH reference TO PARALLEL PROPHECIES IN THE 

Book of Daniel. 

Before proceeding any further in our explanation of the Xlllth 
chapter of Revelation, we think it not only expedient but necessary 
to give an exposition of chapter XVII. of the same book, which has 
reference to the rise and existence of another power somewhat 
similar to the one we have just considered, that is, one comprising 
in itself the two branches of civil and religious power, and w.hose 
centre or seat was the city of Rome. In our explication and illus- 
tration of the last we had to keep our eye directed to Constantinople 
as a centre, but did not confine it to that city exclusively. Here we 
shall. keep our eye directed to Rome as a centre, but will not by any 
means confine it exclusively to that cit3^ 

Rev. Ch. XVII., 1-3: "And there came one of the seven angels 
which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying: Come hither; 
I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth 
upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed 
fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been make drunk 
with the wine of her fornication." Thus far we have the simple idea 
presented of a symbf)lic womiui, sitting upon many symbolic waters, 
committing symbolical fornication with the kings or rulers of the 
earth; and symbolically intoxicating the inhabitants of the earth 
with the wine of her fornication. In the last verse of this chapter, 
V. 18, this symbolic woman is explained to be the great city which 
(lit.) hath a kingdom over the kings of the earth. The city of Rome, 
we know, was long acknowledged the mistress of the world, as having 
been conquered and ruled by her sons. Thus Rome had a dominion 
or kingdom over the rulers of the earth, a real substantial one. The 
Roman Catholic religion claims, and has for many centuries claimed, 
a dominion over all earthly kingdoms and dominions, which dominion 
it has wielded no less effectually than the old city of Rome did her 
temporal power. While the Catholic Church, as established at Con- 
stantinople, always acknowledged the Emperor as its supreme head, 
which headship, as well of the Church as of the State, the Emperors 
claimed even over Rome itself, until the final extinction of the 
Empire by the Turks in the fifteenth century ; the Catholic Church, 
as it grew up and was established at Rome and in the western prov- 



PAPAI^GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 345 

inces of the Empire, on their gradually falling off and seceding from 
the central government at Constantinople, acknowledged the bishop 
of Rome as its supreme head. This supreme headship the bishops 
of Rome assumed to themselves, when they gradually became free 
from the power of Constantinople, and were favored and supported 
by the rulers that sprung up in the western provinces, especially 
the rulers ot France and Germany. This Church, through all its 
various agencies, exercised its influence over the kings or rulers of 
the earth, causing them to imbibe its doctrines, to profess and sup- 
port its faith, to practise its rites and ceremonies, to act as the in- 
struments of its establishment, its propagation and its maintenance 
by their secular power. It exercises such a power over them, having 
professed its faith and yielded to its influence, as an artful and crafty 
woman is able to exercise over a man whom she lias allured and 
intoxicated, so that this Church did and does exercise an effectual 
dominion over the rulers of the earth. And not only the rulers, but 
all the inhabitants of the earth were to be made drunk by the wine 
of her fornication : mankind generally would, through her craftful 
agencies and instrumentalities, imbibe her doctrines (drink them in, 
as the simple-minded man will the intoxicating draught which is given 
him b}^ the hand of the artful woman), raviugly profess her creed 
without being able to give a sound reason for their belief of one of 
its tenets, transmit them to their posterity as the religious belief of 
their fathers, and for them to follow on that account ; and wondei" 
with great admiration, in their intoxicated state, at the specious 
greatness of the mysterious woman. The fundamental and general 
doctrines of the Greek and Latin branches of the Catholic Church 
are the same ; they differ mainly as to the headship of the Church ; 
and this difference sprung up insensibly with the gradual aggrandize- 
ment of the bishop of Rome, which culminated in his assumption of 
superiority, not only over all his brother bishops of the Empire, but, 
as it were, over the Emperor himself, and all earthly rulers. In the 
year 1452, the year immediately preceding that on which Constan- 
tinople was taken by the Turks, a union of the two branches of the 
Catholic Church was effected, and the act of union subscribed in 
the Church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, by the representatives 
of both. There still continued, however, differences of opinion 
between them as to minor points. There are also some differences 
between the two Churches, which, doubtless, arise niainh- from the 
difference of headship or government which, we know, possesses the 
power of originating or setting aside certain institutions in the 
Church. Thus, while the clerg}^ of the Greek branch of the Catliolic 
Church exercise the right of marriage according to their discretion, 



346 ^ CEEATOE AXD COSMOS. 

* 

somewhat after the manner of the primitive Christian clergy, those 
of the Latin branch are prohibited bj^ their peculiar laws from marry- 
ing, and the law Avith respect to the celibacy of the clergy was 
established in the Church of Rome by the decree of Pope Gregory 
VIL, about A.D., 1075. 

All nations, therefore, of Christendom, were affected with the 
doctrines of the Catholic Church, that is, with yielding to its influ- 
ence, professing its doctrines; in short, by yielding obedience to it. 

Verses 3-6 : " So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilder- 
ness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of 
names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the 
woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold 
and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full 
of abominations and filthiness of her fornication; and upon her fore- 
head was a name written. Mystery, BabylOjST the Geea.t, the 
Mother oe Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth." Here 
we have the compound idea presented of a scarlet-colored wild beast 
{Oripw) having seven heads and ten horns, and a woman gorgeously 
apparelled in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold, precious 
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abomina- 
tions, and a conspicuous name written on her forehead, seated upon 
him. This compound idea represents the Church and the State 
which, in the case of the Roman Empire, we have had represented 
under a simple symbolical idea of a wild beast ((955/>i'">). This wild 
beast also has seven heads, which indicate completeness of dominion, 
completeness of human wisdom, and, in the ancient idea, the Deity 
in relation to man or God and man united in one human being, or 
more, as the case may be. But this chapter itself offers an explana- 
tion of the seven heads. In verse 9, it says: "The seven heads 
are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth." And in verse 
15, it says ; " The waters which thou sawest where the woman sitteth 
are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues ; " for in verse 1 
it is said that " the great whore sitteth upon man}" waters." The 
city of Rome is built upon seven hills ; it has always been denominated 
the " City of the seven hills." The woman, in verse 18, being- 
said to be that great city " that reigneth over the kings of the earth " 
(which in the time of the deliver}- of the prophecy it certainly was), 
and the seven heads tbe seven hills upon which the woman sitteth, 
leaves no doubt that the City of Rome is especially meant to be des- 
ignated. Every object in existence must have a centre, however 
far it may extend in every or any direction from that centre, 
and the woman, the city, the Catholic Church, being said to be seat- 
ed upon the seven hills, shows that the church would be especially 



PAPAL-GERMAXIC CHTXRCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 347 

represented at Rome, however far it or its influence might extend 
over the face of the earth ; in short, it shows that the supreme head 
of that Church would have his seat in Rome. As the old City of 
Rome ruled over the nations of the earth, so the Chui-ch of Rome, 
represented here as a city, etc., would also exercise dominion over the 
nations of the earth. 

This beast is also characterized as having ten horns, which are 
not represented to be crowned, as those were which pertained to 
the beast spoken of in chapter XIII. But in verse 12 they are 
explained thus : " And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten 
Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet ; but receive 
power as Kings one hour with the beast." These Kings being 
represented as having no power as yet means, that as Kings, or 
rather Kingdoms, they were not in existence at the time the prophecy 
was delivered ; and their receiving power as Kings one hour with 
the beast indicates that their continuance, when they should arise, 
would be but short. Speaking historically, the time of the rising of 
these Kings or Kingdoms would show the time of the rising of the 
power here symbolized. The number ten Avould also in general sym- 
bolize the complete numbers of nations which would, in any age, 
yield obedience to the Roman Catholic Church. This beast is also 
of a scarlet color, and full of names of blasphemy. Purple or scarlet 
is the color worn by Kings and Emperors, signifying their office, and 
thus this denotes the beast to represent secular power. But this 
beast has the peculiarity of being full of names of blasphemy ; no 
particular part of the beast being spoken of as alone displaying these 
names; at it was said in verse 1, Ch. XIII., that the beast represent- 
ed there had on his heads names of blasphemy, which indicated that 
the Emperor, the supreme head of the Church and State, should pre- 
eminently of all mankind arrogate to himself and compel divine 
homage. Other heads, or heads of subordinate departments of gov- 
ernment, might arrogate it to themselves to some degree, but to the 
supreme head alone it was to be given in such a remarkable degree, 
as to require it to be thus definitely marked in the prophecy; 
as well as it indicates the doctrines of the Catholic Church repre- 
sented in that head. Now this scarlet-colored beast being full 
of names of blasphemy, his scarlet color denoting royalty or 
the secular power, would clearly indicate that more than one 
secular power is represented as supporting the Catholic Church. 
First, it would represent the Pope, or the sovereign of Rome and all 
the states that pertained to it ; and second, it denotes all others 
sovereigns, whether they be called Kings or Emperors or of other 
names, and wherever reigning, whether in France, or Germany, or 



348 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Britain, or Italy, or Spain, or wherever else there was a sovereign 
who should profess or support the Roman Catholic religion. And 
the names of blasphemy represent the doctrines which they would 
profess, as well as their assuming to themselves divine honors. Some 
of the sovereigns of these countries have remarkably distinguished 
themselves in the support of the Church of Rome, especially as 
represented in the Pope and his institution of spiritual and temporal 
power,which we shall call the Papac}^. It was by Pepin, King of France, 
that the sovereignty of the Exarchate of Ravenna, iu which Rome 
was included, was given to the Pope in the last half of the eighth 
century. This donation is said to have been granted in supreme 
and absolute dominion to the chair of St. Peter by Pepin, but the 
grant was only verbal ; and the world beheld a Christian bishop in- 
vested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince ; the choice of 
magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, and the 
possession and wealth of the palace of Ravenna, formerly the resi- 
dence of the Exarchs. The inhabitants of the duchy of Spoleto on 
the dissolution of the Lombard kingdom through the power ot the 
French King, declared themselves also the subjects of St. Peter, and 
completed by this voluntary surrender the circle of the ecclesiastical 
State. That circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent by the ver- 
bal donations of Charlemagne, the son and successor of Pepin, in 
the same century, who in the first transports of his victory over the 
Italian Lombards, despoiled liimself and the Greek Emperor of the 
cities and islands which formerly belonged to the Exarchate. But 
in his cooler moments of reflection he viewed with an eye of jealousy 
and envy the recent greatness of his ecclesiastical all}'". He respect- 
fully eluded the execution of his own and his father's promises ; as- 
serted his inalienable right to the whole western Empire which he 
himself had achieved and organized ; and in his life and death num- 
bered Ravenna, as well as Rome, in the list of his metropolitan 
cities. 

On the festival of Christmas, in the last year of the eighth cen- 
tury, Charlemagne arrived in the Church of St. Peter, at Rome, hav- 
ing come thither from his camp at Paderborn in Germany, and to 
gratify the vanity of the Romans he appeared in the dress of a patri- 
cian, rather than in the simple habit of his native country. After 
the celebration of the Eucharist Pope Leo suddenly placed a precious 
crown upon his head, and the dome resounded with the acclamations 
of the people : " Long life and vici^ory to Charles, the most pious 
Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific Emperor of the 
Romans." The head and body of Charlemagne were then anointed 
with the consecrated oil ; after the example of the Caesars he wa3 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 349 

sainted or adored by the Pontiff; his coronation oath represents a 
promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the Church ; and in 
his rich offering to the shrine of St. Peter he paid to it the first-fruits. 
Thus was restored and revived the Western Empire by Charlemagne, 
which was held with so loose and feeble a hand by his ignoble suc- 
cessors that it was gradually lost ; but it was finally restored and ap- 
propriated by Otho, King, and afterwards Emperor of Germany, in 
the year 962, A.D. At the head of a victorious army, Otho passed 
the Alps, subdued the kingdom of Italy, delivered the Pope from the 
remaining power of the unwarlike descendants of Charlemagne, and 
thus fixed the imperial crown of the Western Empire in the name and 
nation of Germany. From that memorable epoch two maxims of 
public jurisprudence were introduced by force, and ratified by time. 
1st : That the prince who was elected in the German Diet acquired 
from that moment the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome. 2d : 
But that he might not legally assume the titles of Emperor and Au- 
gustus till he had received the crown from the hands of the Pope. 
This last maxim was recognized and acted upon by the Germans for 
nearly five centuries, until after the coronation, in 1452, of Fred- 
erick III. of Austria, from which time his successors have excused 
themselves from the superfluous honor of receiving the imperial crown 
from the hands of the Roman Pontiff ; and rested their imperial title 
on the choice of the electors of Germany. Thus, it is seen, and will 
appear more plainly as we proceed, that the temporal sovereignty of 
the Pope was rather assumed, or taken for granted by himself, than 
possessed and exercised by independent right. But, nevertheless, 
he long exercised in his dominions not only a nominal sovereignty, 
but the real and substantial powers of a temporal prince.* 

But according to the prophecy there was to be much remarkable 
about this beast, and there is the utmost particularity in explaining, 
so that no one might mistake him. Verses 8, 10, 11 : The angel says 
to the prophet : " The beast that thou sawest was, and is not ; and 
shall ascend out of the abyss and go into perdition ; and they that 

* For accepting this gift of temporal sovereignty the ambition and avarice of tlio Roman 
Pontiffs have been severely condemned. An humble Christian minister or bishop, it was 
thought, should have rejected an earthly kingdom which the Gosiwl did not autliorize him to 
seek, and which it was not easy for him to govern without renouncing the virtues of his 
ministerial office. Perhaps an honest subject or even a generous enemy of the Eastern Em- 
peror would have been less desirous to particii>ate in the .spoils of a barbarian conqueror; and 
if, as it is said, the Emperor of Constantinople, his lawful master, had entrusted Pope Stephen 
to solicit in his name from the Frencli prince the restitution of tlicE.xarchatc, we c;uinot absolve 
the Pope from the reproach of treachery with which he has been branded. To the importunities of 
the Emperor, however, Pepin piously replied that no human con.-^idoration shouUl tempt him 
to resume the gift wliich he liad conferred on the liomau pontilf for the remission of Ins sins 
and the salvation of his soul. Hence we see that the Pope's true position in the scale of secular 
rulers is that he is the representative of the E.xarch. 



350 CREATOR AKD COSMOS. 

dwell upon the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in 
the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they behold 
the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. — And there are seven 
kings ; five are fallen, and one is, the other is not yet come ; and. 
when he cometh he must continue a short space. And the beast 
that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven and 
goeth into perdition." All this has reference to the governments 
of Rome at successive stages of its history since its mythical founda- 
tion ; for back further than the history or the mythology takes him the 
projihet does not go in search for the different kinds of Roman Gov- 
ernment, however many different kinds of rulers there may have ex- 
isted for Rome, or the city now called Rome, of which we have no 
record in mythology or history. " The beast that thou sawest was, and 
is not, and shall ascend out of the abj'ss and go into perdition." This 
means that the Roman Imperium did exist, as all the world had reason 
to know ; but at the period to which the prophecy now refers it could 
not be said properly to exist ; and 3'et that it did at the same time 
exist in a certain sense, as represented in the Papacy and its sup- 
porters. The beast is said to rise out of the abyss, that is, this com- 
bination of power was to arise out of an unsettled state of affairs, in 
Avhich for some time there should be no settled government. Thus 
it was that this combination of government arose to Rome from the 
wars and commotions and the wide-spread disorder and desolation 
which prevailed at Rome and in the western part of the Empire. 
Rome was twice besieged and finally sacked by the Goths, under 
Alaric, in the year 410. It was sacked by the Vandals under Gen- 
seric, in 455 ; by Ricimer and Anthemius in 472 ; and during the 
reign of Justinian, 527—565, it was taken and retaken five times by 
the Goths ; after which the Exarchs were appointed, who governed 
the Exarchate of Ravenna, which included Rome, for about two cen- 
turies, until the conquest of it by Pepin and Charlemagne, 750-800. 
The eunuch Narses, the general of the Emperor Justinian, was the 
first Exarch. He who reads the history of the Roman Empire of 
those times will understand that the sA'mbol "abyss" (translated in 
our Bible " bottomless pit ") is aptly applied to designate the state 
of affairs during that age in Rome, Ital}-, and the west. And in verse 
3 of the chapter we are considering (XVII.), the place where this 
scarlet-colored beast is seen by- the prophet to arise is represented as 
a wilderness, a scene of desolation and devastation far and wide. 
According to the historian the campagna of Rome Avas at this time 
reduced to the state of " a dreary wilderness, in which the land is 
barren, the waters are impure, and the air infectious." * But this 

* Millmau's Gibbon's Rome, ch. XLV. 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 351 

beast was to go into perdition. Perdition literally means " losing," 
and the going into perdition here means that this power, after it had 
attained its greatest height, should gradually decay and wane till its 
final consummation. This we see to have been fulfilled to a large ex- 
tent. The first great falling oft from this system was in the Protes- 
tant Reformation ; then we see it in the destruction and humiliation 
of those secular powers that so long supported the Papacy, as France 
and Aiistria, and in the loss of the civil power by the Pope himself 
lately. The first great blow which the Papacy received was from 
the defection of the Reformers in the sixteenth century, by which it 
lost such an immense power and prestige ; and since that time it has 
been continually losing directly or indirectly in consequence of the 
power of those reformed nations ; and it will continue to lose, as 
according to the prophecy, until its power is reduced to an almost 
imperceptible influence in the world ; then will the Roman Catholic 
religion be almost or altogether extinguished. The representation 
shows that this combination of power should wax and wane much as 
the moon does. " And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder 
whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the founda- 
tion of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, 
and yet is." This is the same reference as that in ch. XIII. 3, and 
here it can clearly be seen what the object was which attracted the 
attention of mankind away (or behind) from the great Roman Em- 
peror in his palace at Constantinople : it was a combination of his 
principal subjects, ecclesiastical as well as civil, of which the most 
wondered at was the bishop ot Rome, who now had defected from 
him and set iqj a government of their own within his old dominions. 
But only those whose names were not written in the Book of Life 
(the Lamb's Book of Life), from the foundation of the world won- 
dered at or worshipped this beast. God's children, the true and 
humble followers of the Lamb of God, do not wonder at or admire 
such objects, are not attracted by them. Knowing that what makes 
such objects wonderful in the eyes of the world is derived from the 
world's craft and wickedness and vanity. 

The pilgrimages which were performed to the tombs of the apos- 
tles Peter and Paul ; the miracles which were wrought at these 
tombs, and at the tombs of the saints and martyrs in the seven-hilled 
city ; as well as the great influence and power the Pope had acquired 
from the sacred and secular hierarchy of the Empire, were tlie princi- 
pal causes of this great wonder at, or admiration of the beast. Kings 
and Emperors, and all who felt the burden of their sins, and pos- 
sessed a sufficient amount of money to defray the expenses of their 
journey and their absolution, flocked to the holy City, as well to be 



S52 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

relieved of their sins by the Holy Fa.ther as to see the great wonders 
Avhich were there exhibited. According to a vague tradition, two 
Jewish teachers, a fisherman and a tent-maker, had formerly been ex 
ecuted in the circus of Nero, and at the end of five centuries, their 
genuine or fictitious relics were worshipped as the Palladium of Pa- 
pal Christian Rome. The pilgrims of the East and West resorted to 
the holy threshold ; but the shrines of the apostles were guarded by 
miracles and invisible terrors ; and it was not without apprehension 
that the pious Catholic approached the object of his worship. It was 
dangerous to behold, it was fatal to touch the relics of the saints; 
and those who, from the purest motives, presumed to disturb the re- 
pose of the sanctuary were affrighted by visions or punished with sud- 
den death. The extravagant request of an Empress who wished to 
deprive the Romans of their sacred treasure, the head of St. Paul, 
was rejected with the deepest abhorrence ; and the Pope asserted, 
probably with truth, that a linen which had been sanctified in the 
neighborhood of his body, or the filings of his chain, which it was 
sometimes easy and sometimes impossible to obtain, possessed an 
equal degree of miraculous virtue. 

For a short time only the feeble successors of Charlemagne re- 
ceived their crown from the hands of the Pope ; and the German Em- 
perors, as mentioned before, for a period of about five hundred years 
(962-1452), received their crown in that way, and at the same time 
the title of Kings of Rome and Italy. They always, however, in 
coming to be crowned, appeared with an army before the gates of 
Rome, and received the imperial crown from the Pope, not as a vol- 
untary gift on his part, but as that which belonged to them by right, 
which right they were prepared to assert by force, as well as that of 
their kingship of Rome and Italy. It was on account of his ghostly 
or ecclesiastical power and influence, rather than on account of his 
civil power, that the bishop of Rome was so much wondered at. He 
was also wondered at on account of this, that in his capacity of a 
civil ruler, he appeared the real and actual representative of the old 
kings and Caesars of Rome ; although he was in reality merely de- 
pendent upon the secular princes who Avere the real kings of Rome 
and Italy, and he the real representative of the Exarch of Ravenna, 
the lieutenant of the Eastern Emperor. From about the latter part 
of the fifteenth, or the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Pope's 
temporal sovereignty was more independent than at any previous 
period, though the Pope never could at any time be called an abso- 
lutely independent temporal prince. " And there were seven kings; 
five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come ; and when 
he cometh he must continue a short space." These seven kings, as 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 353 

we have before mentioned, refer to the seven successive forms of 
government w^hich Rome had as far back as history or mythology 
takes us. These were in the order of their succession : Kings, Con- 
suls, Decemvirs, Militar}^ Tribunes with Consular power. Dictators, 
Emperors, the Exarchs of Ravenna, whose government was to con- 
tinue a short space (it did continue nearly two centuries) ; and 
finally the combination of power, represented in the Papacy and tlie 
civil Tulers of the West, was theeightli, but principally the Pope. But 
this eighth ruler was to be of the seven ; tliat is, the Pope, as the in- 
strument of the Western princes, in his capacity of a civil ruler, rep- 
resented the Exarch of Ravenna, who in his time was invested by 
the Emperor with the civil and ecclesiastical power ; and thus the 
Pope was really one of the seven rulers of Rome; but in his capacity 
of ecclesiastical head of the Catholic Church, a gliostly ruler, he 
was different from all that had preceded him, and from the Exarch, 
and thus constituted an eighth. These seven systems of government 
which we have enumerated were the actual systems of government 
Avhich ruled Rome as far as extant literary records inform us ; but 
there is no good reason why the number seven may not denote the 
complete number of systems of government which ruled Rome 
down to the rule of the Germanic-Papal combination. 

But as to the ten horns which were to receive power as kings, 
one hour with the beast; verses 18, 14, 16, 17 say: " These have one 
mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These 
shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them ; 
for he is Lord of lords and King of kings ; and they that are with 
him are called, and chosen, and faithful. — And the ten horns which 
thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and make her 
desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree and 
give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be 
fulfilled." As to the time when these kingdoms arose which were 
symbolized by the ten horns, it appears, according to Mede and others, 
that in the year following that in which Rome was sacked b}' the 
Vandals and Italy was overrun b}- the barbarians, which' would be 
the year 456, ten barbaric kingdoms arose in the western part of the 
Empire ; and if this be so it serves as a time-mark to show when this 
power began sensibly to appear. There were many considerations 
which influenced these barbarians to profess the doctrines of the 
Catholic Church, and accept the bishop of Rome as their spiritual 
father. Mosheim says : " The incursions and triumphs of the bar- 
barians were so far from being prejudicial to the rising dominions of 
I the Roman Pontiff, that they rather contributed to its advancement. 



B54 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

For the kings who penetrated into the Empire were only solicitous 
about the methods of giving a sufficient degree of stability to their 
respective governments. And when they perceived the subjection 
of the multitude to the bishops, and the dependence of the bishops 
upon the Roman Pontiff, they immediately resolved to reconcile this 
ghostly ruler to their interests by loading him with benefits and 
honors of various kinds." * He also observes that " the declining 
power and supine indolence of the Emperors left the Pope's authority 
without control." It will, of course, be remembered that there existed 
frequently disputes between the bishops and clergy of the Roman 
world, and that their referring their cases on some occasions to the 
arbitration of the bishop of Rome, as to the highest tribunal, had 
given that bishop an acknowledged superiority over all the sacerdotal 
orders. Now, there is no doubt that the little horn mentioned in 
Daniel VII. 8, 20, 21, &c., as springing up among the ten horns, in 
which were eyes like the eyes of "hian, and a mouth speaking great 
things, symbolized this combination of power which we are consider- 
ing in this chapter. But whether the ten horns mentioned in Daniel 
as being on the head of the beast, and among which, and in the 
stead of three of which, the little horn springs up, or whether the 
ten horns, mentioned in Rev. XIII. 1, as being on the seven heads of 
the beast, mean the same as the ten horns upon the seven heads of 
the beast, of Rev. XVII., which we are now considering, is quite a 
different thing. In the first place, the representation in Rev. XIII. 
means the same as that in Dan. VII., only with this difference, that 
the one in Daniel symbolizes the whole Roman Empire, Pagan as 
well as Christian ; while that in Revelation XIII. symbolizes the 
Christian Roman Empire, beginning with Cons tan tine. Either of 
these representations, therefore, symbolizes the whole Roman Empire. 
But it is seen that the combination we are now considering is only 
a constituent part of the Roman Empire, as symbolized by the little 
horn, before which rising^ three fell, as in Dan. VII. ; and by the 
wounded head healed or revived^ as in Rev. XITI. 3. In either case 
it is only a part of the whole, or a power arising out of part of the 
Roman Empire, and perhaps, extending beyond its limits in some 
direction, say, towards the north of Europe, that is meant. While, 
therefore, the ten horns of the beast of Dan. VII. and of Rev. XIII. 
symbolize all the nations that would, at any time, be included in the 
Roman Empire, the ten horns appertaining to this beast of ch. XVII. 
have a particular reference to certain nations which should at some 
time yield obedience to the bishop of Rome, in his character of head 



* Mosheim's Eccles. History Cent. V. 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 355 

of the Roman Catholic Church. And their continuing to support 
the Papacy for only the short space of time, represented symbolically 
by an hour, might merely prove the characteristic fickleness and 
freedom of thought of the barbarian nations which arose on the 
desolations of Italy and the West, and which, professing obedience 
to the religion of the Roman Pontiff and to himself, were continually 
warring with the Emperor of the East, and with each other, and for 
the city of Rome during a great part of the time which intervened 
between their rise in the middle of the fifth century, and the con- 
quest of Italy and Rome by Pepin and Charlemagne in the latter 
half of the eighth century. So many times was Rome sacked and 
pillaged by the Goths and Vandals, and others, during the four cen- 
turies which intervened between Honorius and Charlemagne, that, 
represented symbolically as a whorish woman, it might be said, they 
" ate her flesh, and burned her with fire." 

But it being said in the prophecy that these ten kings, after hav- 
ing given their support to the beast during the space of a symbolic 
hour, they would turn round and maltreat the whore so effectually, 
it appears plain that the Germanic Confederation is meant, or the 
princes of the Germanic Diet, who afterwards would see fit to lead 
the van of the Protestant Reformation. It is very certain there is a 
particular reference to the nations in which the Reformation took 
place ; at first, for the space of six centuries, supporting so ardently 
the Church of Rome, and fighting her battles in propagating her 
doctrines by the civil sword ; gratifying the vanity of the Roman 
Pontiff by condescending to receive their imperial crown from his 
hands : and then turning round and opposing with all their might 
the Holy Mother Church, and the holy father with the same stout- 
ness with which they had ever obeyed and supported them. " These 
have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the 
beast," which is excellently represented in the unity of Catholic 
and orthodox mind which pervaded that august body of Catholic 
princes assembled in the Germanic Diet, supporting, for six hundred 
years, the power of the Church and the Pope. Three conspicuous 
nations fell before the Papacy during its gradual rise, which may 
correspond to the three horns which fell before the little horn, as ac- 
cording to Dan. VII. These were the Goths, Vandals, and Lombards, 
the last-named of which were fast accomplishing the conquest of the 
Exarchate of Ravenna when they were overcome by Pej^in, King of 
France, who handed over the Exarchate to tiie Pope b)^ way of 
donation. The power of these three nations over Rome and Italy, 
or, at least, over the Exarchate, was so effectually eradicated after 
the conquests of Pepin and Charlemagne, as to have been fairly des- 



356 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

ignated in Dan. VII. by the tliree horns being plucked up by the 
roots.* " These," that is, the horns, " shall make war with the 
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them ; for he is Lord of Lords, 
and King of Kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen 
and faithful." Happy they who are overcome by the Spirit of the 
Lamb of God. Happy they who deny themselves their perverse pas- 
sions, their carnal lusts and their wicked inclinations and disposi- 
tions, and cultivate in themselves the meek and gentle, and peace- 
able spirit by which the Lamb is characterized. Thus being, thus 
doing, this is the Lamb of God. For many centuries did the princes 
and potentates of Christendom wage warfare in behalf of the Roman 
Catholic Church, until at length the daj^ of the Reformation dawned 
and some light shone into men's hearts, some sparks of freedom kin- 
dled in their souls ; and some threw off the shackles of their super- 
stition and slavery, and resolved to become more free. It is men's 
right and privilege to become perfect in liberty ; where the spirit of 
ti'uth is, there is perfect liberty ; where the spirit of superstition, of 
idolatry of any kind, or of man-worship prevails, there is the basest, 
the most burdensome, and the most abject slavery. Stand fast, 
therefore, and assert your freedom in the spirit of truth and god- 
liness. " For God hath put in their hearts, to fulfil his Avill, and to 
agree and give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God 
shall be fulfilled." God, by which term here we mean the infinite 
Deity, put in men's hearts to do just as they will choose ; for it 
happens that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Men 
are free moral agents : if they willingly believe lies and falsehood, 
and act accordingly, they do it of their own free will, and the devil 
assists them mightily in their course to perfection in wickedness. If 
they choose the good, and holy, and true, which they can do with 
infinitely greater benefit to themselves, b}' practising self-denial and 
cultivating all the character of godliness, God then assists them 
mightily to their perfection in godliness, God never incites men to 
do evil ; the devil never to what is good. And, to sum it all up, 
men may learn that the Deity leaves them to be free agents, and that 
they are themselves the authors of their own sin and wickedness; 
and that by choosing and doing the good, they are the authors of 
their godliness, which God will delight in assisting them to per- 
fect. The Deity may be said to put in men's hearts whatever dispo- 
sition there may happen to be in them, for no disposition can exist 



* Bishop NewtoD makes the three horns which fell before the little horn to be the Exar- 
chate of Ravenna, the Kinjjdom of the Lombards, and the State of Rome. The application we 
have made is tlie correct one, for it is very easily seen that the Pope stood for the Exarch, and 
he, jointly witli the western potentates, governed the State of Rome. 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 357 

there without him, and he knows from tlie Ijeginuing all thing-s 
which will take place. But the true God is not the author of such 
wickedness as these Catholic princes and nations were gnilly 
of that supported and favored the Papacy, a fact which will 
hecome more patent as we proceed. But God knew and could 
foretell what these men and nations would do, and liow all things 
would result. The devil, tlie spirit of evil, is not wont to fore- 
tell much that is true ; falsehood is characteristic of him ; he is a 
liar, and the father of it. It happens in the history of religion, as 
well as in civil history, and. in that of individual life, that the evil is 
mingled with the good in human character and action, and the one 
may be set over against the other, so as in some cases to balance each 
other, in some cases the one or the other preponderating. Will not 
human beings, therefore, begin to cultivate the spirit of godliness, 
developing all the graces of the true Christian character : at the 
same time that they cultivate firm and unwavering faith in the power 
and benevolence of the Deity, and the utmost confidence in His good- 
ness, which greatly assists one not only in being good and doing good, 
but in all the labors, the circumstances, and the vicissitudes of life ? 
In this symbolical woman there is also an especial reference to 
the false and blasphemous practices of knighthood in the ages of 
chivalry, when there was such an unwarranted degree of respect j)aid 
to the female sex of the higher classes as to amount to a species of 
worship, and was thus dishonoring to the Deity and blasphemous in 
his eyes.* This is practised also in our own age to an unwarranta- 
ble and reprehensible degree ; and God does not look upon such 
practices with allowance : nor will he be pleased to have his honor 
prostituted to human beings or to any visible things. Females of a 
considerate and a godly character will always be contented with a 
fair degree of attention and respect, nor can they ever conscientiously 
before God accept or countenance anything more. They should 
themselves become the first reformers of the false and reprehensible 
manners of the age in this respect, and not employ their arts in mak- 
ing men even more idolatrous, and they will thus become the bene- 
factors of mankind, tlie restorers of true virtue among men, and the 
vindicators of the honors of their God ; and for their pains they will 
reap contentment of spirit and an eternal meed of happiness, which 
the vanities of the world can never afford them. The Church of 
Rome, and certain other branches of the Church Catholic, have al- 
ways made great use, and unwarrantable use, of the female agency 
in advancing their cause and supporting and upbuilding their 



* See Hallara's "Middle Ages." 



358 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

Churches. Thej^ should know that it is high time to give up the 
worship of woman, which has long prevailed widely, and to substitute 
or restore the worship of the true God, the infinite and invisible 
Deity alone, in its stead. Verse 6, Ch. XVII: " And I saw the wo- 
man drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the 
martyrs of Jesus ; and when I saw her I wondered with great ad 
miration." This represents the Church of Rome, here symbolized 
by an intoxicated harlot, as gloated with the blood of all those who 
during the long period of her ascendency she, through her agencies 
and supporters, caused to be put to death and persecuted variously 
for non-conformity with her principles or doctrines, for having any 
.principles or doctrines, than those which she saw fit to communicate, 
or because she suspected that they had or cultivated principles 
or doctrines or cherished opinions which she did not approve. These 
persecutions and slaughters were carried on by that system of Church 
and State wherever it was established and wherever its influence and 
power extended for a series of centuries, as will be partially under- 
stood from what we have shown in Part First of the work and the 
few illustrations which follow.* 

We shall here give a few more examples from history of the cruel 
proceedings of the Catholic Church. 

In the eleventh century Europe was greatly infested with here- 
tics. They were reputed Manichseans, and spread through many 
countries. In Italy they were called Paterini or Catheri, that is, the 
Pure. In France they were called Albigenses, Bulgarians and other 
names, sometimes after the names of the countries in which they re- 
sided. Their dangerous doctrine was first discovered by a certain 
priest called Heribert, and a Norman nobleman ; upon which Robert, 
King of France, assembled a Council at Orleans to devise methods for 
reclaiming those harmless people, not surely from the error of their 
ways ; but they, remaining obstinate, were at length condemned to 
be burned alive. Their enemies acknowledged the sincerity of their 
piety, and confessed that they were blackened by accusations which 
were manifestly false. But they were deemed unsound in their 
speculations concerning God, the Trinity, and the human soul. Such 
also were the heretics of the succeeding ages, called Brethren and 
Sisters of the Free Spirit, that is, free from obedience to the flesh, 
from the law of sin and death; the Massalians and Euchites, that is, 



* It wiU be noticed that in treating this part of our subject, when we express any opinion or 
make any comment of our own it is in tlie most moderate language we can consistently use. 
History is a stubborn thing; we allow it to speak for itself in showing the fulfilment of the 
prophecies, and we quote from (all things considered) the most reliable historians of these 
periods. 



PAPAIi-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 359 

people who pray : the Bogomilans, such as call for mercy. In some 
countries the same class of people were called Beghards. Catholic 
writers have tried to enumerate the errors of these heretics, but they 
were considered too numerous ; the fact is their faith and practice 
were contrary to the Catholic establishment in everything. Of 
course it would be endless to enumerate their supposed errors concern- 
ing baptism, the Eucharist, the sanctity of churches, altars, incense, 
consecrated oil, bells, bishops, funeral rites, marriages, indulgences, 
and the wood of the true cross. 

Basilius was a reputed Manichaean and founder of the sect called 
Bogomilans. This aged and venerable man, being treacherously 
induced to unfold his doctrine to the Emperor Alexius, was condem- 
ned as a heretic, and barbarously burnt at Constantinople ; which 
was but the beginning of sorrows to his harmless followers. 

Peter de Bruys was another who, in the twelfth century, troubled 
the Catholic peace and supplied the heresy-hunters with fresh labor 
and blood. They say " he attempted to remove the superstitions 
that disfigured the beautiful simplicity of the Gospel." * He would 
baptize only such as were come to a full use of their reason. He 
rejected the notion of the real body and blood of Christ in the Eucha- 
rist, the virtue of the wooden cross, and other instruments of super- 
stition. He was followed by great numbers, and after a laborious 
ministry of twenty years, was burned at St. Giles, in the year 1130, 
by an enraged populace, instigated by the clerg3^ The next Catho- 
lic disturbance came from Henry, from whom came the Henricians. 
He travelled from place to place, declaiming, it is said, with the 
greatest vehemence and fervor against the vices of the clergy ; at 
length being seized by a certain bishop and condemned before Pope 
Eugenius, he was committed to a close prison in the year 1143, where 
he soon after ended his days, leaving a train of heretics behind him 
in France to supply the ravenous priesthood with blood and carnage. 
In Brabant similar commotions were excited bj'' the illiterate Tan- 
quelmus, " who drew after him a numerous sect." Some of his 
enemies speak the worst things of him : others say these infamous 
charges are " absolutely incredible, that these blasphemies were falsely 
charged upon him by a vindictive priesthood." They say he treated 
with contempt the external worship of God and the sacraments, held 
clandestine meetings, and, like other heretics, inveighed against the 
clergy ; for which " he was assassinated by an ecclesiastic in a cruel 
manner." 

Arnold, a man of extensive learning and remarkable austerity, 



* Eccles. Hist, Cent. XII. 



860 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

excited new troubles in Italy. By his instigations, it is said, the 
people even insulted the persons of the clergy in a disorderly manner. 
He was, however, seized in the year 1155, publicly crucified, and 
afterwards burned to ashes ; leaving behind him a great number of 
disciples to perplex the priesthood about their overgrown opulence, 
Pajaal revenue, and ungodly authority. Spain had long been teem- 
ing with heresy, even from the time that Mark, the disciple of 
Hierax, went into that kingdom. Sometimes these were called 
Manichseans, sometimes Priscillianists ; and they flourished here 
under the last name during a period of more than eight centuries. 

Robinson says : " This body of people knew no crime of heresy, 
(among themselves :) the}' supposed very justly that persecution was 
oppression, that killing for the faith was murder. If ecclesiastics 
had never created a virtue called orthodoxy, the world would never 
have heard of a crime called heresy." * Councils never could sup- 
press heresy in Spain ; but the Inquisition did. A great number of 
heretics resided in Spain until they were exterminated hj that ini- 
quitous institution. After this the valleys among the Pyrenean 
mountains between France and Spain became the sequestered habi- 
tation of heretics. To these retreats they fled from the destructive 
arm of persecution, and as they were driven from thence they spread 
through France, Germany, and other provinces of Europe, formed 
societies and were called by different names, but were more generally 
called Albigenses and Waldenses. 

The Manichseans, Priscillianists, and all who sprung from the 
same original stock, agreed in one article of faith, and that was bap- 
tism. They all held that the Catholic corporation was not a Church 
of Christ, and they, therefore re-baptized those that had been baptiz- 
ed in that community before they admitted them into their societies ; 
for this reason their most common name of distinction was Anabap- 
tists. But by whatever names they might be called in different 
countries, all such as renounced the Papal superstition, and placed 
religion in the practice of virtue, were the common objects of perse- 
cution to the Catholic priesthood. 

Mosheim, f in speaking of the Church in the tenth century, says : 
" The clergy were, for the most part, a worthless set of men, equally 
enslaved to sensuality and superstition, and capable of the most 
abominable and flagitious deeds. The pretended chiefs and rulers 
of the universal Church indulged themselves in the commission of 
the most odious crimes, and abandoned themselves to the lawless 
impulse of the most licentious passions without reluctance or remorse, 



* Eccles. Researches. t Eccles. Hist., Cent. X. 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH: AND STATE SYSTEM. 361 

and whose spiritual Empire was such a diversified scene of iniquity 
and violence as never was exhibited under any of those temporal 
tyrants who have been the scourges of mankind." Robinson, speak- 
ing of the supreme rulers of the Catholic Church, the bishops of 
Rome in particular, says : " Of t.he sinners it may truly be affirmed 
that they were sinners of size ; for it would be difficult to mention 
a crime which they did not commit.'" * Mosheim says again : " The 
history of the Roman Pontiffs that lived in this (tenth) century, is a 
history of so many monsters, and not of men, and exhibits a horrible 
series of the most flagitious and complicated crimes, as all writers 
unanimously confess." 

This is the description and the character of that spiritual Em- 
pire, that Christian Church, most impiously so called. It is the 
character of that monstrous beast and the abominable woman that 
sat upon many waters, ruling the nations, with whom the kings of 
the earth committed fornication, and with whose wine of fornication, 
the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk. She was intoxicated 
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus. 

Yet, all non-conformists who would not be made drunk with the 
wine of the filthiness of her fornication, must needs be called 
"heretics" the only fit objects of revenge and destruction.! I^ the 
progress of this power "■ all places of worship were taken from 
heretics, and they punished for holding conventicles, though they 
held them in forests, and dens and caves of the earth." But in this 
spiritual Empire the ruling party, from the beginning, "declared 
themselves the only Christians, for they believed the Trinity ; and 
all the rest were heretics, bound over to present and eternal perdi- 
tion." " NothAvithstanding," says Robinson, "thousands set all 
penalties at defiance, and lived and died as their own understandings 
and conscience commanded them, in the practice of heresy and 
schism." J 

" In the year 1210, these non-conformists had become so numerous 
and so odious that Ugo, or Hugh, the old bishop of Ferrara, obtained 
an edict of the Western Emperor, Otho IV., for the suppression of 
them. Five years after. Pope Innocent III. held a council at tlie 
Lateran, and denounced anathemas against heretics of all descrip- 
tions, and against the lords and their bailiffs who suffered them to 
reside on their estates." Men of continual employment were now 
in quest of heretics ; bound by an oath to seek for them in towns, 
houses, cellars, woods, caves, and fields, and to purge the provinces 
of the enemies of the Catholic faith. Besides, in every city a council 

* Eccles. Researclies. t Eccles. Hist. J Eccles. Researches. 



3G2 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

of inquisition was instituted, consisting of one priest and three lay- 
men. As early as the year 1233, that infamous court, called the 
Inquisition, had a permanent establishment in Spain and France, 
which, in its progress, intensified to the utmost degree, the crimson 
color of the bloody beast, and the infernal rabble by whom it was 
executed. In the kingdom of Castile and Aragon, there were 
eighteen Inquisitorial courts, having each of them its counsellors, 
termed Apostolic Inquisitors, its secretaries, Serjeants, and other 
officers. And beside these, there were twenty thousand familiars 
dispersed throughout the kingdom who acted as spies and informers, 
and were employed to apprehend all suspected persons, and to com- 
mit them to trial to the prisons which belonged to the Inquisition." 
" By these familiars, persons were seized on bare suspicion, and in 
contradiction to the common rules of law they were subjected to the 
torture, tried and condemned by the Inquisitors, without being con- 
fronted by their accusers, or with the witnesses on whose evidence 
they were condemned." " The punishments were more or less dread- 
ful, according to the caprice and humor of the judges. The unhappy 
victims were either strangled, or committed to the flames, or loaded 
with chains and shut up in dungeons during life. Their effects were 
confiscated, and their families stigmatized with infamy." " Authors 
of undoubted credit affirm, and without the least exaggeration, that 
millions of persons have been ruined by this horrible court. Moors 
were banished a million at a time ; six or eight hundred thousand 
Jews were driven away at once, and their immense riches seized by 
their accusers, and dissipated among their persecutors." * " Heretics 
of all kinds, and of various denominations, were imprisoned and 
burnt, or fled into other countries. " This horrible court," says 
Robinson, " is styled by a monstrous abuse of words : The Holy and 
Apostolic Court of Inquisition." Newton says : " It is enough to 
make the blood run cold to read of the horrid murders and devasta- 
tions of this time ; how many of these poor innocent Christians (i.e. 
heretics), were sacrificed to the blind fury and malice of their 
enemies ! It is computed b}^ Mede, from good authorities, that in 
France alone were slain a million." f 

" Against the Waldenses," says Thuanus, a Popish historian, 
"when exquisite punishments availed little, and the evil was exas- 
perated by the remedv which had been unseasonably applied, and 
their number increased daily, at length complete armies were raised ; 
and a war of no less weight than what our people had before Avaged 
against the Saracens, was decreed against them ; the event of which 
was that they were rather slain, put to flight, spoiled everywhere of 

* Eccles. Researches. t Newtou on Prophecy : Diss. XXV. 



PAPAT.-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 363 

their goods and dignities and dispersed here and there, than that, 
convinced of their error, they repented." The Waldenses and Albi- 
genses being persecuted in their own country, fled into other coun- 
tries, some into Germany, and some into Britain In Germany, they 
grew and multiplied so fast, notwithstanding the rage and fury of 
crusaders and inquisitors, that at the beginning of the (fourteenth) 
century, it is computed that there were eighty thousand of them in 
Bohemia, Austria, and the neighboring territories." Yet compara- 
tively but few escaped the rage and fury of the bloody inquisitors. 
" From the first institution of the Jesuits to the year 1580, that is, 
in a little more than thirty years, nine hundred thousand reputed 
heretics were slain. In the Netherlands alone, the duke of Alva 
boasted that within a few years, he had despatched to the amount of 
thirty-six thousand souls, and those all by the hand of the common 
executioner." * In the space of scarce thirty years, the Inquisition 
destroyed, by various kinds of tortures, an hundred and fifty thou- 
sand Christians (i. e., heretics, such as Catholics generally called 
fanatics or persons disordered in their brains). Then how many 
millions may we suppose it destroyed in the course of over two 
hundred and fifty years from its first institution ? 

It is, therefore, a just remark of Newton that : " If Rome Pagan 
hath slain her thousands of innocent Christians, Rome Christian 
(rather anti-Christian) hath slain her ten thousands. For not to 
mention other outrageous slaughters and barbarities, the crusades 
against the Waldenses and Albigenses, the murders committed by 
the duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the massacres in France and 
Ireland will probably amount to ten times the number of the Chris- 
tians slain in all the ten persecutions of the Roman Emperors put 
together." f But is it not astonishing beyond measure that any one 
should yet be so blind and so silly as to imagine that the pure Gospel 
of Christ could have been conveyed by such means ? " That kind of 
religion," says Robinson, " which the Catholic always propagated 
ought to be considered as it really is, not merely a religion but a 
species of government, including in it a set of tyrannical maxims 
injurious to the lives, liberties, and properties of citizens in a free 
state, and all tending to render the state dependent on a faction 
called the Church, governed from age to age by a succession of 
priests. "J And such, we may remark, was that kind of priestliood 
by which the Catholic or Orthodox Cliurch was organized and 
ruled from the beginning, according to their degree of power and 
influence. Simon the Sorcerer § bewitched the people, giving out 

* Eccles. Researches. t Newton on Prophecy : Diss. XX\ t Eccles. Researclies. 

§ Acts, eh. Vm. 



364 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

that himself was some.ffreat one ; when therefore, under his lucrative 
motives, he professed to be a Christian, he was Antichristin the seed. 
Diotrephes * was a Catholic priest, Antichrist in the blade ; he 
loved to have the pre-eminence ; he could not really persecute, but 
he prated with malicious words against the heretics, John and his 
brethren, and cast them out of the Church. Councils are but a 
larger growth from the same diabolical root ; they are rulers without 
dominion. Inquisitors without an Inquisition, and may be justly 
called Antichrist in the ear. Synods of three or four bishops framing 
creeds or canons for conscience, and attaching to a breach of them 
ideas of guilt, differ from the Inquisition only as a spark of fire differs 
from a city in a blaze." f Thus from prating they proceed to solemn 
anathemas, which happily cannot yet effect the ruin of the dissenter 
Great ones, however, go on to great words, and as their numbers and 
authority increase they grasp the effectual power by faith, and foi-m 
an Inquisition in their dire decrees. Their language used to be 
when they could proceed no farther : " If any person, king, noble- 
man, prelate, priest, monk, or any of inferior rank, native or foreigner, 
shall at any time deny this creed or disobey these canons, may he be 
numbered with Judas, Dathan, and Abiram ; may all his limbs be 
broken; may his eyes be plucked out ; mpij his entrails be torn out 
of him; may he be smitten with the leprosy and other diseases from 
the crown of the head to the sole of the foot; and may he suffer the 
pain of eternal damnation with the devil and his angels." Wlien 
the inquisitors burnt their thirty, sixty, ninety heretics at a time ; 
stained the walls of their torture room with human blood ; while 
they clothed the wretched sufferers with habits and ciips on which 
Avere represented devils and flames, — what did they more than finish 
and color a picture of which the most ancient and sanctimonious 
Catholic synods had given them a sketch ? — a picture, when finished, 
so dreadful that even the artists shuddered at the sight of their own 
work ! An Inquisitor calls it : Horrendum et tremendum Spectami- 
lum! A horrid and dreadful spectacle! "But liberal men," says 
Eobinson, "have hardly words to express their abhorrence of it." 

Near the beginning of the eleventh century, Boleslaus, king of 
Poland, entered into a bloody war with the Prussians, and "obtained 
by the force of penal laws and of a victorious army what Adalbert, 
bishop of Prague, could not effect by exhortation and argument. 
He dragooned this savage people into the Church." J 

" Waldemar I., King of Denmark, unsheathed his sword in the 
twelfth century for the propagation and advancement of Christianity ; 



m. John, verses 9-10. f Eccles. Researches. t Eccles. Hist, Ceutury XL 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 365 

and wherever his arms were successful, there he pulled down the tem- 
ples and images of the gods, destroyed their altars, laid waste their 
sacred groves, and substituted in their place the Christian worship, 
which deserved to be propagated by better means than the sword." * 
These are the words of Mosheim, and he might with more propriety 
have said that their bloody religion deserved to be called by some other 
name than that of Christianity. But he continues his narrative in 
the same Catholic strain : " The island of Rugen submitted to the 
victorious arms of Waldemar in A. D. 1168, and its fierce and savage 
inhabitants, who were in reality no more than a band of robbers and 
pirates, were obliged, by that prince, to hear the instructions of the 
pious and learned doctors that followed his army, and to receive the 
Christian v^orship." 

" The Finlanders received the Gospel in the same manner ; they 
were also a fierce and savage people. After many bloody battles 
they were totally defeated by Eric IX., and were commanded to 
embrace the religion of the conqueror, which the greatest part of 
them did, though with the utmost reluctance. The founder and 
ruler of this new Church ( of savage robbers and pirates) was Henri, 
Archbishop of Upsal, who accompanied the victorious monarch in 
that bloody campaign." But Henry, for his severe treatment of his 
new converts, was by them assassinated ; and thus procured the 
honors of saintship and martyrdom from Pope Adrian IV. Can the 
heathen mythology furnish greater monsters than Dr. Mosheim's 
bloody Christianity ; his pious, learned, tyrannical doctors ; his 
fierce, and savage Christians ; and his lordly archbishops, saints and 
martyrs? But let us pursue the track of these Catholic missionaries 
a little farther, and see what Gospel, or good news, they spread 
among the Livonians. Mosheim in his usual style sa3^s : " The pro- 
pagation of the Gospel among the Livonians was attended with much 
difficulty and also with horrible scenes of cruelty and bloodshed." 
" Mainerd, a regular canon of St. Augustin (having attempted the 
conversion of that savage people without success), addressed himself 
to the Roman Pontiff, Urbain III., who consecrated him bisliop to 
the Livonians, and at the same time declared a holy tvar against this 
obstinate people." 

" This war, which was at first carried on against the inhabitants 
of the province of Esthonia, was continued with still greater vigor 
and rendered more universal by Berthold, abbot of Lucca, who left 
his monastery to share the labors and laurels of jNIainerd, whom he 
accordingly succeeded in the see of Livonia. The new bishop marched 



• Eccles. Hist., Century XII. 



366 CBEATOK AND COSMOS. 

into that province at the head of a powerful army which he had raised 
in Saxony, preached the Gospel sword in hand, and proved its truth 
by blows instead of arguments." * Beyond all dispute he proved, by 
his unmerciful blows, that his religion and his Gospel were a brutal 
imposition upon the reason and rights of men. " Albert, canon of 
Bremen, became the third bishop of Livonia, and followed with a 
barbarous enthusiasm the same military methods of conversion. 
He entered Livonia in the year 1198, with a fresh body of troops 
drawn out of Saxony ; and encamping at Riga, instituted there, at 
the direction of the Roman Pontiff, Linocent III., the military order 
of the knights sword-bearers, who were commissioned to dragoon 
the Livonians into the profession of Christianity, and to oblige them 
by force of arms to receive the benefits of baptism." 

New legions were sent from Germany to second the efforts and 
add to the efficacy of the mission of these booted apostles ; and they, 
together with the knights sword-bearers, so cruelly oppressed, slaugh- 
tered and tormented this wretched people that, exhausted at length 
and unable to stand any longer firm against the arm of persecution, 
they abandoned the statues of the heathen deities, and substituted in 
their place the images of the saints. Mosheim at length closes his 
account of the wonderful progress of the Catholic Gospel among the 
Livonians in his usual murky manner. 

" But while they received the blessings of the Gospel, they were 
at the same time deprived of all earthly comforts ; for their lands 
and possessions were taken from them with the most odious circum- 
stances of cruelty and violence, and the knights and bishops divided 
the spoil." Such curses of Anti-Christ's kingdom, retailed out by 
Orthodox doctors and divines, have driven many men of honest prin- 
ciples to discard the name of Christianitj^ altogether ; and justly 
they might discard a religion that claimed even a distant relation to 
such a bloody, oppressive, and persecuting hierarchy. But the vo- 
taries of such a religion had no relation to the followers of Christ. 
The true and genuine Gospel of Christ never was preached with sword 
in hand, but with the power and energy of the Holy Spirit, which is a 
spirit of peace, long-suffering, meekness and mercy. And when the 
Gospel was preached by the true ambassadors of Christ, every human 
being to whom it came had full liberty of choice ; and if they em- 
braced the truth it was upon their own inward conviction and their 
estimation of its value, without any compulsion from any other 
quarter. Neither did the promulgators of true Christianity ever en- 
act laws to bind those that did not believe ; nor did they ever pros 



* Eccles. Hist., Century XIL 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 367 

ecute or practise war or bloodshed to promote their cause, or increase 
their number ; nor compel any one to receive their testimony by any 
force, violence, or cruelty whatever. This is the truth and cannot 
be denied. But what shall be said when such booted apostles and 
lordly bishops with their sword-bearers, drunk with ambition and 
lust for dominion, are pushing on in every direction to extend the 
limits of their lawless empire, and spreading calamity and distress 
wherever they go ? 

Can any real friend of God or man, look on with indifference or 
try to amuse a distressed world with flowery tales about a divine 
Gospel, a benign religion, and a celestial light ? Or, must not reason 
and conscience speak out and testify that all such evangelizing is 
the cursed deception of anti-Christian tyrants ? Such awful scenes 
of merciless tyranny under the mask of a Christian profession are the 
most noted achievements of Catholic Emperors, Popes, bishops, and 
monks during the long reign of Anti-Christ. Many volumes would 
not contain a full account of all the arts of deception, the pious 
frauds, the bloody wars, and horrid massacres, the secret wickednesses 
and open crimes which have been practised in this kingdom under 
the sacred names of God and Christ, and under a cloak of pious mo- 
tives and holy ends. But happilj^ such monsters of iniquity are to be 
clearly known by their fruits, their own historians being witnesses. 
To say no more, their holy wars with the infidel Saracens, as 
they called them, were sufBcient to demonstrate to all ages that it 
was not the Gospel nor the spirit of Christ which they possessed, 
but a spirit and Gospel diametrically opposite. 

By the influence of Pope and Emperor, of bishops, dukes and 
monks and all the ecclesiastical powers, an army was raised in the 
eleventh century to force their Gospel into Palestine. Eight hun- 
dred thousand men, each with a consecrated cross upon his right 
shoulder, set out for Constantinople in the year 109G. This was 
but the beginning of that Catholic army which is described as fol- 
lows by Mosheira: "■ This army was a motley assemblage of monks, 
prostitutes, artists, laborers, lazy tradesmen, merchants, boys, girls, 
slaves, malefactors, and profligate debauchees, who were animated 
solely by the prospect of spoil and plunder and hoped to make their 
fortunes by this holy campaign."'* Dr. Maclaine, the translator of 
Mosheim, states from the best authority that " the first division of 
this prodigious army committed the most abominable enormities in 
the countries through which they passed, and that there was no 



• Eccles. Hist, Ceutury XI. 



868 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

kind of insolence, injustice, impurity, barbarity and violence of which 
they were not guilty." ' 

" Nothing perhaps in the annals of history can equal the flagitious 
deeds of this infernal rabble." " We pass in silence," says Mosheim, 
" the various enormities that were occasioned by these crusades, the 
murders, rapes and robberies of the most infernal nature that were 
everywhere committed with impunity by those holy soldiers of God 
and of Christ, as they Avere impiously called." And in this manner 
did the beast wax exceeding great ; so that at the sight of his army 
and horsemen, which were like the sand upon the sea shore for mul- 
titude, it might justly have been said : Who is able to make Avar 
with him ? 

The habitable and most populous parts of the globe were the 
scenes of his ravaging power ; and all whose habitation was upon 
the earth, or who contended for its honors, pleasures and prefer- 
ments were obliged to worship him, whose iniquitous names and 
characters never were written in the Book of the innocent Life of 
the Lamb. 

They worshiped the Bishop of Rome, not only by enriching 
him with their substance, but by conferring upon him such names 
and titles as Our Lord God the Pope, Another God upon eartli, 
King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the same is the Dominion 
of God and the Pope, Lord of the Universe, Arbiter of the Fate of 
Kingdoms and Empires, and Supreme ruler over the Kings and 
Princes of the earth.* Agreeable to those blasphemous titles his 
votaries maintain that " the power of the Pope is greater than all 
created power, and extends itself to things celestial, terrestrial and 
infernal ; " | " that he is not only bishop of Rome, but of the whole 
world, and is constituted judge in the place of God which he fills as 
the vicegerent of the Most Higli, X that he doeth Avhatsoever he 
listeth, even things unlaAvful, and is more than God. He as God, sit- 
teth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. And he 
sitteth there as God, especially at his inauguration, when he 
sitteth upon the high altar in St. Peter's Church, and maketh the 
table of the Lord his footstool, and in that position receiveth 
adoration. Such blasphemies are not only alloAved but are even 
encouraged and rcAvarded in the Avriters of the Church of 
Rome : and the}^ are not only the extravagance of private writers 
but are the language even of public decretals and acts of the eoun- 

* See Eccles. Hist., Ceutuiies XL, XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVI. 

t His. Redemption, p. 432. Note K. 

i Dissertation on Prophecy, Vol. 2, p. 71, 72. Diss. XXII. 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 

cils," SO says Bishop Newton. Thus was the bishop of Rome, not 
only blasphemously worshipped, but he magnified himself against 
the prince of princes, saying that neither princes nor bishops, civil 
governors nor ecclesiastical rulers have any lawful power in Church 
or State but what they derive fi-om him ; that both the kingdoms 
and the souls of kings were under his dominion, and tliat he liad 
power to bind them both in heaven and upon earth.* 

Such Avas the coml)ination of mutual Ijlasphem}- and wickedness 
Avhich centred in the ecclesiastical head of this Catholic kingdom ; 
and such was that j^ower that was given him not of God, but of all 
the ranks and orders of men that existed in his dominions. They 
gave their power to establish the dignity, honor, greatness, and glory 
of fallen man, both in a temporal and spiritual view ; in all which 
they expected to have a share. It was no wonder that such a hyp- 
ocritical, cruel and bloody hierarchy of State and Church should 
be represented by the spirit of prophecy under the figure of a scarlet- 
colored beast full of names of blasphemy, on which was seated a 
woman arrayed in purple, and decked with gold and precious stones 
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations, 
and upon her forehead a name written : Mystery, Babylon the great, 
the mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth. 

As to the time when this power began conspicuously to appear, 
there has been much research among the learned. It is seen from 
the prophecy in Daniel VII., 8, that the little horn sprung up at first 
insensibly, and tlien gradually among the ten horns, until finally 
three of these gave it place by their being plucked up by the roots 
before it. These three horns were not only overcome by the little 
horn, but they were eradicated. The conquests of the religion of 
Rome Avill not satisfy to explain for the eradicating of these horns ; 
it applies to conquests of the secular power and radical and perma- 
nent conquests at that. Now we know that the ecclesiastical pre- 
eminence of the bisliop of Rome began, even within the times of the 
primitive Church, to appear above all the other bishops of the Catho- 
lic Church. This prestige remained to tlie Roman pontiff with a 
gradual increase from the time of Constantine to that of Charle- 
magne : though during a great part of that interval of 450 years, the 
city of Rome was trampled under foot, and Italy and the West deso- 
lated by contending armies. The first quarter of the seventh cen- 
tury may be taken as the time from which to date the temporal 
power of tlie bishop of Rome. True, the sovereignty was not con- 
ceded to him until the latter part of the eighth centuiy by the secu- 



* Ecclesi. Hist, Centuries XI.-XVI 
Vol. II.— 24 



370 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

lar power ; but the circumstances of the times had made him in ef- 
fect the temporal sovereign of Rome ; and from and after the time of 
Pope Gregory the Great, may be dated the temporal sovereignty of 
the Roman bishop. This Gregory was one of the most renowned of 
the Popes of Rome, and he is, perhaps, notwithstanding some differ- 
ence of opinion among the learned concerning it, the last one of 
their own order to whom they have given the title of saint. His 
character, uniting in itself a singular mixture of simplicity, super- 
stition, and cruelty, seems to have suited him for his station and for 
the temper of the times. As soon as he had received the degree of 
deacon, he was sent to reside at the Court of Constantinople as the 
nuncio or minister of the Apostolic See, and he boldly assumed, in 
the name of St. Peter, a tone of independent dignity which would 
have been criminal and dangerous in the most illustrious lay subject 
of the Empire. He returned to Rome with a large increase of repu- 
tation, and after for a short time practising the virtues of a monk, 
he was dragged from the cloister to the Papal throne by the unani- 
mous consent of the clergy and the people. He alone resisted or 
pretended to resist his own elevation ; and his humble petition to 
the Emperor Maurice (he who, with his family, was killed by Phocas,) 
that he would be pleased to reject the choice of the Romans, served 
only to exalt his character in the eyes of the Emperor and the public. 
When the mandate was proclaimed, Gregory solicited the aid of some 
merchants to convey him in a basket beyond the gates of Rome, and 
modestly concealed himself some days among the woods and moun- 
tains till his retreat was discovered, as it is said, by a celestial light. 
In his rival the patriarch of Constantinople he condemned the anti- 
Christian title of universal bishop, which the successor of St. Peter 
was too haughty to concede, and too feeble to assume ; and Gregory's 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction was confined to the triple character of 
Bishop of Rome, Primate of Italy, and Apostle of the West; and the 
bishops of Italy and the adjacent islands acknowledge the bishop of 
Rome as their special Metropolitan. But Gregory made successful 
missionary inroads into Spain, Gaul and Britain ; and it has been said 
that the conquest of the last-named country reflects less honor on 
Csesar than on Gregory the Great. Instead of six legions he de- 
spatched forty monks with Augustin at their head for that distant 
island, and affected to lament the austere duties which prevented him 
from taking part in their spiritual warfare. In less than two years, 
he could announce to the Patriarch of Alexandria that his missionaries 
bad baptised the king of Kent, with ten thousand of his Anglo-Saxon 
subjects, and that, like the missionaries of the primitive Church, they 
were armed only with spiritual and supernatural powers. But how 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 371 

ever this may be, it seems certain, that this orthodox conquest was 
not obtained without blood ; for Robinson, in his Ecclesiastical Re^ 
searches, asserts that he and his missionary monk Augustin. were the 
cause of over two thousand Anglo-Saxons having been slaughtered. 
The heathen tempi e.i of Britain, the Pope permitted to be turned 
into Christian Churches, and the new converts were permitted to 
sacrifice in honor of the saints and martyrs, instead of their an- 
cient deities, on the days that had been observed in honor of the 
latter. 

The course which Gregory pursued towards the Emperor Phocas, 
after his usurpation and murder of the Emperor Maurice and his 
family in such a diabolical manner, may tend to justify the belief that 
Gregory was capable of such atrocities. Phocas, after his murderous 
prpceedings, was peaceably acknowledged in the provinces of the 
East and "West. His image, with that of his wife Leontina, was ex- 
posed in the Vatican at Rome to the veneration of the people and 
clergy, and afterwards deposited in the palace of the Caesars between 
those of Constantine and Theodosius. As a subject and a Christian 
it might ha e been the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the estab- 
lished government until a better could be, or was substituted ; but 
the joyful applause with which, in his epistle to the new Emperor, 
he salutes the fortune of the assassin, has sullied with an indelible 
disgrace, the character of the saint. The successor of St. Peter might 
have inculcated with a respectable firmness the blood-guiltiness 
of the Emperor, and the necessity of his repentance ; he contents 
himself with celebrating the deliverance of the people, and the fall 
of the oppressor ; he rejoices that the pious and benignant Phocas 
had been raised to the imperial throne ; he prays that his hands may 
be strengthened against all his enemies.; and he expresses a fervent 
wish, which perhaps he intended for a propliecy, that after a long and 
triumphant reign he might be transported from a temporal to an 
eternal kingdom. We have already shown the proceedings of Pho- 
cas with respect to Maurice which seemed so pleasing, in Gregory's 
opinion, both to heaven and earth ; and, according to the most im- 
partial historians, Phocas does not appear less hateful in the exercise 
than in the acquisition of power. They delineate his portrait as lliat 
of a ferocious monster. 

His credulity or prudence always disposed Gregory to confirm 
the truths of his religion by the evidence of ghosts, miracles, and 
resurrections ; and the Catholic Church of succeeding ages has 
freely paid to his saintsliip the same tribute for virtue as lie freely 
granted to the virtue of the saints of his own and the preceding gen- 



372 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

erations. The historian Gibbon, in speaking of the Popes, especially 
of Gregory the Great, says : " Their temporal power insensibly arose 
from the calamities of the times ; and the Roman bishops who have 
deluged Europe and Asia with blood were compelled to reign as the 
ministers of charitj' and peace. The Church of Rome w^as endowed 
with ample revenues in Italy, Sicily, and the most distant provinces ; 
and her agents, who were commonly sub-deacons, had acquired 
a civil and even criminal jurisdiction over their tenants and husband- 
men. The successor of St. Peter administered his patrimony wdth 
the temper of a vigilant and moderate landlord; and the epistles of 
Gregory are filled with salutary instructions to abstain from doubt- 
ful or vexatious lawsuits, to preserve the integrity of weights and 
measures, to '■grant every seasonable delay, and to reduce the capi- 
tation of the slaves of the glebe, who purchased the right of marriage 
by the payment of an ordinary fine. The rent of the produce of 
those estates was transported to the mouth of the Tiber at the risk 
and expense of the Pope : in the use of wealth, he acted like a faith- 
ful steward of the church and the poor, and liberally supplied to 
their wants the inexhaustible resources of abstinence and order. The 
voluminous accounts of his receipts and disbursements was kept 
above three hundred years in the Lateran as the model of Christian 
economy. On the four great festivals he divided their quarterh' al- 
lowance to the clergy, to his domestics, to the monasteries, the 
churches, the places of burial, the almshouses, the hospitals of 
Rome, and the rest of the diocese. On the first day of every month 
he distributed to the poor, according to the season, their stated por- 
tion of corn, wine, cheese, vegetables, oil, fish, fresh provisions, 
clothes and money ; and his treasurers were continually summoned 
to satisfy, in his name, the extraordinary demands of indigence and 
merit. The instant distress of the sick and helpless, of strangers and 
pilgrims, Avas relieved by the bounty of each day and of every hour ; 
nor would the pontiff indulge himself in a frugal repast till he had 
sent the dishes from his own table to some objects deserving of his 
compassion. The misery of the times had reduced the nobles and 
matrons of Rome to accept, without a blush, the benevolence of the 
church : three thousand virgins received their food and raiment from 
the hand of their benefactor ; and many bishops of Italy escaped 
from the barbarians to the hospitable threshold of the Vatican. 
Gregory might justly be stjded the Father of his country ; and such 
Avas the extreme sensibility of his conscience, that for the death of a 
beggar who had perished in the streets, he interdicted himself for 
several days from the exercise of sacerdotal functions. 

The misfortunes of Rome involved the apostolic pastor in the 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 373 

business of peace and war; and it might be doubtful to himself 
whether piety or ambition prompted him to supply the place of his 
absent sovereign. Gregory awakened the Emperor from a long slum- 
ber ; exposed the guilt or incapacity of the Exarch, and his inferior 
ministers, and complained that the veterans were withdrawn from 
Rome for the defence of Spoleto ; encouraged the Italians to guard 
their cities and altars ; and condescended in the crisis of danger, to 
name the tribunes, and to direct the operations of the provincial 
troops. But the martial spirit of the Pope was checked by the scru- 
ples of humanity and religion ; the imposition of tribute, though it 
was employed in the Italian war, he freely condemned as odious and 
oppressive ; whilst he protected, against the imperial edicts, the pious 
cowardice of the soldiers who deserted a military for a monastic life. 
If we ma}^ credit his own declaration, it would have been easy for 
Gregory to have exterminated the Lombards by their domestic fac- 
tions, without leaving a king, a duke, or a count to save that unfor- 
tunate nation from the vengeance of their foes. As a Christian bishop, 
he preferred the salutary offices of peace ; his mediation appeased 
the tumult of arms ; but he was too conscious of the arts of the 
Greeks (i. e., the Eastern Romans) and the passions of tire Lom- 
bards to engage his sacred promise for the observance of the truce. 
Disappointed in the hope of a general and lasting treaty he presumed 
to save his country without the consent of the Emperor or the 
Exarch. The sword of the enemy was suspended over Rome ; it 
was averted by the mild eloquence and seasonable gifts of the Pon- 
tiff who commanded the respect of heretics and barbarians. The 
merits of Gregory were treated Vjy the Byzantine Court with reproach 
and insult ; but in the attachment of a grateful people he found the 
purest reward of a citizen, and the best right of a sovereign." * 

The time of Gregory, then, or a little before, appears to be about 
the first beginning of the exercise of temporal sovereignty by the 
popes, which sovereignty arose priucipall}^ from the circumstance of 
Rome being separated from Ravenna, the seat of the Exarch, by 
hostile lands. The pontificate of Gregory the Great was from 590 to 
604. The secular sovereignty was taken away from the pope in 
1870 by the king of Italy. And reckoning back 1260 years, the lira- 
its of the prophecy, at the rate of thirty days for a month or 360 days 
for a 3'-ear, it would place the beginning of this power about tliis 
time or a little before, as we must consider that 1260 years of 360 
days each are not equal to the same number of ordinary 3-ears in 
length. This period of 1260 days or years refers not only to tho 

* Miliuiin's Gibbon's Uoiue, oh. XLV. 



374 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

great Roman empire of which we have treated, having Constantinople 
as the seat of government, but to this Ecclesiastico-civil Roman 
empire of which we are now treating ; and as for the new system 
arising from the Protestant Reformation, of which we have yet to 
treat, we shall leave its duration to be proved by the event. 

After the so-called restoration of the Western Empire by Charle- 
magne and the German emperors, the- latter in the election of the 
popes continued to exercise the powers which had previously been 
exercised b}^ the Roman emperors or their representatives the Ex- 
archs, and by the Gothic Kings of Italy ; and the importance of this 
prerogative increased with the temporal estate and spiritual jurisdic- 
tion of the Roman Church. In the aristocracy of this church the 
principal members of the clergy still formed a senate to assist the ad- 
ministration and to supply the vacancies of the bishop. Each of the 
parishes of Rome, which were 28 altogether, was governed by a pres- 
byter or cardinal-priest, a title which, though of humble origin, after- 
wards aspired to emulate the purple of kings. Their number was 
enlarged by the association of the seven deacons of the most consider- 
able hospitals, the seven palatine judges of the Lateran, and some 
dignitaries of the Church. The ecclesiastical senate was directed 
by the seven cardinal bishops of the Roman province, who were less oc- 
cupied in their diocese outside the city than by their weekly service 
in the Lateran and their superior share in the honors and author- 
ity of the apostolic see. On tlie death of the pope the bishops rec- 
ommended a successor to the suffrage of the college of cardinals, 
and their choice was ratified or rejected by the applause or clamor of 
the Roman peojjle. But the election was imperfect, nor could the 
pontiff be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the 
church, had signified his approbation and consent. The royal com- 
missioner examined on the spot the form and freedom of the pro- 
ceedings ; nor was it till after a previous scrutiny into the qualifica- 
tions of the candidates, that he accepted an oath of fidelity, and con- 
firmed to the new pope the donations which had successively en- 
riched the patrimony of St. Peter. In the frequent schisms the rival 
claims were submitted to the sentence of the emperor; and in a 
synod of bishops he undertook to judge, to condemn and to punish 
the crimes of a guilty pontiff. Otho the First imposed a treaty on 
the senate and people who engaged to prefer the candidate most ac- 
ceptable to his majesty ; his successors anticipated and prevented 
their choice ; they bestowed the see of Rome on their chancellors 
and preceptors ; and whatever might be the meiit of a Frank or Ger- 
man, his name on the list of the pontiffs sufficientl}^ attests the inter- 
position of a foreign power. The competitor who found himself ex- 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 375 

eluded by the cardinals sometimes appealed to the passions or avarice 
of the multitude. The city was stained with blood, and the most 
powerful Roman senators held the see of St. Peter in a long and dis- 
graceful servitude. The popes of the ninth and tenth centuries were 
insulted, imprisoned and murdered by their tyrants ; and such was 
their indigence after the loss and usurpation of the Ecclesiastical 
patrimony that, in many cases, they could neither support the state 
of a prince, nor exercise the charity of a priest. The influence of 
two prostitutes, sisters, Marioza and Theodora, who lived during this 
period, was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and 
amorous intrigues. The most attentive of their lovers were honored 
with the popedom, and their reign may have suggested to other ages 
the story of a female pope. The son and grandson of Marioza were 
seated in the chair of St. Peter, and it was at the age of nineteen 
that the first of these became head of the Roman Church. The youth 
and manhood of the young pontiff were of a similar complexion, and 
the pilgrims from different nations could bear witness to the charges 
which were urged against him in a Roman synod and in the presence 
of the emperor, Otho the Great. As John XI.* had renounced the 
dress and decencies of his profession and had taken up the profession 
of a soldier, in his military character, which he sustained at the same 
time with that of pontiff, he may not perhaps be dishonored by the 
wine which he drank, the blood which he spilt, the conflagrations 
which he kindled, or his licentious pursuits of gaming and hunting. 
His open simony might have been caused by distress ; and his blas- 
phemous invocations of Jupiter and Venus might possibly not have 
been serious. But witli all this we read that this worthy son of 
Marioza lived in public adultery with the matrons of Rome ; that the 
Lateran was turned into a school for prostitution, and that his rapes 
of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting 
the shrine of St. Peter, lest in their act of devotion they should be 
violated by his successor. 

While the attention of the Emperors was directed to more allur- 
ing objects or while they were occupied with the defence of their 
hereditary dominions, Rome occasionally experienced intestine dis- 
cords from the ambition of usurpers. Amidst the ruins of Itah" the 
famous Marioza invited a usurper, Hugh, King of Burgundy, to as- 
sume the character of her third husband, and he was introduced b}"" 
her faction into the mole of Hadrian, or castle of St. Angelo, which 



* There is indeed Fonie confusion in the history of tlie popes of this period. Muratoii has- 
discovered John XI. to liave been the son of Albeiic, the husband of Marioza. 



876 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

commands the principal bridge and entrance of Rome. Alberic, her 
son by the first marriage, was compelled to attend at the wedding ; 
but his ungraceful and reluctant service was chastised by a blow from 
his new father. The blow was productive of a revolution. " Ro- 
mans! " exclaimed the youth, " once you were masters of the world, 
and these Burgundians the most abject of your slaves. They now 
reign, those voracious and brutal savages, and my injury is the com- 
mencement of 3'our servitude." The alarm bell rung to arms in every 
quarter of the city; the Burgundians retreated with 'precipitation ; 
Marioza was imprisoned by her victorious son, and his brother, pope 
John the eleventh, was reduced to the exercise of his spiritual func- 
tions. With the title of prince, Alberic possessed over twenty years 
the government of Rome ; and he is said to have gratified the people 
by restoring the office of the consuls and tribunes. 

His son and heir assumed with the pontificate, the name of John 
XII. He, like his predecessor, was provoked by the Lombards to 
seek a deliverer for the Church and republic. Otho II. performed these 
services on his coming to receive the imperial crown. The festival 
of his coronation was disturbed by the secret conflict of prerogative 
and freedom, and the Emperor commanded his guards not to stir from 
his side lest he should be assaulted and murdered at the foot of the 
altar. Before he repassed the Alps, he chastised the rebels and John 
XII. for his ingratitude. The pope was degraded in a synod ; the 
prsefect Avas mounted on an ass, whipped through the city and im- 
prisoned ; thirteen of the most guilty were hanged; others were 
mutilated or banished ; and this severe process the Emperor justified 
ty a reference to the ancient laws of Theodosius and Justinian. 
The voice of fame has accused Otho for a perfidious and bloody act, 
the massacre of the senators whom he had invited to his table under 
the fair semblance of hospitality and friendship-; but the authority 
on which we have this is suspected. In the reign of his son, Otho 
III., Rome made a bold attempt to shake off the German yoke, and 
the consul Crescentius was the leader of the Republicans. From the 
condition of a subject and an exile he twice rose to the command of 
the city, oppressed, expelled, and created the popes, and formed a 
conspiracj^ for restoring the authority of the eastern Roman Em- 
perors. In the fortress of St. Angelo he maintained an obstinate 
siege till he was betrayed by a promise of safety ; his body was sus- 
pended on a gibbet, and his head was exposed on the battlement of 
the castle. By a turn of fortune, Otho III., after separating his troops, 
was besieged three days in his palace without food ; and a disgrace 
ful escape saved him from the fury of the Romans. 'Hie senator 
Ptolemy was the leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentius 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 377 

enjoyed the pleasure or the repute of revenging her husband by a 
poison which she administered to her imperial lover. It is said to 
have been the design of this Otho to erect his throne in Italy, and to 
revive the institutions of the Roman monarchy ; but this design he 
or his successors never accomplished, probably owing to their con- 
tinued preference for the royal seat of their ancestors, and to the 
imminent personal danger to which they would be subject from 
strangers and Romans. 

After a long series of scandals, the see of St. Peter was reformed 
and exalted by Pope Gregor}' VII., 1050-1100. This ambitious monk 
devoted his life to the execution of two projects : I. To fix iu the 
college of cardinals the freedom and independence of the election of 
the Pope, and to abolish forever the right of interference on the 
part of the Emperors and the Roman people. II. To bestow or 
resume the Western empire as a fief or benefice of the Church, and 
to extend the temporal dominion of the successor of St. Peter over 
the kings and kingdoms of the earth. After a contest of fifty years, 
the first of these designs was accomplished, by the firm support of 
the ecclesiastical order whose liberty was connected with that of 
their chief. But the accomplishment of the second design, though 
it was attended with some practical success, was vigorously resisted 
by the secular power, and finally extinguished by the progress of 
reason. 

The successors of Charlemagne and the Othos were chosen be- 
yond the Rhine, in a national diet ; but these princes were content 
with the humble title of Kings of Germany and Italy till they had 
crossed the Alps to receive their imperial crown from the hands of 
their spiritual Father upon the banks of the Tiber. At some dis- 
tance from the city their approach was saluted by a long procession 
of the clergy and people with palms and crosses ; the royal oath to 
maintain the liberties of Rome was thrice repeated, at the bridge, at 
the gate, and on the stairs of the Vatican ; and in their distribution 
of customary donative, the emperor feebly imitated the munificence 
of the first Caesars. In the church of St. Peter the coronation was 
performed by the Pope, and the public consent was declared in the 
acclamations: " Long life and victory to our Lord the Pope ! Long 
life and victory to our Lord the Emperor ! Long life and victory to 
the Roman and Teutonic armies ! " The names of Cassar and Au- 
gustus, the laws of Constantine and Justinian, the example of 
Charlemagne and Otho, established tl>e supreme dominion of the 
emperors; their title and image was engraved on the papal coins, 
and their jurisdiction over Rome was marked by the sword of justice 
which they delivered to the prefect of the city. The order of the 



378 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

coronation was, however', often disturbed by the seditious clamors 
of the Romans, who encountered their sovereign as a foreign invader: 
his departure was always speedy and often shameful : and in his ab- 
sence, sometimes during a long reign, his authority was often insult- 
ed, and his name perhaps forgotten. As we have before remarked, 
Frederick III. was the last German emperor who presented himself 
at Rome to receive the imperial crown, which he did in 1452, the 
year before Constantinople was taken by the Turks. After this the 
civil authority of the Popes became more independently exercised, 
and the Romans were freed from the immediate presence of their 
German lords, though they frequently afterwards had need of their 
assistance to quell domestic disturbances, and protect them against 
foreign foes. 

Of Rome's two sovereigns, the emperor reigned by the right of 
conquest ; but the authority of the Vicar of Christ was founded on 
the soft though more solid basis of public opinion and habit ; and 
he began to exercise over the Romans a similar influence to that 
which he did over the nations of Europe, when by his thunders from 
the Vatican he created, judged and deposed the rulers of the earth ; 
nor did the proudest of Rome's sons feel themselves disgraced by 
submitting to the rule of a priest whose foot was kissed by kings. 

Gregory VII., who did so much to establish the Papal Sovereignty 
and to extend its influence, was in his old age driven from Rome and 
died in exile. Thirty-six of his successors maintained a very unequal 
contest with the Romans ; their age and dignity were often violated; 
the streets of Rome and the churches in the solemn rites of religion 
exhibited on many occasions a scene of blood and murder. At 
length in the year 1309, the Popes, having abandoned Rome, took 
up their residence at Avignon, in France, where they remained over 
seventy years. When, after the expiration of this period, they 
effected a return, they still occasionally encountered some opposition 
in the city. Gregory XL, survived his return about fourteen months. 
After his death the conclave elected Urban VI. But after he had 
been installed into office, adored, invested, and crowned in the cus- 
tomary manner, and his supremacy was acknowledged at Rome, 
Avignon, and in the Latin world, the cardinals reversed their 
decision, excommunicated him, and elected a new Pope, Robert of 
Geneva, called Clement VIL, in his place. The Romans were dis- 
satisfied with the last election on account of the foreign birth of 
Clement, and rose en masse-^against the cardinals, the majority of 
whom were French. Thirty thousand rebels surrounded the con- 
clave : " Death, or an Italian Pope" was their unanimous cry. Some 
preparations were made for burning the cardinals if they should not 



PAPAL-GERMANIC CHUECH AND STATE SYSTEM. 379 

comply with their wishes ; and had they chosen another foreigner 
for Pope, it is probable they would never have escaped alive from 
the Vatican. The features of the tyrant could now be discovered 
in Urban, who could walk in his garden and recite his breviary, 
while he heard from an adjacent chamber, six cardinals groaning on 
the rack. The cardinals left the matter as it was, and the merits of 
their double choice made a subject which was long agitated in the 
catholic schools. Thus a schism was created which destroyed the 
peace of Europe for forty years. From the banks of the Tiber and 
the Rhone the hostile pontiffs encountered each other with the pen 
and the sword : the civil and ecclesiastical orders of society were 
disturbed, and the Romans had their full share of the troubles which 
they might be said to have authorized. By the avocations of the 
schism ; by foreign arms and popular tumults. Urban VI. and his 
three immediate successors were often compelled to interrupt their 
residence in the Vatican. The opposite parties at Rome still exercised 
their deadly feuds; the Vicar of Christ, who had levied a military 
force, chastised the rebels with the gibbet, the sword, and the dagger, 
and in a friendly conference eleven deputies of the people were 
perfidiously murdered and cast into the streets. In the year 1434, 
the people rose in arms against the Pope : elected seven men to 
govern the republic, and a constable of the capitol ; imprisoned the 
Pope's nephew : besieged himself in the palace, and shot volleys of 
arrows into his bark as he escaped in the habit of a monk down the 
Tiber. But he possessed in his castle of Angelo a garrison, which 
remained faithful to him, and a train of artillery ; their batteries 
incessantly thundered on the city, and a bullet dexterously pointed 
broke down the barricade of the bridge, and scattered with a single 
shot the heroes of the republic. A rebellion of five months exhausted 
their constancy ; the troops of St. Peter again occupied the capitol ; 
the demagogues departed to their homes ; the most guilty were 
executed or exiled, and the Pope's legate at the head of two thou- 
sand foot and four thousand horse was hailed as the father of the 
city. From this time the Popes maintained an army in tlie citadel 
which they exercised in compelling peace and obedience ; and 
before the year 1500 they had acquired over Rome a more absolute 
dominion than they had ever possessed before, which they have con- 
tinued to exercise till within our time. 

Their temporal claims were readily deduced from the fabulous 
or genuine donations of the darker ages, but, to relate with particu- 
larity the steps by wliich they came to their final settlement would 
engage us too far in the transactions of Italy and Europe. The 
crimes of Pope Alexander VI., the martial operations of Julius II., 



380 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and the statesmanlike policy of Leo X., have been adorned by the 
pens of the ablest historians of the times. In the first period of 
their conquests till the expedition of Charles VIIL, the Popes might 
successfully wrestle with adjacent princes and states whose military 
force was equal or inferior to their own. But as soon as the monarchs 
of France, and Germany, and Spain, contended with arms for the 
dominion of Italy they supplied with art their want of strength, and 
concealed in a labyrinth of wars and treaties their aspiring views. 
The nice balance of the Vatican was often subverted by the soldiers 
of the north and west, united under the standard of Charles V ; the 
fluctuating policy of Clement VII. exposed his person and dominions 
to the conqueror, and Rome was abandoned during seven months to 
a lawless army more cruel and rapacious than the Goths and Vandals. 
After this severe lesson, together with that which they were being 
taught by the Protestant reformers, the Popes contracted their ambi- 
tion which was almost satisfied, resumed the character of a common 
parent, and abstained from all offensive hostilities except in a hasty 
quarrel when the vicar of Christ and the Turkish Sultan were armed 
at the same time against the Kingdom of Naples. 

Through a forgery of the Vatican and the ignorance of the times 
it was long and universally believed in Europe that Constantino 
had invested the Popes with the civil dominion of Rome. In the 
beginning of the twelfth century, the truth and validity of this 
donation was disputed by a Sabine monaster}^ But in the fifteenth 
century, with the revival of learning, this fictitious deed was com- 
pletely exposed, especially by the pen of Laurentius Valla, a learned 
Roman; and such is the silent and irresistible progress of reason, that 
before the end of the next age, that fable, so long believed, was 
rejected by the- contempt of historians and poets, and the modest 
censure of the advocates of the Roman Church; and even the Popes 
themselves have indulged a smile at the credulity of the vulgar on 
account of it. Fraud is often the resource of weakness and cunning, 
and on their arrival at the Eternal City with their armies, the strong, 
though ignorant barbarian kings and emperors had often been 
entangled in the net of sacerdotal policy. The Vatican and Lateran 
were an arsenal which, according to the occasion, have produced or 
concealed a various collection of false or genuine, of corrupt or 
spurious or suspicious acts, as they tended to promote the interests 
of the Roman Church. Before the end of the eighth century some 
scribe attached to St. Peter, thought to be the notoi-ious Isodore,* 
composed the decretals and the donation of Constantine, the two 



Cardinal Baroiiius strangely enough suspected it to be a forgery of tlie Eastern Romans. 



PAPALrGERMANIC CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEM. 381 

magic pillars of the ecclesiastical and civil power of the Popes. This 
remarkable donation was first introduced to the world in an Epistle 
of Adrian I. to Charlemagne, in which he exhorts that monarch to 
imitate the liberality and revive the name of the great Constantine. 
According to the legend Constantine was healed of the leprosy and 
purified in the waters of baptism * by St. Sylvester, bishop of R )iiic ; 
and never was a physician more abundantly recompensed. His royal 
patron withdrew from the seat and patrimony of St. Peter, declared 
his resolution of founding a new capital in the East, and resigned to 
the Popes the free and independent sovereignty of Rome, Italy and 
the West. So deep was the ignorance and credulity of the dark 
ages that this most absurd of fables was received with equal rever- 
ence both in the Eastern and "Western provinces of the Roman 
world. The Emperors and the Romans were incapable of discerning 
a forgery which subverted their rights and freedom, and the fabulous 
origin was lost in the substantial effects. The name of Dorainus or 
Lord was inscribed on the coin of the bishop, their title was acknowl- 
edged by the acclamations and oaths of allegiance of their citizens, 
and with the free or reluctant consent of the German emperors they 
had long exercised a sovereign or subordinate jurisdiction over the 
city and the patrimony of St. Peter. 

Doubtless the remembrance of the deception, whether or not any 
of their forefathers had been deceived by it, intensified the hatred of 
the German potentates against the Church of Rome at the era of 
the Reformation. But it appears pretty evident the Western rulers 
were never much influenced by the supposed act of donation or the 
decretals of Constantine ; for they always recognized themselves as 
the kings of Rome and Italy ; and perhaps it has been remarked 
there was always particular care taken that Rome and Italy should 
have a sovereign besides the Pope. But, on the other hand, while 
these secular rulers regarded themselves as the kings of Rome and 
Italy, the Popes never appear to have assumed that title, never 
assumed the crown of the Western Empire ; but satisfied themselves 
with their bishop's tiara of three crowns, which, while it denoted 
their headship of the Catholic Church, also indicated their tri{)le 
character of sovereigns of heaven, earth, and hell. Moreover, the 
Pope never represented any of the supreme secular rulers of Rome ; 
he did not represent the kings, the consuls, the decemvirs, the 
military tribunes with consular power, the dictators, or tlie emperors; 
but he represented the Exarch of Ravenna, the lieutenant of the 



* Our readers will remember that Constantine was not baptized till just before his death 
when that rite was administered to him by Eusebius, bishop of Niconiedia. 



882 CREATOR AifD COSMOS. 

Emperor, who was of the seventh class of rulers by which Rome was 
governed ; it was the Exarchate of Ravenna that the Pope acquired 
from Pepin, and he was, therefore, in his civil capacity, the Exarch, 
one of that class of rulers; but in his ecclesiastical character he was 
different from him, and thus constituted an eighth class of rulers for 
Rome. 

During the era of the Crusades, A. D., 1100-1300, Rome was 
revered by the Western provincials as the Metropolis of the world, 
as the throne of the Pope and the Emperor, who from the Eternal 
City derived their title, their honors, and their right to exercise 
temporal dominion. The Pope was regarded as the Father or head 
of the Catholic Church ; under the influence of the successive Popes 
the conquest of Germany and Britain and all the other barbarous 
nations of Europe had been gained or compelled to the Catholic 
faith. The secular power of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Roman 
Empire proper, yielded to the Crusaders in their capture of Constan- 
tinople, and their reign there for fifty-seven years may be significant 
of the universal conquest which this power would attain in the 
Empire, as denoted by the representation in the prophecy of the 
power which we are considering, and which had its centre of influence 
at Rome. The heart and arm of this power, or the German Empire, 
never belonged to the Roman Empire proper, but attained what it 
did attain of it by conquest. The Emperors and the Popes were at 
the head of the nations of Catholic Christendom ; the secular force 
of this symbolic beast was essentially foreign to the old Roman 
Empire, formerly governed from Rome, then from Constantinople ; 
and the Popes, after acquiring such unbounded influence as they 
did, used the sword of the barbarians in propagating their doctrines, 
and in accomplishing the objects of their ambition. It is readily 
seen, therefore, from this whole discourse that this symbolic beast of 
Rev. XVII, though having seven heads and ten horns as the one 
represented in ch. XIII had, signifies a different combination of 
power from that, though partly contained in it; a power in which 
the German element was essentially the secular force ; for the 
Franks who overcame the Roman province of Gaul, and gave their 
support to this power were also of Germanic origin; but the great 
type of this power is in the Germanic nations, with the Emperor at 
their head, in combination with the bishop of Rome governing 
Roman Catholic Christendom civilly and religiously. This was 
essentially a new power which arose and flourished upon the ruins of 
part of the Roman Empire proper and far beyond its limits; the 
heast full of blasphemous names representing the secular power with 
its profession and support of its doctrines and its assumption and 



PROTESTANT-BEFORMED SYSTEMS OF CHURCH AND STATE. 383 

arrogance of divine honors. And the symbolic representation of the 
beast and the woman represents that new combination of civil and 
religious power which arose in Western Europe, and which may be 
said to have had its centre of influence at Rome. And the Pope, 
being always the bishop of Rome, and finally the representative of 
the Exarch, and thus of the Roman Emperor proper, this system, as 
to its centre at least, is properly included within that represented in 
chapter XIII, 1-1.1, which we have considered under the head of the 
Roman Empire, civil and religious. 

An Explanation of chapter xiii Revelation from verse 11 
to the end of the chapter, showing its fulfilment in 
THE Protestant reformed systems of church and state, 

ESPECIALLY THOSE OF GERMANY AND BRITAIN, WITH REFER- 
ENCES THROUGHOUT TO OTHER PARTS OF THE BOOK OF REVE- 
LATION, AND EXPLANATION. 

We shall now return to part second of chapter XIII of Revela- 
tion, from verse 11 to the end of the chapter. This eleventh verse 
begins a different representation from that which we are given in 
the preceding part of the chapter. There, beginning with verse 1, 
we have represented a symbolic wild beast, having seven heads and 
ten horns, &c., coming up out of the sea, which we have shown to 
represent the whole catholic Roman empire, religious and civil. 
But here, beginning with verse 11, we have represented a wild beast 
(Orjfn'ov) coming up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb and 
speaking as a dragon. There we were given a particular description 
of the appearance of the wild beast. Here we are given no further 
description of the appearance of this wild beast, — not being even 
told what he appeared like, — but that he had two horns like a lamb, 
and that he speaks as a dragon. Verse 11. " And I beheld another 
beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, 
and he spake as a dragon." This beast has the characteristic of 
being wild as the other two which we have passed in review. We 
are not given anything to know of his appearance as to size or other- 
Avise ; but we are told that his two horns were like those of a lamb 
(«^/v£'(i>), not that this sj'mbolic beast itself was like a lamb. As the 
lamb's horns are not wont to be used harmfully, and as a horn in 
prophecy may denote a religious as well as a secular power (see 
Dan. VII. ; Rev. V. 6) and as these two horns are attached to the 
same beast, we infer they denote two branches of the same Catholic 
Christian Church. And their being attached to a beast which in 
other respects did not resemble a lamb (for he is a wild beast and 



384 ' CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

speaks as a dragon) we infer them to have represented lamb's horns 
only in appearance, and, therefore, to denote secular powers also, as 
hj the spirit of the beast we know that he would use them harm- 
fully. In the case of the first beast which came up out of the sea 
we have shown it to represent the Christian Roman empire beginning 
with Constantine and arising out of an unsettled state of affairs both 
of the political and religious world. But in the case of this second 
beast we shall show it to rejjresent the reformed nations, or the 
nations in which the reformation from the Romish religion began to 
take place in the early part of the sixteentli century. The wild 
beast being seen to come up out of the earth indicates that these 
powers would arise, that is, that these nations would become inde- 
pendent of the old religion of the Roman empire at a time when 
affairs, both political and religious, but especially religious affairs, 
were in a quiet state. This was especially so with respect to relig- 
ious affairs in Europe at the time when the Reformation commenced. 
All the European nations were then in profound submission to the 
Papacy ; the Pope was then in effect prince of the kings of Europe. 
"While the Roman pontiff," says Mosheim, "slumbered insecurity 
at the head of the church, and saw nothing throughout the vast 
extent of his dominions but tranquillity and submission, an obscure 
and inconsiderable person arose on a sudden, in the year 1517, and 
laid the foundation of this long expected change by opposing, with 
undaunted resolution, his single force to the torrent of papal ambi- 
tion and despotism." This extraordinary person was Martin Luther, 
a monk of the order of St. Augustin, who, as appears from what 
follows, never considered himself as having separated from the 
Catholic Church : " he separated himself from the Church of Rome 
which considers the Pope as infallible, and not from the Church con- 
sidered in a more extensive sense, for he submitted to the decision 
of the Catholic Church, when that decision should be given in a 
general council lawfully assembled." * The protest, therefore, of 
Luther and his followers did not respect the church, but her head ; 
the Lutheran is strictly a branch of the Catholic Church and the 
principal question to be decided between Luther and the Pope must 
have been, who shall be head? or, in other words, which of us shall 
be the greatest? This will appear more clear from what we shall 
adduce hereafter. Luther or his co-reformers did not lay claim ta 
any extraordinary divine illumination or heavenly call ; for says Dr. 
Mosheim : " they were conducted only by the suggestion of their 
natural sagacity." And Dr. Maclaine, speaking of the first reformers. 



* Eccles. Hist., Century XVI. 



PKOTESTANT-REFORMED CHUKCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 385 

Luther, Calvin, and their contemporary reformers, says ; " They pre- 
tended not to be called to the work they undertook by visions or 
internal illuminations and impulses ; they never attempted to work 
miracles, nor pleaded a divine commission ; they taught no new 
religion, nor laid claim to any extraordinary vocation." For many 
centuries before the Reformation, the power of the Pope and the 
horrid crimes and corruptions of the Catholic Church had been in- 
creasing until it became replete with tyranny and all manner of 
wickedness, while every attempt previously made to reform those 
open and scandalous abuses proved almost ineffectual.* Out of 
such a state of things the Reformation commenced in the year 1517, 
b}^ the debates of Martin Luther with John Tetzel relative to the 
sale of indulgences and to the Pope's power with regard to the re- 
mission of sins. These debates and contentions were carried on first 
between Luther and the Pope's deputies, then between Luther and 
the Pope himself; and they resulted, first in the suspension, and 
finally in the expulsion of Luther from the Church of Rome by Pope 
Leo X. in the year 1521. But he still belonged and professed to 
belong to the orthodox Catholic Church established by Constantine, 
and from which the Papists, in common with the Protestants, have 
sprung. 

The breach having been made, it now remained to be decided 
which should have the pre-eminence, Luther or the Pope ; for each 
had his claim, the one under a pretence of reforming the coiTuptions 
of the Church, and reclaiming its members from the power and abuse 
of a preposterous hierarchy; and the other, under a pretence of hold- 
ing, by a lawful succession, the keys of St. Peter, as Christ's vicar on 
earth. But Luther being now expelled from " the good old mother 
Church," as Mosheim calls the Church of Rome, instead of being in- 
timidated by the bulls and edicts which she hurled against him, 
"they led him to form the project of founding a church upon princi- 
ples entirely opposite to those of Rome." And he established in this 
Church a system of doctrines and ecclesiastical discipline agreeable 
to his own " natural sagacity." The true Christians of primitive 
times manifested the Spirit of God ; love was the bond of their union. 
Whatever they suffered from cruel persecution, they sought for no 
civil power to defend their cause at the expense of tlie blood of their 
fellow-creatures. Luther's cause, however, evidently stood in need 
of the assistance of the secular power to prevent it from failing; and 
the project which he formed of founding a church on principles op- 
posite to those of Rome, secured the assistance of tlie secular princes, 



* Witness the doin?s of the Inquisition, &c., &c., wliicli have been narrated before 
Vol. II.— 25 



B86 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

especially the Elector John of Saxony, successor to the Elector 
Frederick, who had encouraged him originally in his proceedings for 
reform. " The Elector John," saysMosheim, " convinced of the truth 
of Luther's doctrine, and persuaded that it must lose ground and be 
soon suppressed if the despotic authority of the Roman Pontiff re- 
mained undisputed and entire, without hesitation or delay assumed 
to himself that supremacy in ecclesiastical matters which is the nat- 
ural right of every lawful sovereign." It is not disputed but that 
this sovereign had as good a right to become the supreme head of 
the Catholic Church as Constantine, or even the Pope ; but a suprem- 
acy over the Christian Church, or any part of it, the Gospel did not 
authorise him to assume. Like the kings of the Gentiles, he might 
exercise lordship, create churches and priesthoods, or reform part of 
the old Church and defend it b}^ the sword ; and, when he had done 
all, he could not prove that he had from the Gospel either precept 
or example for his conduct. Now, they had a supreme head of their 
own, a secular prince, to perform the functions of ghostly supremacy 
in the Church. And who, now, could tell the difference between 
setting up a religious test of supremacy at Constantinople, at Rome, 
or in Saxony ? If there was any difference it was in power only, 
and not in quality ; for all blended the spirit of violence and the 
despotism of the civil sword with their pretended Gospel of Jesus. 

Likewise the reformed supremacies, their coalition of civil and 
ecclesiastical powers, as the Christian emperors by their murderous 
edicts, very soon discovered the fruits of that spirit by which Luther, 
who projected the system, and they were actuated. " From that 
time," says Mosheim, " the religious differences between the German 
princes which had hitherto kept within the bounds of moderation, 
broke out into a violent and lasting flame." The Romanists, in 
order to maintain their ground against the reformers, had recourse 
to measures equally disavowed by the dictates of reason and the pre- 
cepts of the Gospel. These measures were the force of the secular 
arm and the authority of imperial edicts. The Protestants shewing 
that they were actuated by the same spirit, left no means unemploy- 
ed, however contrary to the precepts of the Gospel, that might co- 
operate to repel force by force. Luther supplied the place of imper- 
ial edicts by exhorting the princes not to abandon those truths 
which they had lately asserted with so much boldness. 

In an assembly of the Protestant princes at Smalcald, held after 
the Diet of Augsburgh, in 1530, a league was concluded which unit- 
ed the Protestant princes of Germany against all aggressors. Into 
this league, Francis I., of France, a professed Papist and bloodthirsty 
tyrant, and Henry VIII. , of England, the most cruel and licentious 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 387 

character of the age, were invited. The latter, however, never as- 
sisted the league further than by the advance of some money ; the 
former fought hand in hand with the reformers against the emperor, 
during a protracted and bloody war. By this it appears that the re- 
formers would have entered into a confederacy with any, however 
base or wicked, provided they thought that, by it, they had a pros- 
pect of gaining their ends against their former brethren. And what 
shows still more an anti-christian spirit and a thirst for pre-eminence, 
was Luther's refusing to comprehend in this league the followers of 
Zuingle, and those who had adopted the sentiments and confession 
of Bucer, although these were his coadjutors in the present necessary 
work of reforming the Church. 

Time and contentions rolled on, and more violent and iniquitous 
measures ensued. The emperor Charles V., confederate with the 
Pope, raised an army of 36,000 men in order to reduce the Protest- 
ants to obedience, but they, far superior in numbers, amounting to 
85,000, pushed forward their armies and cannonaded the camp of the 
enemy at Ingoldstadt; but their mutual jealousies and the spirit of 
contention which prevailed among themselves prevented their suc- 
cess. 

From the year 1517, in which the Reformation commenced, by 
Luther publishing his ninety-five propositions against the proceed- 
ings of the Pope and his delegates, until the year 1546, in which 
Luther died, nothing but the fruits of corrupt ambition is manifest 
on the whole face of the history of that period of more than 28 years. 
Endless controversies and debates about diets and councils, civil and 
military violence are the distinguishing marks of those " times of 
discord," as Mosheim calls that period. And the means by which 
the Reformation was finally established were as opposed to the pre- 
cepts of Gospel as war and bloodshed are to peace and good will to 
men. 

While the Papists and Protestants were concocting plans to sub- 
due each other by the sword, Maurice, Duke of Saxony, a professed 
Protestant, and a perfect master in the arts of dissimulation, perfid- 
iously makes a league with the emperor, and engages to take up 
arms against his father-in-law, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and to 
strip his near relation, John Frederick, elector of Saxony, of his titles 
and dominions. Accordingly Maurice, having assembled an army 
of sufficient magnitude, defeated the troops which the elector had 
left to guard his country, and took possession of his uncle's domin- 
ions. The news of these conquests soon reached the hostile camps, 
and filled the imperialists with joy and the Protestants with terror. 
It was but a little while before this event that the confederate Profc- 



388 CREATOR iiND COSMOS. 

estants " declared their own resolution to risk everything in main 
tenance of their religious rites." But a spirit of mutual ambition, 
of discord, and of anxiety for their temporal interests pi'evailed to 
put true religion out of the question. 

The elector returned with an army towards Saxony, and the 
greater part returned with their leaders into their own countries and 
there dispersed. All the princes in person and the cities, by their 
deputies, were compelled to implore the mercy of the emperor in the 
posture of humble suppliants. The cities, even those which had 
been most highh" distinguished for their zeal in the Keformation, now 
submitted to such terms as the emperor was pleased to offer them. 
For no sooner was the example set of deserting the common cause 
than the rest of the members became impatient to follow it, " and 
seemed afraid," says Robertson,* " lest others in getting the start of 
them in returning to their duty should, on that account, obtain more 
favorable terms. Thus a confederacy, lately so powerful as to shake 
the imperial throne, fell to pieces and was dissolved in the space of 
a few weeks." The emperor now passes on to Saxony, and the 
elector and landgrave, the two most powerful chiefs on the Protestant 
side, are made prisoners with the most humiliating and aggravating" 
terms of submission ; and the perfidious Maurice becomes elector of 
Saxony. Finally the emperor entered Augsburg, and with great 
pomp established the rites of the Romish religion ; and a creed was 
drawn up containing the essential doctrines of that faith. The 
greatest part of those who had the resolution to dispute the authori- 
ty of this imperial creed, were obliged to submit to it by force, and 
hence arose deplorable scenes of violence and bloodshed which invol- 
ved the empire in the direst calamities. Thus, the Protestant power 
was reduced to the greatest extremities, while the Papal power seem- 
ed to have recovered its usual strength. The landgrave of Hesse, 
through the counsel of his treacherous-son-in-law, Maurice, and under 
the promise of libert}^ had submitted to the emperor's demands ; but 
contrary to the most solemn treaty, he was perfidiousl}^ imprisoned, 
and kept for five years in close and severe confinement, although 
many ineffectual entreaties were in the meantime made for his re- 
lease by many European princes, and even by Maurice. 

Maurice perceiving at length that he was duped by the emperor, 
entered secretly into a league with the king of France and several 
German princes for the maintenance of their rights and liberties, and 
by secret intrigue marched an army against the emperor, and sur- 
prised him unawares at Inspruck, where he lay with but a small force, 



* Robertsou's History of Charles V. Book VIII. 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AXD STATE SYSTEMS. 389 

misapprehensive of danger. By this sudden and unforeseen event 
was the Emperor brought to conclude a treaty of peace with the 
Protestants, which was done at Passau in 1552. This treaty they 
call the bulwark of peace and liberty. It was well said by Dr. 
Robertson concerning Maurice and his perfidious treaty with the 
emperor, in 1546 before referred to, that " history hardly records any 
treaty that can be considered as a more manifest violation of the 
most powerful principles which ought to influence human actions." 
Yet that same artful dissembler, the treacherous Maurice, who had 
entered into a league with the Papists against the Protestants, who 
had inhumanl}^ and faithlessly despoiled his nearest relation of his 
dominions, and usurped his place, whom tlie Protestants branded as 
an apostate from their religion, a betrayer of tlieir liberty, a contem- 
ner of the most sacred ties of nature and association ; that same per- 
fidious monster of cruelty must of necessity, according to Luther's 
projects, be the supreme head of the Church. Maurice, however, did 
not live long to see the effects of his inglorious and treacherous con- 
duct, for he died in the following year of a wound received while 
fighting against Albert of Brandenburgh. Such were some of the 
means used b)' Luther and his followers in reforming the corrupt 
Church, and establishing what they called religious peace. 

In Switzerland and France the Reformation was also carried on 
by means diametrically opposite to the precepts of the Gospel. In 
France alone, the gospellers, as the reformers are called, are said to 
have destroyed no less than twenty thousand churches. Now, how 
little does such a reformation resemble the first establishment of the 
Christian Church ! 

The thirty years war, with which most of our readers are some- 
Avhat acquainted, waged in the first half of the seventeenth century, 
Avas in effect a war between Protestantism and Roman CatholicijSm. 
In this war also, there was a coalition of the Papists with the Protes- 
tants against the emperor and the Pope. It was the policy of Cardi- 
nal Richelieu, tlie governor of Louis XIII. of France, then in his 
minority, to humble the emperor, and prevent his aggressions in 
Europe ; and in order to effect this purpose, the Cardinal was not 
particular as to the religious principles of the allies with whom lie 
engaged. During the whole life of this minister the war went on, 
bringing out such generals as the great Conde and Turenne on the 
part of the French, and King Cliristian of Denmark, Gustavus Adol- 
phus. King of Sweden, and his general, Torsteusohn, Prince Bornhard 
of Saxe Weimar, and others, on the side of the Protestants. And 



390 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

when Riclielieu and his master died in 1643, it was found that Car- 
dinal Mazavin, who governed for the minor Louis XIV., was prepared 
for an alliance with the Protestant princes to carry out their plan of 
humbling the emperor. Under the conduct of Condd and Turenne, 
and the Swedish generals, the thirty years war continued to desolate 
the face of Germany, till in the year 1648, the Emperor Ferdinand, 
weary of continuous defeat, exhausted as to his resources, and un- 
able to cope with the powers against him, sued for peace; and the 
peace of Westphalia, which secured civil and religious liberty to the 
Protestant subjects of the Empire, was signed at Munster and 
brought this long succession of years of war to a close. In such a 
manner was the Protestant Reformation accomplished in Germany, 
by wars and contentions and bitter animosities and strifes, even 
among the reformers themselves, and between them and the old es- 
tablished powers. The true gospel was never preached with quar- 
reling and wrangling and animosity, nor protected in shedding blood 
with the sword, but with the operation of the holy spirit ; and the 
fruits of that spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, long suffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, etc., to the whole of Avhich the proceed- 
ings of the reformers stood in direct opposition from the beginning. 
Nay, more, the first reformers had sufficient reason for not pretending 
to be illuminated or influenced by that spirit of godliness, for, other- 
wise, their conduct would immediately have discovered to the eyes 
of every beholder, the falsit}^ of their pretensions. 

At the Reformation, the one great Church is divided, and soon 
after subdivided, and so it continued to divide and subdivide until 
innumerable churches have been formed and reformed, full of clash- 
ing principles, sectary against sectary, each claiming the greatest 
evidence of Catholic orthodoxy. And what is still more remarkable, 
all these churches still continuing to constitute the universal Chris- 
tian Church, call themselves the church militant, that is, the fighting 
Church. 

The contentions concerning the presence of Christ in the Eucha- 
rist were carried on by the reformers for many years, and finally ter- 
minated in a grand division between the reforming parties, one of 
which claimed Martin Luther as the founder of their church, the 
other John Calvin, a professor of theology at Geneva. Luther and 
his followers, it is said, rejected the doctrine of the Romish Church, 
with respect to the t)-ansubstantiation or change of the bread and 
wine into the real body and blood of Christ ; but were nevertheless, 
of the opinion that the partakers of the Lord's Supper received along 
with the bread and wine the real body and blood of Christ. " This," 
says Mosheim, " was in their judgment a mystery which they did 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED (JHURCH AND STATE SYSTliMS. 391 

not pretend to explain." But Dr. Maclaine, the translator of Mosli- 
eim's history, says : " Luther was not so modest as Dr. Mosheim here 
represents him. He pretended to explain his doctrine oftlie real 
presence, absurd and contradictory as it was, and uttered much 
senseless jargon on this subject. " As in red hot iron," said he, " two 
distinct substances, viz., iron, and fire, are united, so is the body of 
Christ joined with the bread in the Eucharist." ' This, Maclaine very 
properly calls, the " nonsensical doctrine of consubstantiation." 

Carlostadt, who was Luther's colleague and companion, and whose 
doctrine was afterwards confirmed by Zuingle, maintained, " That 
the body and blood of Christ were not really pi'esent in the Euchar- 
ist ; and that the bread and wine were no more than external signs 
or symbols." This opinion of Zuingle was received by the friends of 
the Reformation in Switzerland, and by a number of its followers in 
Germany. But Mosheim says that " Luther maintained his doctrine 
in relation to this point with the greatest obstinacy ; and hence 
arose in the year 1524, a tedious and vehement controversy which 
terminated at length in a fatal division." To such a degree had the 
contentions among the reformers proceeded concerning the Euchar- 
ist, that to terminate the controversy, Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, 
invited in the year 1529, Luther and Zuingle, together with some of 
the most eminent doctors who adhered to the respective parties of 
these contending chiefs, to a conference at Marburgh. There they 
dispxited during four days and their dissensions still remauied, " nor 
could either of the contending parties," says Mosheim, "be persuad- 
ed to abandon or even to modif}^ their opinions of the matter." Ex- 
emplary reformers, these, who needed earthly princes to exhort them 
to peace, and who would neither reform themselves nor suffer others 
to reform them ! ! "In the year 1544, Luther published his confession 
of Faith in relation to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which 
was directly opposite to the doctrine of Zuingle and his followers. 
The doctors of Zurich pleaded their cause publicly against the Saxon 
reformer." Calvin denied the doctrine of Christ's bodil}^ presence 
in the Eucharist, and at the same time expressed it in almost the 
same terms which the Lutherans employed in inculcating their doc- 
trines of Christ's real presence, and talked of really eating by faith 
the body, and drinking the blood of Christ. Wherein then is the 
difference between the doctrine of the Pope and that of Luther or of 
Calvin on this subject ? The Pope sa3rs that the bread and wine are 
changed into the very substance of the same body, flesh and blood of 
Christ that was born of a virgin and crucified of the Jews, so that it 
is no longer bread. Luther says that the body of Christ is in, with, 
and under the bread as fire is in red hot iron ; so that both the sub- 



392 CREATOK AXD COSMOS. 

stance of the bread, and of the body, flesh and blood of Christ are 
there present. Calvin says that the bod}- of Christ is not really or 
corporeally there, and yet that by faith the body of Christ is realh" 
eaten ! If, therefore, the first be " monstrous " the second " non 
sensical" what is the third ? And how by faith or any other way 
could men really eat what was not really there? Thus, it appears that 
Calvin put the capstone upon this fabric of superstition when he per- 
sisted in denying Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, and yet 
would have it that his body was really eaten, although it was really 
absent fi'om the eater. The truth is they were blind guides who had 
not yet come to the knowledge of what the body of Christ is ; and 
how could they describe it to others ? Yet these reformers, who 
neither understood themselves nor comprehended that whereof they 
affirmed, must needs kindle the flame of discord, foment divisions, 
seditions, and tumults among the multitude and breathe the most 
violent spirit of persecution against all who would not receive their 
contradictory doctrines which they did not themselves understand. 
Calvin, however, efi'ected his purpose so far as that an act of uni- 
formity took place by which the churches of Geneva and Zurich 
declared their agreement concerning the doctrine of the Eucharist. 

By the industry of Calvin the schools and churches of England 
also became the oracles of Calvinism ; the Church of Switzerland 
was acknowledged as a sister church, and the sj'stem there estab- 
lished was rendered the public rule of faith in England, without any 
change being made in the old Episcopal government. The doctrines 
established in the reformed Church of Scotland also were imported 
from Switzerland, by the celebrated Knox, and were strictly Calvin- 
istic. Thus John Calvin became the founder of the Calvinistic 
reformed churches as distinguished from those founded by Mai'tin 
Luther. 

In the year 1552, Westphal, pastor of Hamburgh, renewed with 
greater violence than ever, this deplorable controversy ; he was a 
stubborn defender of the opinions of Luther. He published a book 
against the forementioned act of uniformity, which, says Maclaine, 
"breathes the most virulent spirit of persecution." " This,-" says 
Mosheim, " engaged Calvin to enter the lists with Westphal whom 
he treated with as little lenity and forbearance as the rigid Lutheran 
had showed to the Helvetic churches. Calvin and Westphal had 
each their zealous defenders ; hence the breach widened, their spirits 
were heated, and the flame of controversy was kindled anew with 
violence and fury."' These disputes were augmented and tumults 
were excited by the fierce conflicts which were waged concerning 
the decrees of God, set in motion by Calvin. And how is it possible 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 393 

that such ambitious priests as were perpetually blowiug the flame of 
discord and stirriugup strifes and contentious with eacli other, could 
make any reformation for the better? From their own confession, 
princes, earthly politicians and civil rulers were perpetually under 
the necessity of putting a stop to their enormities. Augustus, elect- 
or of Saxony, and the Duke of Saxe Weimar summoned the most 
eminent doctors of both the contending parties to meet at Alten- 
burgh, in the year 1568, that it might be seen how far a reconcilia- 
tion was possible. But such were the furious and unchristian spirits 
of these reforming parties as blasted the fruits which otherwise 
might have been expected from this conference. The princes now 
undertook another method, and ordered a Form of Doctrine to be 
comjjosed, in order to terminate the controversies which divided the 
Lutheran Church itself, and so protect that Church against doctrinal 
innovations from the Calvinists. This Form was begun in 1569, and 
was completed by six doctors in about seven or eight years after. 
This form of doctrine, which was intended to promote peace, when 
finished was called the Form of Concord, yet the title was found to 
be incorrect, for it proved to be a Form of Discord, and source of 
new contentions and tumults among those avIio instituted it. This 
form of concord, which condemned the sentiment of the Calvinists, 
was received by the greatest part of the Lutherans as the great rule 
of their religion, " and hence," says Mosheim, " arises an insuperable 
obstacle to all schemes of reconciliation and concord." 

It would be endless and, indeed, unnecessary, to enumerate all 
the cruelties which the sons of the reformation practised against 
each other in this age. Severe laws and punishments, violent 
tumults and seditions, imprisonments, banishments and death, were 
the first fruits of that spirit by which the contending parties of the 
reformation were actuated. Such were the proceedings in Germany 
and Switzerland, where the reformation first began, and also in 
France and in England, as will appear more fully hereafter. But 
by the Form of Concord was accomplished that division upon which 
the reformed Churches of Luther and Calvin were established in 
opposition to each other after many years of furious contention, and 
unchristian works of violence; and this division still exists just as 
strictly between the two churches, each still claiming its relation to 
its first founder. The Form of Concord, so called, consists of two 
parts. " In the first," says Mosheim, "is contained a system of doc- 
trine drawn up according to the fancy of the six doctors," who had 
received their orders from a!id were under tlie protection of the 
princes; for these secular princes were clothed witli tlie dignity of 
ecclesiastical supremacv according to the established principles of 



394 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

the reformers. In the second (part) is exhibited one of the strongest 
instances of that tyrannical and persecuting spirit which the Protes- 
tants complained of in the Church of Rome, even a formal condemna- 
tion of all who differ from those six doctors. " This condemnation 
branded with the denomination of heretics, and excluded from tlie 
communion of the Church, all Christians of all nations who would 
refuse to subscribe to these doctrines. More particularly in Germany 
the terrors of the sword were solicited against these pretended here- 
tics, as may be seen in the famous testament of Brentius." 

The reformation in England began with Henry VIII, who was a 
contemporary of Luther. He came to the throne in the year 1509, 
and died in 1547, the year after that in which Luther died. ' The 
long reign of this monarch, nearly thirty-eight years, may be called 
a continual butchery of human beings. In his reign, according to 
his historian, there were no less than 72,000 persons suffered death 
in his kingdom for theft and robbery alone : and the number of exe- 
cutions that took place on account of religion was reckoned at six 
for every day of this long reign.* He may be said to have com- 
prised in his person and reign the atrocious cruelties of all the Chris- 
tian Roman Emperors ; and if the question were asked, Who was 
the most monstrously cruel human being that we have any account 
of in histor}^ it might safely be answered : Henry VIII. of England. 
Henry did not attach himself to the doctrines of the German re- 
formers, but having broken off with the Pope for certain reasons 
which we shall mention hereafter, and perhaps through secret motives 
which were only known to himself, he formed an independent Church 
of England, of which he had the clergy and parliament make him 
the supreme head. Throughout the course of his reign he showed 
almost as great respect to Roman Catholicism as to the Protestantisin 
of Germany or the heresies of England. He looked upon all as 
heretics who did not conform to his peculiar views, and promptly 
punished them as such. One Dr. Barnes, a professed Lutheran,* 
and two other Protestants, named Gerard and Jerome, were carried 
to the place of execution on three hurdles ; and, along with them, 
there was placed on each hurdle a Catholic, who was also executed 
for his religion. The names of these Catholics were Abel, Feather- 
stone and Powel ; and they declared that the most grievous part of 
their punishment was the being coupled to such heretical miscreants 
as suffered with them. We mention this fact especially to show 
the absurdity and unreality of such religion as is professed by some 
people. A man' s religion seems thus to consist of the system of 



* Hume's History of England, Henry VIII. 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 395 

ideas which he has conjured up in his mind concerning the Deity ; 
for which vain ideas he will sometimes give himself up to suffer an 
ignominious death. But true religion consists not particularly in 
any system of ideas a man may have concerning the Deity, or death, 
or resurrection, or judgment, etc.; but in the being good and doing 
good one's self; in the worship of the infinite and invisible Deity, 
which is neither an object of the sense nor of the imagination, with 
the speech and with the understanding, in spirit and in truth, and in 
all proper self-denial and active duty for one's own and other's bene- 
fit. Each individual should remember, for his own liberty and con- 
solation, that if one voluntarily sacrifices his life for any other re- 
ligion than this we have here indicated, which need not consist in 
any particular system of ideas, he merely commits suicide. 

Never was a more absolute despot than Henry VIII. The clergy, 
the parliament, the people were all his most obedient slaves : and 
the wish of Caligula, that the Roman people had only one neck, ap- 
pears to have been fully complied with in the case of the subjects of 
Henry in relation to their monarch, for with lamb-like gentleness 
the English people presented their necks to the axe and their bodies 
to the flames of that tyrant. " The flattery of courtiers," says Hume, 
"had so influenced his tyrannical arrogance that he thought himself 
entitled to regulate, by his own particular standard, the religious 
faith of the whole nation." 

The "real presence " was a favorite doctrine of Henr3-"s, and 
many suffered ignOminiously for the denjdng of it. There was one 
Lambert, a schoolmaster, who denied this doctrine, and being cited 
before the prelates, Cranmer and Latimer, and having no other way 
of escape from that tribunal, he appealed to the king. Henry, not 
displeased with an opportunity when he could at once display his 
theological learning, upon which lie prided himself much, and exert 
his supremac}', accepted the appeal and determined to mix in a verj'' 
unfair manner the magistrate with the disputant. Public notice 
was given that the king intended to enter the lists with the school- 
master : scaffolds were erected in Westminster Hall for the accom- 
modation of the audience, the king appeared on his throne accom- 
panied with all the ensigns of royalty : the prelates were placed on 
his right hand, ih.' temporal peers on his left ; tlie judges and the 
most eminent lawyers had a place assigned them behind the bishops ; 
the courtiers of greatest distinction behind the peers, and in the 
midst of this brilliant assemblage was produced the unhapp}' Lam- 
bert, who was required to defend his opinions against his royal 
antagonist. The bishop of Chichester opcnied the conference l)y 
stating that Lambert being charged with lieretical pravity had 



396 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

appealed from liis bishop to the king, as if he expected more favor 
from this application, and as if the king could ever be induced to 
protect a heretic. That though his majesty had thrown off the 
usurpation of tlie see of Rome, had disincorporated some idle monks 
who lived like drones in a bee-hive, had abolished the idolatrous 
worship of images, had published the Bible in English for the in- 
struction of all his subjects, and had made some less alterations 
which every one must approve of,* yet was he determined to main- 
tain the purity of the Catholic faith, and to punish with the utmost 
severity all departures from it; and that he had taken the present 
opportunity before so learned and grave an audience of convincing 
Lambert of his errors : but if he still continued obstinate in them, 
he must expect the most condign punishment." 

After this not very encouraging preamble, the king asked Lambert 
what his opinion was of Christ's corporeal presence in the sacrament 
of the altar ; and when Lambert began his reply with some compli- 
ment to his majesty, he rejected the praise with indignation and dis- 
dain. He afterwards pressed Lambert with arguments drawn from 
Scripture and the schoolmen. The audience applauded the force of 
his reasoning and the extent of his erudition ; Cranmer seconded his 
proofs by some new topics ; Gardiner entered the lists as a support 
to Cranmer ; Tunstal took up the argument after Gardiner ; Stokely 
brought fresh aid to Tunstal ; and six lord bishops more appeared 
successively in the field after Stokely ; and the disputation, if it de- 
serves the name, was prolonged for five hours, till Lambert, fatigued, 
confounded, browbeaten, and abashed, was at last reduced to silence. 
His majesty then returning to the charge, asked him whether he were 
convinced ? And he proposed as a concluding argument this inter- 
esting question, whether he were resolved to live or to die ? Lambert 
who possessed that courage which consists in obstinacy, and, doubt- 
less, fully persuaded of the truth of the principles Avhicli he supported, 
replied that he cast himself wholly on his majesty's clemency. The 
king told him that he would be no protector of heretics ; and there- 
fore if that were his final answer, he must expect to be committed to 
the flames. Cromwell, the king's minister, pronounced sentence 
against him. 

Lambert did not appear any way daunted by the terrors of the 
punishment to which he was condemned. His executioners took 
care to make the sufferings of a man who had opposed the king as 
intense as possible. He was burned over a slow fire ; his legs and 
thighs were consumed to the stumps ; and when there appeared no 



* Henry had gradually and previous to this trial, effected all that is here said. 



PROTESTANT-EEFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 397 

end to his torments some of the guards more merciful than the rest 
raised him on their halberts and threw him into the flames, where he 
was consumed. While they were employed in this friendly office, 
he cried aloud several times : " None but Christ, none but Christ." 

Eleven monks, some of them priors, were executed at Tyburn 
for denying the king's supremacy. Fourteen Dutch anabaptists, who 
had come to reside in England, were also burned at the stake. 'Jlie 
execution of the bishop of Rochester and Sir Tliomas Moore, Ijoth 
men of ver}^ high character, for denying the king's supremacy, ver}- 
soon followed. Both of these died with great magnanimity, and the 
latter uttered several modest j)leasantries on the scaffold ; when lay- 
ing his head on the block he put his beard aside with his hands, re- 
marking that it liad not committed treason. These arbitrary murders 
raised a general outcry, and the tj'rant's name was execrated through- 
out the Catholic world. 

Henry next resolved on the suppression of the monasteries and the 
sequestration of their revenues, a measure arbitrary and despotic 
indeed, but nevertheless productive of good effects, in that it released 
many persons whom the avarice or superstition of their parents or 
their own inclination to an inactive life had immured in these seclu- 
ded and unnatural abodes. These convents were nurseries of idle- 
ness, and must have been, however they were maintained, a burden 
on the country. By their suppression the king acquired a large 
amount of money. 

Cardinal Pole, a second cousin of the king, found it expedient to 
absent himself from England during the rigorous persecutions which 
Henry was carrying on. He was one of the most active of the Papal 
agents, and had endeavored in vain to excite the neighboring Catholic 
nations to avenge, by a warlike movement, the injuries suffered by 
the Church. Unable to get this formidable foe into his hands, the 
king seized his brother. Lord Montague, and several other persons of 
distinction, who were executed on a charge of abetting his designs. 
An inconsiderable rebellion broke out in Yorkshire, but it was soon 
suppressed, and Nevil, with the otlier ringleaders, was executed. The 
rebels were supposed to have been instigated by the intrigues of 
Cardinal Pole ; and Plenry was instantl}- determined to make the 
countess of Salisbury, Pole's aged mother, suffer for her son's offences. 
He ordered her to be carried to execution, and that venerable matron 
displayed great dignity or obstinacy on the scaffold. She refused 
to lay her head on the block or submit to a sentence wliere she had 
received no trial. She told the executioner that if lie would have her 
head he nuist win it the best way he could ; and thus shaking her 
venerable gray locks slie ran about the scaffold, and the executioner 



898 CKEATOB AND COSMOS. 

followed her with his axe, aiming many ineffectual blows at her neck 
before he was able to give the fatal stroke. 

These are merely a few examples of the murders committed by 
Henry VIII. which ma}' serve as a specimen of his long reign. An 
act of parliament was passed giving to the king's Proclamation all 
the authority of a Statute of Parliament, thus making him an abso- 
lute despot. And this omnipotence or absolute despotism was re- 
tained and exercised by the English monarchs henceforward for 
over one hundred and thirty years, down to the latter part of the 
reign of Clmiies I., and after the restoration till the accession of Wil- 
liam III., at which time parliamentar}- liberty began to be a little 
more freely exercised. 

To the question then what did these two horns signify which ap- 
peared on the second beast ? we reply it is hardly possible for an}^ 
one who soberly interprets the jDrophecy in its proper connection 
and impartiall}' applies the events of historj' to the illustration of it 
to mistake its proper application. As the beast represented the na- 
tions of the reformation, or rather the up-growth from the reformatory 
movement in those nations, — which began in the early part of the 
sixteenth century, — so the two horns would not only symbolize the 
two great branches into which the reformation was divided of Lu- 
theranism and Calvinism, but also the nations in which these reli- 
gions are established, or, in short, the two horns represent Protestant 
Germany and Protestant Britain. As this beast comprised in itself 
symbolically the civil and religious branches of power, so likewise each 
of the horns comprised in itself the civil and religious branches of 
power, for as the root is, so are the branches. And we have already 
had some illustration of the outworking of the dragonic spirit of this 
wild beast. No description of the character of this wild beast consider, 
ed religiously could be better than this we have from the Psalmist. 
" The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war Avas 
ill his heart ; his words Avere softer than oil, yet were they draAvn 
swords : " (Ps. LV. v. 21.) 

In Germany and the other Protestant countries of Europe the 
civil government, sword in hand, supported the cause of the reform- 
ers, protected Luther and Calvin and their co-reformers, and from 
their time till now, for a period of thi-ee and a half centuries, have 
made the cause of Protestantism their own. And so Sweden and 
Norway, Denmark, Holland and the German States have each and 
all a form of government combining in one head the sacred and 
secular power, as well as England. Thus we see the conditions of 
the twelfth verse of our prophecy are satisfied: " And he exerciseth 
all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and 



PKOTESTANT-REFOKMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 399 

them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly 
wound was healed." He exerciseth all the power of the first beast ; 
that is, he exercises the same kind of power in reality, not necessarily 
the same in quantity. The sacred and secular branches of power 
comprehend all the power of a State. These branches of power 
were wielded by the Roman emperors ; and we find them also to be 
united in each of the princes of the reformation. As the emperors of 
the Romans, each of these princes, the kings of England and the rulers 
of the states of Germany as well as of the other Eui-opean countries 
in which the reformation took place, united in himself the supreme 
spiritual and temporal power. But remark, that while lie exercises 
all the power of the first beast, which points to the supreme head of 
the Roman empire whose seat was at Constantinople, he causes the 
earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose 
deadly wound was healed, which points more particularly to the 
paj)acy or to the ruling spiritual and temporal power of the western 
empire restored, especially as it regarded the seventh-eighth beast. 
He exercises this power "before him." The word b^6-u>-^ here render- 
ed " before " refers to place, not to time, meaning literally before tlie 
face or in the view of; and thus it means this second power exer- 
cises all the kind of authority which the first power did, carries on 
the united government of Church and state under his own super- 
vision, and in the face or knowledge of the one that he had supplant- 
ed.' The power which the reformers supplanted was that of the 
Roman Catholic Church with the Pope at its head. At the time of 
the outbreak of the reformation this power was universally exercised 
in Europe. All the princes and potentates were the sons and obedi- 
ent servants of the Pope, who pretended to dispose of their kingdoms, 
and estates, and liberties at his pleasure. The power of the Church 
and of the Pope was indeed everywhere present in Europe. Kings 
and emperors were his instruments to compel obedience to his de- 
crees and bulls ; so that the powers of the reformation may be said 
to exercise their authority before him. But as to the worship of the 
first beast whose deadly wound was healed. It is well known that 
in tlie first stage of the reformation Henry VHI. and Luther, the two 
afreat originators of the reformation, as well as some of the reformers, 
showed the profoundest respect and veneration for the Pope and the 
mother Church. The quarrel between Luther and the Pope arose 
■ directly from Luther's opposition to Tetzel in the sale of indulgen- 
ces ; that between Henry VIH. and the Pope arose directly from the 
Pope's refusal to grant him a divorce from his wife Catharine ; indi- 
I'ectly, we believe, from the impetus which the reformation, just 
begun on the continent by Luther, gave to him, and his own ambi- 



400 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

tioii to be at the head of ecclesiastical as well as civil affairs in Eng- 
land. Dr. Robertson saj-s : "• It was from causes seemingly fortuitous, 
and from a source very inconsiderable, that all the mighty effects 
of the reformation flowed. The princes and nobles were irritated at 
seeing their vassals drained of so much wealth in order to replenish 
the treasury of a profuse pontiff. Even the most unthinking were 
shocked at the scandalous behavior of Tetzel and his associates, Avho 
often squandered in drunkenness, gaming, and low debauchery tliose 
sums which were piously bestowed."* 

Luther published ninety -five theses or propositions against indul- 
gences, to the whole of which he subjoined solemn protestations of 
his high respect for the Apostolic see, and of his implicit submission 
to its authorities. "• Leo," sajs Robertson, " regarded with the utmost 
indifference the operation of an obscure friar who, in the heart of 
Germany, carried on a scholastic disputation in a barbarous style. 
Little did he apprehend, or Luther himself dream, that the effect of 
this quarrel would be so fatal to the Papal See. Leo imputed the 
whole to monastic enmity and emulation, and seemed inclined not to 
interpose in the contest; but to allow the Augustinians and Domini- 
cans to wrangle about the matter with their usual animosity." Tetzel 
was a monk of the order of St. Dominic ; Luther a monk of the 
order of St. Augustin. 

These contentions increasing, became at length a matter of sei'ious 
concern to the Pope, who in July, 1518, summoned Luther to appear 
at Rome within sixty days, and at the same time wrote to the elector 
of Saxony not to protect him. The professors iu the University of 
Wittenbergh, after employing several pretexts to excuse Luther 
from appearing at Rome, entreated the Pope that his doctrines might 
be examined by persons of learning and authority in German3^ The 
elector requested the same thing of Cardinal Cajetan, the Pope's 
legate at the Diet of Augsburgh. And after all this quarrelling and 
wrangling about indulgences, Luther himself, who at that time was 
so far from having any intention of disclaiming the Papal authority 
that he did not entertain a suspicion concerning its divine original, had 
written to Pope Leo a most submissive letter, promising an unreserved 
compliance with his will. A new legate was soon after this appointed 
by the court of Rome. Tliis was Miltitz, who held three conferences 
with Luther, two in the year 1519, and one in 1520. In these con- 
ferences Luther gave evidence of the gross darkness and superstition 
under which he lay, and that his conduct was influenced by a spirit 
of animosity against the Dominicans, although as a reformer he was 



* Robertson's Charles V., Book II. 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 401 

now under the protection of the Elector of 8axon3^ For he not only 
offered to observe a profound silence for the future concerning in- 
dulgences, provided the same conditions Avere imposed upon his 
adversaries, but he went still farther. He proposed writing a sul)- 
missive letter to the Pope, which he accordingly did, acknowledging 
that he had carried his zeal and animosity too far. " He even con- 
sented to publish a circular letter, exhorting all his disciples and 
followers to reverence and obey the dictates of the hol\- Cliui-ch of 
Rome. He declared that his only intention in the writings he had 
composed was to brand with infamy those emissaries who abused ils 
authority and employed its protection as a mask to cover their 
abominable and impious frauds." " Had the court of Rome been 
prudent enough to have accepted the submission made by Luther, 
they would have almost nipped in the bud the cause of the Reforma- 
tion, or would at least have considerably retarded its growth and 
progress. But the flaming and excessive zeal or animosity of some 
inconsiderable bigots renewed the divisions, which were so near 
being healed, and by animating both Luther and his followers, 
promoted the principles and augmented the spirit which produced 
at length the blessed Reformation." * Thus the first proceedings of 
reforming the Church went on from one degree of contention and 
animosity to another, until the Reformation was completed by the 
grand division between the Papists and the Protestants. 

The Dominicans, desirous of avenging the affront which their 
order had received by Luther's treatment of Tetzel, used all their 
influence at Rome to have Luther excommunicated. The request 
was finally granted, and the Pontiff Leo issued a bull against Luther, 
dated the fifteenth June, 1520, in which all persons are forbidden to 
read his writings, and he is again summoned to confess and retract 
his errors within the space of sixt}' days ; and if he should not, he is 
pronounced an obstinate heretic ; is excommunicated, and delivered 
to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. In some cities the people 
violently obstructed the jitromulgation of this bull ; the persons who 
attempted to publish it were insulted, and the bull itself was torn in 
pieces and trodden under foot. Luther, who had a liLtle while before 
declared that his only intention in the writings he had composed 
was to brand with infamy those emissaries who abused llie aulluuity 
of the Church of Rome, now boldly declared the Poi)e to be the Man 
of Sin, or Antichrist, whose appearance was foretold in the New 
Testament. He declaimed against Papal tyranny and usuri)atious 
with greatei- violence than ever, and exhorted the princes to shake 



* Ecdes. Hist.. Cimtiiiv XVI. 
Vol. II.— 26 



402 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

•off their ignominious yoke. Leo, having in the execution of the bull 
appointed Luther's books to be burned at Rome, the latter, by way 
of retaliation, assembled all the professors and students of the Uni- 
versity of Wittenbergh on the 10th day of December, 1520, without 
the walls of the city, and with great pomp and ceremony, in the 
presence of a vast multitude of spectators, cast the volume of the 
canon law, together with the bull of excommunication, into the 
flames, and his example was imitated in several cities of Germany. 
On the sixth of January, 1521, a second bull was issued against 
Luther, by which he was expelled from the communion of the 
Church. Thus, from the time that Luther began his reformation in 
1517, he always professed the greatest respect and veneration for the 
Romish Church and the Pope until, in the latter part of the year 
1520, he burned the Pope's bull and in less than a month after he 
was expelled from the Church in the year 1521. And when his final 
expulsion did take place he was not more than half way out of the 
church, for as Mosheim says, "he separated from the Church of 
Rome which considers the Pope as infallible, and not from the 
Church considered in a more extensive sense ; for he submitted to 
the decision of the Catholic Church." 

This great mistake of Luther, which doubtless is due mainly to 
his ignorance and that of his times, that he continued not only him- 
self to worship the first beast, here the Romish system with the Pope 
at his head, but taught his disciples and followers to do likewise, has 
been perpetuated if not aggravated, by retaining so many of the man- 
made doctrines of the Church of Rome in the Lutheran system of 
religion, which is worshipped in that system in the constitution of the 
second beastly power, wherever it exists, even to the present time. 
• But as we have before intimated, Henry VIII. of England was the 
completest embodiment of this second symbolic beast in his incipient 
state as Constantine was of the first; the other principal reformers 
were coadjutors for a like end, freedom from the Romish power. And 
now let us see what course this reformer pursued with respect to the 
Pope and the mother Church, in the beginning of his reforming career. 
In England, where Wickliffe's opinions were secretly cherished by 
many, his books were widely circulated. The Church, with great 
severity and persecution, had endeavoured to check the new doc- 
trines; and Henry himself in the j^ear 1521, (the year in Avhich Luther 
was excommunicated by the Pope,) with some assistance, produced a 
*' Defence of the Seven Sacraments." The Pope in gratitude, be- 
stowed upon him the title of " Defender of the Faith," a title which 
the British sovereigns arrogate to themselves to this day, although 
acting independently of the Church which conferred it and at vari- 



PKOTESTANT-REFOEMED CHUKCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 403 

ance with some of the doctrines for the defence of wliich it was given. 
This performance, coming- into the hands of Luther, and he finding 
himself greatly vituperated therein, answered by another, applying 
terras equally coarse to Henry, whom he styled among other choice 
epithets a " Hog of Hell." 

The partisans of Henry responded with others in which the lowest 
depths of scurrility were reached. Henry, as Luther, never separated 
from the Roman Catholic Church, but only from that Church as it 
considered the Pope as its supreme head. He adhered to that Church 
all his life in its most absurd doctrines and practices, and punished 
not only those who disputed the doctrines of the Catholic Church, 
whether they belonged to the class of the German reformers or to 
any other class of dissenters from it. In twelve years after he had 
come to the throne, Henry stood up as the " Defender " of the doc- 
trines of his mother Church ; for the fundamental doctrines of the 
Romish Church are comprised in its seven Sacraments, which are 
called the seven pillars upon which the Church is built. He not only 
stood up conspicuously in the defence of those doctrines himself, but 
by his power, his influence, and his example he caused his land, that 
is, " them that dwell therein, to worship the beast whose deadly 
wound was healed," an expression Avhich points directly to the Rom- 
ish Church, as represented in the papacy. We may rei^eat for em- 
phasis that this expression : " Whose deadly wound was healed " 
applied to the first beast of Rev. ch. XIIL, is here added in the de- 
scription of the second beast to mark significantly the object to which 
the peoples' attention and worship should be directed , not the 
supreme head of the Roman Empire, whose seat was at Constantino- 
ple, and whose Empire had ceased to exist before the Reformation 
took place ; but the ghostly head of the Western Roman Empire re- 
stored, whose seat was the city of Rome, and who, as we have seen 
in our review of the first beast, came to attract a vast amount of the 
attention and wonder which would otherwise be directed to the im- 
perial head of the empire. This ghostly head came to arrogate to 
himself not only supreme headship over the Catholic Church, but 
also in secular affairs over the rulers of the Kingdoms of Europe, of 
whose persons and estates he pretended to dispose as he pleased. 
Yea, and in many cases and for long periods, owing to the ignorance 
of the times and the depth of superstition into which men were sunk, 
he did actually dispose of them with the same feasibility as if his pre- 
tensions were founded on right. 

But as to the course pursued by the first reformers, we see that 
at the outset they were most zealously affected towards the oldestab- 
ishment, and did all they could to make their followers and subjects 



404 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

zealously affected in the same manner ; so that the}" might be said to 
cause the earth and them that dwell therein, that is, those who dwelt 
within the dominions in which the Reformation took place, as, for 
example, Saxony or England, to worship the beast whose deadly 
wound was healed. Verses 13 and 14 of the prophecy are : " And 
he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from 
heaven on the earth in the sight of men , and deceiveth them that 
dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to 
do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth 
that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound 
by a sword and did live." The word here translated " Avonders "' 
is literally " signs," as Ave have often had it translated " miracles"' in 
the Gospels, and it may be here included in what in the epistle to the 
Thessalonians is called "signs and lying wonders," as those means by 
which Antichrist would seek to establish his prestige over the mind 
of the people. 

This refers especially to the ecclesiastical or spiritual power of 
the second beast, and it means that the power which this sj'mbolic 
beast represents would possess the faculty of producing such effects 
in the minds of the people by his superior knowledge of men and 
things, or by his art, or by this and that combined, that the peojjle 
would believe that he really did bring down fire from heaven in 
their sight, or that it was he that produced any other spiritual sign 
or wonder which they might experience. This power or faculty, 
call it what we may, this second beast exercises as the first, for the 
prophet represents him as thus doing. And moreover that wonder 
or rather phenomenon of the descent of fire from the air, and man} 
other spiritual wonders of different kinds we have ourself experienced, 
when perhaps, for the want of knowing better, we attributed them 
to the magic power of some priests who were arrayed under the 
banner of Protestantism. In modern times, at least, men know that 
they have the power of influencing each other's minds mutually ; 
nor is this power, or the knowledge of it, confined exclusively to 
the priesthood ; but from their manner of life and their relation to 
mankind outside of their profession, it is believed that they exercise 
this power of influencing the minds of men more than men generall}'' 
do each other, and in their several spheres, and to suit their own 
purposes, may try to produce all the spiritual wonders they can, and 
as great as they can. Thus, the Catholic Church and the Protestant 
priesthood, in common with it, and included in it, have always 
claimed to exercise the power of producing mental phenomena such 
as dreams and visions and the like in the minds of those whom they 
design to influence. 



PROTESTANT-KEFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 400 

But in general, those dreams or visions, whether they occur to 
one sleeping or awake should be little nociced or attended to, as at 
the best, dreams and visions are only representations of real things. 
The human being himself is above all dreams and visions, and should 
always consider himself so, and should judge those imaginary phen- 
omena as in general of no account : for if one follows dreams or 
visions, one loses one's free agency, becomes the slave of mere ideas, 
perhaps gets into much trouble, and does not know what such a 
course may bring him to. The right of free agency belongs to man ; 
he is a responsible being, as all law assumes ; and if he allows ideas 
in the way of dreams, or visions, or of systems of superstition, or of 
any other system, to govern him he voluntarily gives up his birth- 
right, and yields himself as the basest of slaves. We repeat that men 
should regard all ideas and all systems of ideas as their servants, and 
not set them up as their masters, an-d allow them to tyrannize over them 
or to dupe them. 

What were all those who worshipped the saints, martyrs, relics, 
and images, the Virgin Mary, and even the Trinity, as that has been 
represented in some of the Catholic Creeds, but the mere slaves and 
sports of superstitious ideas, the dupes of a lordly hierarchy of Church 
and State, whose purpose it answered to have things so : by such 
craft they had their gain, and sat above their fellows in high places, 
though doubtless in all ages there were many of these ghostly liier- 
archs that were ignorant dupes themselves ; and there are a few of 
such to-day. The Reformation gave a superior knowledge to those 
Avho embraced it over their brethren of the Roman Catholic faith ; 
and the ascendant which the Protestant nations have attained over 
the neighboring nations of the Romish persuasion and of the Greek 
faith is in the main due to their superior knowledge of men and 
things. The Pope himself, that ghostly magnate, high in liis chair 
of St. Peter, may oftiMi have had reason to suspect since the Reform- 
ation took place that there were other ghostly hierarchs besides his 
in Christendom, wlio by their power and operations could produce 
signs and wonders in the sight of the beast. And what effects such 
imaginary signs and wonders may sometimes produce in the mind of 
a superstitious man, say, for example, a general or an admiral! 
*' Saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an 
image to the beast which had the wound by a sword, and did live." 
This indicates a second stage of the progress of this power symbolised 
by the second beast. It indicates the course wliich was pursued 
ty the German reformers and the King of England when, in 1527, 
the Elector John of Saxony ordered a body of laws relating to 
the form of ecclesiastical government, the metliod of public worsliip, 



406 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the rank, offices, and revenues of the priesthood, to be drawn up hj 
Luther and Meiancthon, and promulgated by heralds throughout his 
dominions, (the example of the Elector of t^axony was followed b}^ 
all the principle States of German}' which embraced the doctrines of 
Luther;) and when the independent Church of England began to 
be formed, on Henry VIIL assuming the spiritual supremacy in 1531. 
Then began the English system to be established, which, as to doc- 
trine and form, so much resembled the Romish system as to have 
been represented symbolically as an h-.y.oy. or image of it. And so 
were all the reformed systems images of it. some of them, however, 
more perfectly representing the original than others. The supreme 
ruler of each of these reformed States comprising in his person the 
two branches of power, civil and ecclesiastical, over his own dominions, 
was an image or living representation of the Christian Roman emperor 
whose seat was at Constantinople. But as to the doctrines which 
these churches professed, of which these princes were the supreme 
heads, they were derived from the Romish Church, the mother from 
which the reformed Churches sprung ; and hence the image is said to 
be of the beast which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 

"We have stated before that the combination of power that arose 
in the western part of the Roman Empire, consisting of the Pope 
and the Western rulers, corresjionded to the little horn of Dan. 
VII., before which three horns fell, and to the beast's wounded 
head healed, or slain head revived, of Rev. XIII., 3. Hence it is 
plainly seen, as it must have been from all that has been said con- 
cerning it, that the Eastern and Western Roman Empire constituted 
the first beast, the beast which had the wound b}^ a sword, and did 
live : and that the Western Empire revived by the Pope, and the 
Western Emperors did not, as some have erroneously supposed,* 
represent the second beast of Rev. XIII. It stood for the little horn 
of Dan. VII., and for the wounded head healed of Rev. XIII., 3 ; 
and the second beast must therefore necessarily signify a different 
combination of power from that represented in the Roman Empire of 
the East or West. And the circumstance of this second beast caus- 
ing an image to be made to the beast which had the wound by a 
sword, and did live, which image refers particularly to one that was 
to be made of the Romish Church system, having the Pope at its 
head, will prove unmistakably to the reader that we make the proper 
application of the jjrojijhecy in the case of the second beast, which 
we are now considering. For, as the wounded head restored was 
especially represented at Rome in the Western Empire revived, and 
as this especially represented the beast which iiad the wound by a 

* See, for example, Barnes' Notes ou the Revelatiou: also, Ne^^•tou's Dissertations oil 
Prophecy, XXV. 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 407 

sword, and did live, so it could not be said that au ima;^e of this 
could be made before itself existed, or that the image and the original 
could be one and the same thing. As the original must exist before 
an image is made of it, so the Romish Church system with the Pope 
at its head, to which the image in the text properly refers, had to exist 
before the English or Lutheran Church system, or any other reformed 
Church system, could be patterned after it. These reformed systems 
of Church and State were images of the Roman Empire in general, 
whose seat of Government was at Constantinople ; and as regards their 
ecclesiastical S3^stems in particular, they were images of the Romish 
Church, from whence they sprung. 

The word sr/.w^ denotes a physical image or figure, something 
that is or is not produced by the ingenuity and handicraft of man. 
It has a figurative sense also, but here it retains its literal sigrnifica- 
tion. For the new establishments, clerical orders with their habits, 
church-rates and rituals, rites and ceremonies, &c., all had to be in- 
vented, or defined and determined, and many of them were intro- 
duced with great parliamentary debate and popular opposition dur- 
ing many successive years, except the three creeds and the two 
sacraments, and some other doctrines of the Church of Rome which 
the Protestant Churches retained. 

The Reformed Church systems were completed gradually ; that 
of England during the reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth 
was brought to about the same state at which it still remains ; but 
on principles considerably different from those established by Henry 
VIII., namely, on the principles of Calvin ; the Lutheran Church 
was built upon the principles established by Luther. We may re- 
mark that the creeds and the two sacraments, as they are popularly 
understood and used, specially by those Reformed Churches which 
approximate most closely to the Romish Church idea, constitute in 
the main the image of the beast, spirituallj^ considered. There is a 
proper use of the sacraments, a use for which they were designed, 
and it would be well if only that use were observed. The Lord's 
Supper was designed to bring Christians together, so that they might 
mutually cultivate the spirit of charity, and occupy their minds with 
the contemplation of the self-denying and hoi}' life of the true Chris- 
tian. Baptism was instituted mainly in order to bring men to the 
understanding of what they really are before that rite is performed 
on them, and to instruct them as to what their life and conversation 
should be after it. But in professing the doctrines of the creeds, 
they professed a system of ideas, wliich as pnjnilarly understood, are 
merely ideas, liaving no reality. And in wors]ii])])ing tlie Trinity of tlie 
creeds, which is the fundamental doctrine of the Ortliodox Reform- 



408 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

■ed churclies, in common with the Church of Rome, the Greek, and 
•other branches of the Catholic Church, ihej, in a sense, commit 
idolatry,* for they have to personif}^ in some way the object or the 
complex object of their worship. No object should be worshipped 
Avhich can be seen with the eye or conceived by the mind ; the deity 
hears the earnest fervent prayer that is addressed to Him, as Avell in 
the desire of the pure and contrite heart as in the expression of the 
tongue, and as well in the latter way as in the former, provided the 
heart be right. The worship of the pure and the contrite heart is 
what is required and will not be despised. But the proud and the 
perverse in heart, and the idolatrous are abominations to the Lord. 
And the princes and potentates, whether civil or ecclesiastical, who 
arrogate to themselves the worship of their fellow creatures are a 
vile abomination, and infinitely below the humblest beggar, if he be 
a true Christian, in God's eyes. The bishop of Rome and all the 
dignitaries of the Roman Empire, civil and ecclesiastical, arrogated 
to themselves very high titles. Nor have the Protestant nations any 
reason to reflect oh them for that, as they lack nothing themselves 
on that score. Besides the ordinary titles which apj^ear in their 
creeds and confessions, forms of prayer, &c., such as Lord, Sovereign 
Lord, Dread Sovereign Lord, as a2)plied to their kings, they need 
but look into the preface of the authorized version of the English 
Bible to find a title as presumptuous as ever Pope or Emperor sus- 
tained : The Most High and Mighty Pkince James, &c. Higher 
than the Most High cannot be. Then from the Most High and 
Mighty they have the long list of Lords, Dukes, Counts, Earls, 
Knights, Barons, &c., with the corresponding priestly titles, Lord 
Archbishops,Lord Bishops, Most Reverend,Very Reverend,Right Rev- 
erend Deans, Venerable Arch-deacons and Deacons,Reverend Rectors 
and Curates, &c. Virtue never needed the help of flattering compli- 
ments or pompous titles. It was always vice and corrujjtion which re- 
quired such vain additions, as well as long prayers and outward show 
of sanctity to change their native appearance and ward off deserved 



* The word idolatry, from the Greek hSiiv^ "to see" and 'Aarpeia^ "-worship" is here 
used in its literal sense, and means the worship of something seen or conceived. Our word 
"idea" comes from the same root ktdiiv. and you easily understand what an idea means, it 
means a picture or image of something conceived in the mind. Therefore, in the case of the 
worship of the Trinity of the creeds one has to conceive in one's mind some complex idea, that 
is, to personify in some way the object of worship. But there is not the slightest doubt that 
the Supreme Being is altogether beyond our conception as any object or thing, and, therefore, 
any idea we can form in our mind, any object we can see with our eyes or conceive in our 
mind, is a creature, not the Creator. We do not necessarily attach any bad meaning or idea 
of guilt to the word idolatry in connection with the worship of the Trinity, we only mean to 
say that the worship of an^'thing we see or conceive is unnecessary, since the Deity is the 
Omnipresent Being to be worshipped in spirit and in truth : we only explain in order to simplify 
the subject and then leave the readers to judge for themselves. 



PROTEST ANT-KEFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 409 

condemnation. These bombastic titles are the offspriny of pride and 
vanity, not any honor to those who receive them, and displeasing in 
the sight of a righteous and holy God. The humble, godly man is 
infinitely more content without them ; does not seek or need them. 

We here give a few extracts from a speech of Sir Charles Dilke, 
a British member of Parliament, as it is copied from tlie Loudon 
Daily News of November 10th, 1871, and which mav give some idea 
of the cost and grandeur of royalty in England. He said : " We 
have first to deal with the sum of £372,000 a year expended upon 
the privy purse and upon th<! houseliold ; to which I add the Royal 
bounty and Royal alms, which amount to i£ 13,000, making up the 
sum to X 385,000. We next have £131,000 of annuities of a similar 
kind to that which we lately had to consider ; the income of the 
Duchy of Lancaster, £32,000; that of Cornwall, £63,000; the in- 
terest on lump sums, such as that given to Princess Louise, which 
have been paid to the various members of the family still surviving, 
about £10,000 ; making £621,000. Steam-packets, insignia, presents, 
such as were given by Prince Alfred in Australia and elsewhere, 
pensions to royal servants, rangerships of parks, not borne upon the 
civil list, make £7,000 more ; and military and naval pay to other 
members of the family about another £20,000. The palaces (omitting 
Hampton Court, which is a public show-place,) are £17,000 more. 
On Windsor Park there is a deficit in the woods and forest account, 
and that deficit of £12,000 about represents the cost of the keepers, 
game, and other royal, as contrasted with public expenses in refer- 
ence to the park. This makes £707,000, which is the end of the 
figures which are of a very certain and tangible character. Beyond 
this we have two large sums, as to one of which we can be fairly ac- 
curate, as to the other of which we can give nothing but a guess. 
The first of these is the cost of the Guards. I calculate that the 
cost of the Guards, over and above the cost of an equal number of 
the Line, including an increased and increasing expenditure caused 
by the expensive nature of tlie sites of two of their barracks in the 
immediate neighborhood of Royal palaces, would be about £100,000. 
You have been told that the army has been bought back from the 
officers at an expense of eight or ten millions ; that purchase has been 
abolished ; that a competitive examination must be passed before a 
man can enter the army, and yet you have those young gentlemen, 
the Queen's pages of honor, allowed to pass into the army by the 
back-door ; and the only men who have not to go through their ex- 
amination. The other of tlie sums is, as I believe, tlie largest of all 
the separate items of expenditure connected with the Royal Family, 
and this is the cost of the Roval \achts. We all of us have heard 



410 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the stories of the harm done to the naval service at the time of the 
Crimean war — both actual, and incidental harm of a moral nature, 
— by the diverting of the service of men who ought to have been 
emplo3^ed upon our war-ships to the finishing for the Queen of one 
of the Royal yachts, the " Victoria and Albert " I believe. But few 
are aware of the vast expenditure which still and at all times goes on 
upon Royal yachts, expenditure for building, for repairs, for coals, 
for seamen's wages, for pensions to the late officers and seamen of 
the 3'achts, an expenditure which at the least cannot be less than 
£100,000 a year, and which, having taken great pains to ascertain 
the facts, I believe very largely indeed to exceed that sum. As an 
instance of the decorative character of these yachts I may say that 
I found an able-bodied seaman who was maintained all the year 
round to paint the lion and the unicorn on the five brackets ! Well 
this makes the total figure £906,000, and I think that, speaking 
roughl}', you may say that the positive and direct cost of Royalty is 
about a million a year. In addition to the increase that I have men- 
tioned, it is worth remembering that the Roj'al Family are the only 
persons in the kingdom who pay no taxes, and even these annuities 
which we have lately granted are expressly free from all taxes, as- 
sessments, and charges. I need hardly say that all these enormous 
sums of money are not well spent, and it is almost worth a few min- 
utes time to see in what kind of manner they do contrive to disappear. 
The salaries in the Royal Household, which amount to 131,000 a year, 
include a vast number of totally useless officials, Chamberlains, Con- 
trollers, Masters of Ceremonies, INIarshals of the Household, Grooms of 
the Robes, Lords in Waiting, Grooms in Waiting, Gentlemen Ushers 
and a few persons who appear to perform services, but who ought to 
be paid for those services as they perform them, and not be made 
permanent officials with great titles of honor, such for instance as 
the Historical Painter to the Queen, Portrait Painter to the Queen 
and the Lithographer in Ordinary under the Lord Steward's depart- 
ment, and the department of the Master of the Horse ; we have such 
offices as the Coroner of the Household, and the Chief Equerry, and 
Clerk Marshal, and various others whose duties are not of a very 
burdensome description. 

Nothing is more singular than the constitution of the medical 
department. You would hardly credit the number of medical gentle- 
men who are required for the service of the household, but I am 
aware that some of them are unpaid. There are three physicians in 
ordinary, three physicians extraordinary, one sergeant surgeon ex- 
traordinary, two sergeant surgeons, three surgeons extraordinary, one 
physician of the household, one sui'geon of the household, one surgeon 



PROTESTANT-KEFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 411 

apothecary, two chemists of the establisiliment iu ordinary, cue surgeoa 
oculist, one surgeon dentist, one dentist in ordinary, and one other 
physician, or 21 jn all ; — while the Prince of Wales has for his special 
benefit, three honorary physicians, two physicians in ordinary, two 
surgeons in ordinary, one surgeon extraordinary, one chemist, or 11 
more ; making 32 doctors in one family. I would be almost afraid of 
tiring anybody who listened to me while I went over the list of strange 
officers of which the household is made up. — Lord High Almoner, 
sub-Almoner, Hereditary Grand Almoner, Master of the Buck- 
hounds, Clerk of the Check, Clerk of the Closet, Exons in Waiting, 
and last but not least the Hereditary Grand Falconer, the Duke of 
St. Albans. If we turn to the Lord Steward's department, we com3 
at once upon a mysterious Board of Green Cloth, as it is called, at 
the head of which are the Lord Steward, the Treasurer, the Comp- 
troller of the Household, and the Master of the Household, with a 
perfect army of secretaries and clerks, and with special secretaries 
with special offices and with special salaries in each of those sections 
of the department. In the kitchen department we have a chief cook 
and four master cooks receiving salaries of between £2,000 and 
£3,000 a year between the five, and a host of confederates, sonie of 
whom have duties that I cannot even guess at, — such for instance as 
the two " Green office " men. There are whole departments, the 
duties of which cannot be very considerable, one would think, or, at 
all events, not considerable enough to warrant them being made 
into departments of the household ; for instance, the confectionery 
department, and the ewer department, while the duty of table- 
decking employs no less than five persons, who have salaries of 
between £500 and £600 a year in all." * All this, it is seen, has 
reference to the maintenance of the monarch and the royal house- 
hold ; it does not enumerate the great officers of the State, the Army, 
the Navy, and the Church, in their several ranks, which have tlieir 
representatives at the palace, encompass the Throne of Royalty, 
present a grand and terrific appearance to the eyes of common people, 
and replenish their pockets largely from the public purse. It is 
hardly probably that at any period of history the palace of the Roman 
Emperors of Constantinople presented so grand an appearance, em- 
ployed so many officers, or incurred so much expense as that of the 



* It, however, can hardly be said that the monarch is solely responsible for the extraor- 
dinary expense attending the Royal state. The nation authorizes or assents to it: and the 
sons of tiie present monarch of Britain who are engaged in the public service are entitled 
10 their salaries as any other public servants are. The donations given to the princesses 
vidence a national privilege. The Republican form of government of the United States 
is also nun-o expensive than might be supposed, owing partly to the many State govern- 
ments and to the oft-recnrring elections. 



412 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

British Monarch of the nineteenth century. But the Court and the 
Monarch of Britain represent above all others in Europe the Court 
and Emperor of the Eastern Romans. The comparatively modest 
and frugal princes and courts of Lutheran or Calvinistic Germany 
having now banded themselves into an Empire with the late Kino- 
of Prussia at their head as Emperor, may henceforth be vainly 
inclined to vie with Britain in the grandeur and expense of their 
supreme Monarch and his court. Bat it is much to be desired for 
the honor of God and for justice to mankind that these princes 
should show the example of modesty, humility and frugality, not 
receiving any more from the public than a fair compensation for 
their services, and not allowing any homage to be rendered to them 
by their fellow-creatures such as is now required by some of these 
sovereigns, which is in a high sense wrong and displeasing to a 
righteous and holy God. All this should be enough to make Pro- 
testants blush when they speak of the wickedness and blasphemies 
of the civil and ecclesiastical potentates of Roman Catholic Chris- 
tendom or any other part of Christendom. In those countries, which 
are governed bj' Kings or Emperors, the popular ideas of the Deity 
are to a great extent derived from Royalty ; the discourses of the 
clergy are replenished with illustrations drawn from thence ; and 
we have even heard men in our own country undertake to address 
Sabbath-school children on religious topics and illustrate their ideas 
of Deity b}'" comparison with the unapproachable grandeur and 
majesty of an earthly prince, which is indeed not onl}' exceedingly 
improper, but wicked, to compare the infinite and incomprehensible 
Deity in anywise with a vain worm of the dust. No such illustra- 
tion should ever be made use of in religious discourses ; royalty 
itself might well be discontinued and abolished in every nation 
where it exists as soon as this can be done equitably to all concerned 
in such a change, by the vote of the majority of the people governed, 
who are the sources of the power : yea, such rulers themselves should 
be the first to lay aside their royal weeds, their assumptions, and 
their arrogance. 

The Lutheran Church and the Church of England approached 
somewhat nearer to the Romish in doctrine and in form than any 
other branch of the Reformed Churches. This will be seen by an 
examination of the history of the Reformed Churches, and by an 
observation of them to-day. The difference between the doctrine 
of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, as professed by the 
Lutherans, and that as professed by the Papists, is merely in sound; 
and the difference between the doctrine of Archbishop Laud in the 
time of Charles the First, that of the High Church Episcopal to-day 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AXD STATE SYSTEMS. 413 

on the one hand, and that of the Church of Rome, is nothing in 
principle ; it is only in their respective ecclesiastical habits and in 
the names by whicli they are called, Protestant and Papist, that 
these differ. So that these two branches of the Reformed Church, 
the Lutheran and the English, or Protestant Episcopal, are more 
truly images of the Romish Church than au}" of the other Reformed 
Cliurches, although, as we have before mentioned, all the particular 
Church systems which have sprung from the Reformation are images 
of the Romish Church so far as they have retained her doctrines, as 
in the creeds, and her practices in any way. Thus, the whole re- 
formatory system of Church and State is an image of the Roman 
Empire, and Lutheran or Calvinistic Germany and Calvinistic 
Britain are the representative horns or powers. 

Verse 15 is : " And he had power to give life to the image of the 
beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that 
as many as would not Avorship the image of the beast should be 
killed." It is literally: "Audit was given him to give spirit to 
the image of the beast, &c." It does not here say by whom this 
power was given, but it means that the beast possessed the power. 
It is given us to understand that this second beast woukl have the 
power of giving an influence to the image of the Romish religious 
system which he would cause to be established. The beast here re- 
ferred to signifies particularly the supreme ruler of Church and State 
in each of the independent nations in Avhich the Reformation took 
place, as for example, in England, and in the German States. The 
spirit or influence which he would give to the new religious system, 
the image of the Romish religious system which he should cause to 
be established in his dominions, would be the monarch's own in- 
fluence, power, and support in favor of that system, as its originator, 
patron, protector, and supreme head, and who, being the supreme 
ruler of the State, would make all conform to it, Avhether tlicA" Avere 
willing or not. This Avas actually so in Germany, and especially in Eng- 
land. The Lutheran " Form of Concord," before mentioned, which 
Avas draAvn up by the six doctors, under the supervision of tlie secular 
princes, or supreme heads of the Lutheran Church, in its second part 
formally condemns all Avho Avould not subscribe to its doctrines as 
drawn up in the first part of it, " according to the fancy," as Mos- 
heim expresses it, " of the six doctors." And more particularly Avere 
the terrors of the civil sword solicited and employed against those 
pretended heretics and non-conformists in Germany, as may be seen 
in the Testament of Brentius. Tlie Lutherans and Calvinists Avent 
hand in liand on the continent of Europe in persecuting to tlie death 
the Anabaptists and all others whom they in common considered liere- 



414 CEEATOE AND COSMOS. 

tics. And the Church of Enghmd, imbued with the same spirit, 
through its supreme head, aud all the branches of its hierarcliy, spoke 
with authority and arrogance, as if with the voice of a dragon, 
against all reputed heretics, non-conformists, and papists, and ban- 
ished and burned them in hundreds for a period of two centuries : 
so that it could be said that they, that is the ruling powers, caused 
as many as would not conform to all the rules and rites of their es- 
tablished religrion to be killed. 

However abominable the doctrine of compulsion is, and however 
corrupt the source from which it flows, the Protestant Reformers re- 
tained it in its full extent. This is manifest from their giving up 
people of different religious opinions from their own to be oppressed 
and punished by the civil rulers. Eobinson very justly says : " Do- 
minion over conscience is anticlirist anywhere. At Rome Antichrist 
is of age, a sovereign, and wears a crown ; at the meanest meeting- 
house, if the same kind of tyranny be. Antichrist is a beggar's baby at 
the breast; but as conscience everywhere is a throne of God, so a 
usurper of his throne is Antichrist anywhere." * Whatever deranges 
the equality of Christians is the spirit of Antichrist. Call it truth or 
l^iety or virtue, or whatever we may, the whole is in direct opposition 
to the Gospel, so long as that persecuting spirit remains connected 
with it. 

It was but a short time after the Reformation began that the 
cruel work of persecution Avas commenced by the Reformers, in or- 
der to bow down every effort on the side of freedom, and to extirpate 
every heretic who dared to oppose the corrupt and ambitious plans 
of the Reformers. And according to the historians of his time, no 
one was more fit to set the example of a cruel persecutor than Mar- 
tin Luther. His most favorable historian, Mosheim, himself of the 
Lutheran faith, in speaking of the bitterness and animosity of the 
first Reformers, says : " Luther himself appears at the head of this 
sanguine tribe, whom he far surpasses in invectives and abuse, treating 
his adversaries with the most brutal asperity, and sparing neither rank 
nor condition." He considered everything as subordinate to his own 
opinions under the name of truth, and poured forth, against such as 
disappointed hiin in this particular, a torrent of invectives, mingled 
Avith contempt.! He fell out Avith Carlostadt, one of his co-Re- 
formers, and not only had him banished from Wittenberg, but fob 
loAved him from place to place, having him frequently expelled. He 
could not agree with Calvin nor Avith Zuingle, who as himself, Avere 
supported by powerful patrons, and he Avas immensely angry with 



* Ecclesiastical Researches, p. 173. t Hist CHiarles V. Book VIII. 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 415 

the Baptists, who had none. He had. himself taught the doctrine of 
immersion, but he could not bear the article of Reforming without 
him. This exasperated hinl to the last degree ; he b ecame their 
bitter enemy; and notwithstanding all he had previously said in 
favor of immersion, he persecuted them under the name of rebaptizers 
or Anabaptists. There was a Thomas Muncer, who had been a minister 
at several places, being persecuted through the influence of Luther 
and compelled to seek refuge where he could. There were Nicholas 
Stork, Mark Stubner, Martin Cellarius, and others against all of 
whom Luther set himself. When he heard of them settling any- 
where he officiously played the part of a universal bishop, and wrote 
to princes and senates to expel such dangerous men. " It is," says 
Robinson, " very truly said by Cardinal Housius, that Luther did 
not intend to make all men as fi'ee as himself ; he had not foreseen 
that other men would apply the same reasoning to his tyranny over 
conscience which he had so successfully applied to that of the Pope, 
and, therefore, he dethroned him that he might set up himself." * 
His colleague Carlostadt found this to his sorrow. On Luther's plan 
there was no probability of freedom coming to the people. It was 
only designed to free the priests from obedience to the Pope, and to 
enable them to tyrannize over the people in the name of the Civil 
Magistrate. Muncer saw this fallacy, and remonstrated against it ; 
and this was the crime for which he was punished by Luther with 
an unpardonable rigor, and which the followers of Luther have 
never forgiven to this day. Observe the spirit of the followers of 
Luther ; Muncer, say they, was a man well skilled in the knowledge 
of the Scriptures before the devil inspired him; but then he had 
the arrogance to preach not only against the Pope, but against Dr. 
Martin Luther himself. As if Martin the Saxon had any better 
patent for infallibility than Leo tlie Romish Pope. 

But the principal occasion Luther took to give vent to his perse- 
cuting spirit was that of the insurrection of the peasants called the 
" Rustic War." When these long deluded and oppressed creatures 
sighed for religious and civil liberty the clergy of all orders agreed 
to reproach them for their depravity, and to scandalize the first of 
all human blessings with the odious name of carnal liberty. Muncer 
drew up for the peasants a memorial or manifesto, setting forth tlieir 
grievances, which they presented to their lords and dispersed all 
over Germany. Luther wrote four treatises on the subject. The 
first was an answer to the manifesto, in which, though he told them 
that the princes were cruel oppressors who had no excuse for their 



* Eccles. Hist. 



41G CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

injustice and deserved to be dethroned by God, yet that it was sedi- 
tion in the oppressed to resist them. His advice to them was that 
they should not resist evil, but when they were smitten on one 
cheek they should turn the other also ; that this was the doctrine of 
Christ, and such doctors as taught otherwise were worse than Turks 
and inspired by the devil. But this same Luther, who under the 
mask of a minister of Christ exhorted the oppressed peasants not to 
resist evil, wrote again to the princes and endeavored to convince 
them that it was their duty to kill and exterminate those same pea- 
sants as they Avould mad dogs* The princes set about the work 
agreeably to the instructions of this dou.ble-faced Reformer, and 
thousands fell victims to tlie ferocious and more than savaoe massa- 
ores in which both Protestants and Papists became united, and in 
which the peasants witlrout distinction became involved in one com- 
mon fate of fire and sword, and suffered with the utmost barbarity. 
That Luther's persecuting rage was mainly directed against those 
whom he condemned in his writings under the name of Anabaptists, 
and Avho unjustly suffered without resistance, appears from what 
follows : "It is to be observed," says Mosheim, "that the leaders of 
that sect had fallen into that ei-roneous and chimerical notion that 
the new Kingdom of Christ, which they expected, was to be exempt 
from every kind of vice, and from the smallest degree of corruption, 
and so they were not pleased with the plan of Reformation proposed 
by Luther." This was enough to kindle the flame of resentment in 
the breast of Luther, who by taking the Church as it was under the 
reign of the Papacy, included whole parishes and kingdorris, with all 
the inhabitants of every description, in the Church. That the most 
cruel resentment was kindled in the breast of Luther against these 
people is evident from his famous Augsburgh confession, each article 
of which begins with Docent^ that is, they teach, and ends with dani- 
nant^ that is, they condemn, and many of them with damnant Ana- 
haptistas, they condemn the Anabaptists. We may enquire what 
right Luther, who had just before been condemned by the Pope, had 
to call in question the sentiments of others and presumptuously 
condemn those who conscientiously differed from liim in their religi- 
ous opinions, as if Dr. Martin Luther had all power in heaven and 
in earth. It Avas a horrid crime in Luther's eyes for any one to ex- 
pect a pure and unspotted Church, and for that reason to be dis- 
satisfied with his plans of reformation. 

Thus, after the plan of the Catholic establishment we here find 
a complete fusion of the Church with the world by Luther. If a 



* Consult Eccles. Hist., Cents. XYI., cliap. II. Also " Christ's Second Appearing. 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEAIS. 417 

corrupt and tyrannical Church had been the object of the pursuit of 
these reputed heretics, both they and their ancestors found one to 
their sorrow long enough before Luther rose up to establish his by 
tlie sword of eartlily princes. The fact is, that the reputed heretics 
had, in every age, witnessed a good confession against Catholic Or- 
thodoxy by cheerfully sacrificing all earthly comforts and even tlieir 
lives in support of their faith concerning a pure Church, and the 
same undauuted spirit continued to witness against the Protestant 
Reformers, and gave them a fair opportunity to prove that they 
were actuated by the same spirit, and exercised all the persecuting 
power of the first beast. " In almost all the countries of Europe," 
says Mosheim, '• an unspeakable number of those unhappv wretches 
preferred death in its worst forms to a retraction of their errors ; 
neither the view of the flames that were kindled to consume them, 
nor the ignominies of the gibbet, nor the terrors of the sword, could 
ihake their invincible but ill-placed constancy, or make them abandon 
tenets which appeared to them dearer tlian life and all its enjoy- 
ments." But this historian soon after adds: "It is true, indeed, 
that many Anabaptists suffered death because they were judged 
incurable heretics ; for in this century, the error of limiting the ad- 
ministration of baptism to adult persons only, and the practice of 
re-baptizing such as had received that sacrament in a state of infancy 
were looked upon as most flagitious and intolerable heresies." Now 
what greater cruelties did ever the Church of Rome practice than to 
burn to death such as they judged to be incurable heretics when no 
jther charge could be brouglit against them? But Mosheim, that 
Lutheran ecclesiastic, is pleased to call their faith concerning a pure 
Church an erroneous and chimerical notion, and their sentiments 
errors, and their constancy, with which they faced death in its worst 
forms, ill-placed. See Ephes. V, 27 ; Rev. XXI, 27. In the same 
manner the Popish historian, Thuanus, speaks of the Waldenses, 
" that they were rather slain, put to flight, spoiled everywhere of 
their goods and dignities, and dispersed here and there, than that, 
convinced of their error, they repented." * It is acknowledged by 
their enemies that many of those Anabaptists were of the most up- 
riglit intentions, and sincere piety, and that tlie innocent, with those 
who were accounted guilty, suffered with u'ldistinguishing cruelty. 
But it is remarkable that all those undistinguisliing cruelties, carried 
on under the pretence of sui)pressing heresy or sedition, wei'e prac- 
tised in the same persecuting spirit, and accompanied with like 
misrepresentations and slanderous accusations as were used by the 



* Newton's DissertiUion; on Propliucy, Diss. XXIV. 
Vol. ir.— 27 



*^I8 CREATOR ANLr COSMOS. 

ancient Pagans in their persecutions of the primitive Christians. 
And besides those undistinguisliing cruelties exercised at the instiga- 
tion of Luther, what fruits do we' see his Reformation produced in 
his own heart and life? After he had practised it for twenty years 
it did not save him from his outbreaking sins, but directly to the 
contrary. " He grew daily more peevish, more irascible, and more 
impatient of contradiction." So says Dr. Robertson. His whole 
life of ambition and ci'uelty well comports with the character which 
he gives of himself in his last will ; and whether any temporal Mon- 
arch or Pope ever discovered the feelings of his own ambition more 
than Luther did, may be judged from what follows : " I am known," 
says this Reforming monk, " in heaven, in earth, and in hell, and 
possess consequence sufficient for this demand that my single tes- 
timony be believed, seeing that God, of his Fatherly compassion, 
hath intrusted to me, though a reprobate man and a miserable sinner, 
the Gospel of his Son, and hath granted that I should be so true and 
faithful in it, that many in the world have received it from me as a 
doctor of the truth, while they contemn, with detestation, the bans 
of the Pope, of Caesar, of Kings, of Princes, and of priests, jea of all 
devils ! I ! Why then may it not suffice for this disposal of a small 
estate, if the testimony of my hand be affixed, and it can be said Dr. 
Martin Luther, God's Notary and Witness of his Gospel, wrote these 
things." 

Such is a faithful representation of the character of Luther, taken 
from himself and from the most faithful historians of his times ; and 
it appears to us, though we have not the least desire, nor are we at 
all interested to lay upon him, or upon any other of the Reformers, 
a greater burden of iniquity than their memory is worthy to bear, 
that he who says that God has entrusted to him his Gospel, while 
the conduct of his whole life and his final testimony, signed with 
his own hand, jDronounce him to be a wicked, reprobate man and a 
miserable sinner, was, to say the least, inconsistent; or rather he liad 
never during his life come to a knowledge of God ; for if he had, he 
would not have acted thus wickedly. 

The same persecuting spirit which actuated Luther was manifested 
also in John Calvin. At Geneva he acted the part of a universal 
bishop, presiding in the assembly of the clergy and in the consistory, 
and punished heretics of all kinds, who had the confidence to object 
against his ecclesiastical system of tyrann}-, with unremitting rigor. 
There was one Gruet, who was charged with denying " the divinity 
of the Christian religion," that is, the religion then established at 
Geneva " and the immortality of the soul." He also called Calvin 
the " new Pope " and became guilty of other like impieties, for 



PROTESTAI^T-REFOEMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 419 

wliicli he was brought before the civil tribunal in the year lo50 and 
was condemned to death. There were others who could not receive 
his doctrine of eternal and absolute decrees. " These adversaries," 
says Mosheim, "felt by a disagreeable experience the warmth and 
violence of his haughty temper, and that impatience of contradiction 
Avhich arose from an over-zealous concern for his honor, or rather for 
his unrivalled supremacy." " He Avould not suffer them to remain at 
Geneva, nay, in the heat of the controversy, being carried away by 
the impetuosity of his passions, he accused them of ci'imes from which 
they have been fully absolved by tlie impartial judgment of unpre- 
judiced posteritj^" Among the victims of Calvin's unlimited power 
and excessive zeal we may reckon Castillo, master of the public 
school at Geneva. He was deposed from his office in the year 1554, 
and banished. A like fate happened to Bolsec, a professor of medi- 
cine, whose favorable opinions of the Protestant religion first brought 
him to Geneva ; but finding himself mistaken, he had the assurance, 
in the year 1551, to raise his voice in the full congregation against 
absolute and unconditional decrees ; for which he was imprisoned, 
and soon after banished. 

But none appears to have given Calvin more trouble than did 
Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician, Avho appeared in the )'ear 1530, 
and by his abilities, both natural and acquired, had obtained the 
patronage of many persons of authority in France, Germany, and 
Italy. Notwitl«standing these advantages, finding him in his power, 
Calvin had him imprisoned, and an accusation of blasphemy brought 
against him by the Council. 

Servetus was a man of a free and liberal turn of mind, " he was," 
says Robinson, "an original genius, of a manly spirit, bold in liis in- 
quiries after truth, and generous as the day in communicating his 
opinions, not doubting that he had as much right to investigate the 
doctrine of the Trinity as others had that of Transubstantiation." 

In the year 1531-2, he publislied two books, both intended to dis- 
prove the doctrine of the Trinity ; and as they denied the popular 
notions of persons in God, and affii-med that Jesus was a man, tlie}'- 
procured for him a great number of enemies and also many friends. 
He had freely communicated his opinions to G^colampadius and Bucer. 
Both these reforming divines had the character of mildness ; but 
(Ecolampadius thought anger just in this case, and Bucer declared 
from the pulpit that Servetus deserved to be torn in pieces, and have 
his bowels torn out of him. All the artillery of the orthodox was 
now directed against this schismatical Spaniard, blasphemous heretic, 
for so they, whom tlie greater part of Europe then called heretics, 
had the inconsistency to denominate Servetus. 



420 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

Calvin having published Iiis favorite production entitled " Chris- 
tian Institutes," Servetus read this book, and finding in it a great 
number of mistakes and errors he took the liberty to inform the au- 
thor of them. This so irritated Calvin that he never forgave him, 
and instead of profiting by the advice, he wrote to his friends Yiret 
and Farel " that if ever this heretic should fall into his hands it 
Avould cost him his life." And so it finally happened. Calvin had 
an admirer at Geneva whose name was Trie : this Trie had a relative 
at Lyons, a Papist, whose name was Arney, who incessantly exhorted 
his cousin to return to the bosom of the Church. Calvin dictated 
letters in the name of William Trie who directed them to Arney, and 
the latter carried them to Ory the Inquisitor. To unfold more fully 
Calvin's private character we shall here give the contents of this 
letter to Trie. " I thank God that vices are better corrected here 
than among all of 3^0 ur officials ; with you they support a heretic 
who deserves to-be burned wherever he is found. When I mention 
to you a heretic, I mention one who shall be condemned b}'' the Pap- 
ists as well as by. the Protestants ; at least he deserves to be so. For 
although we differ in opinion about many things, we are still agreed 
that there are three jDcrsons in the essence of God. You m&y cruelly 
burn us, but behold, him who shall call Jesus Christ an idol, who shall 
destroy all the foundations of faith, who gathers together all the 
dreams of ancient heretics, who shall even condemn the baptism of 
little children, calling it a diabolical invention , and he shall have 
the vogue amongst you, and be supported as if he had committed no 
fovult. Where, pray, is the zeal you pretend to ? And where is the 
wisdom of this fine hierarchy you magnify so much '? " By this 
means Servetus was seized in the year 1553 and cast into prison ; 
but in four days after he managed to make his escape, and could no- 
Avhere be found. The prosecution was carried on in his absence, and 
he was condemned to be burned alive in a slow fire ; and seeing his 
person could not be found, the sentence was executed upon his effigy. 
" The effigy of Servetus was placed in a cart with five bales of his 
books, and all were burned together for the glory of God and the 
safety of the Church."* Four months afterthis Servetus was discov- 
ered, while waiting for a boat to cross the lake of Geneva, on his 
way to Zurich. Calvin received intelligence and prevailed on the 
chief magistrate to arrest and imprison him, although it was on the 
first day of the week when, by the laws of Geneva, no person could 
be arrested except for a capital crime. But Calvin urged that Ser- 
vetus was a heretic and that heresy was a capital crime. To prison 



* Eccles. Researches. 



PROTESTANT-EEFOBMED CHURCH A.ND STATE SYSTEMS. 421 

he was committed and on the same day he was tried in court. As 
it was necessary for somt; one to prosecute Servetus, Calvin employed 
one of his own familj^ Nicholas de la Fontaine, who, some say, had 
heen a cook, others a valet, but whatever he had been he was now a 
preacher. Short as the notice had been Lafontaine was ready pre- 
])iu'ed, and an liuml)le re(|uest was presented to the judges in which 
Servetus was accused of uttering blasphemies against God, of infect- 
ing the world with heresies and of condemning the doctrine preached 
at Geneva. Servetus presented a petition to the magistrate and 
council. The petition was rejected ; the attorney-general said that 
the court ought not to grant the petitioner an advocate, because he 
himself was thoroughly skilled in the art of telling lies. Such was 
his deplorable situation. " Far from his own country, fallen into the 
hands of cruel strangers, all under the power of Calvin, his avowed 
enemy, who bore him a mortal hatred ; stript of all his property, con- 
fined in a dark prison, and neglected till he was almost eaten with 
vermin ; denied an advocate, and loaded with every indignit}^ his 
enemies could invent. The last act of this melancholy ti-agedy was 
performed at Geneva on October 27, 1553. Calvin had drawn up 
the 23^'ocess against Servetus ; the magistrates and council had pro- 
nounced sentence against him that he should be burnt alive ; and on 
this day, with many brutal circumstances, the sentence was executed 
to the encouragement of Catholic cruelty, to the scandal of the pre- 
tended Reformation, to the offence of all just men, and to the ever- 
lasting disgrace of those ecclesiastical t)^rants who were the instru- 
ments of such a wild and barbarous deed."* " Many," adds Robin- 
son, " have pretended to apologize for Calvin, and what are his 
nostrums, which end in tyranny and murder, that the great voice of 
nature should be drowned in a din of vain babbling about him." 
" Servetus was not a suljject of the Republic of Geneva ; he 
had committed no offence against the laws of the state ; he was 
passing peaceably on the road which lay through the city : he was 
not a member of any Reformed Church; he was a useful and honor- 
able meml)er of society ; he was a man of unimpeached morality ; 
he was then the admiration of numljers of good judges who afterwards 
2)leaded his cause." Calvin's heart never relented at the recollection 
of that bloody deed. On the contrary, he justified it by publishing, 
after the execution, a book entitled "A faithful account of the errors of 
Michael Servetus."' In this it is attempted to be proved that heretics 
ought to be restrained by the sword. Castalio. or Socinus, confuted 
this book. Beza answered justifving the doctrine of putting heretics 



* Eccles. Researches. 



422 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

to death. Several endeavored to sanctify the deed by Scriptural 
texts and godly words ; and many have attempted to follow their 
example in doing alike. Some of them go so far as to atti-ibute the 
burning of Servetus to a special judgment of God. Can the nicest 
critic discern the difference between this and the spirit and style of 
the Papal Inquisition ? Is it not all the unrestrained outworking of 
the evil principle in man as we often had occasion to remark from 
examples before ? 

" The execution of this man," says Robinson, " occasioned agreat 
many excellent and unanswerable treatises against persecution. Beza 
Avas offended because the authors said that he had published a book 
to justify the murder of heretics ; whereas he had only written one 
to prove that they ought to be put to death. They called him a 
bloody man for exhorting magistrates to put men to death for relig- 
ion ; he retorted he had wished, and continued to wish, that the 
magistrates would serve them so." The apologists urged the exam- 
ple of Melancthon in proof of the justice of putting Servetus to death. 
"• Melancthon himself," say they, " the most moderate and the mild- 
est of all the Reformers, approves what has been done at Geneva." 
We maj'' remark, if such were the spirit of the mildest of the Reform- 
ers, what kind of men must those have been, whom their most 
favorable historians acknowledged to be men of violent and haughty 
temper? Mosheira says : "The Anabaptists and those who denied 
the divinity of Christ, and a Trinity of persons in the Godhead were 
objects of common aversion, a ainst whom the zeal, vigilance, and 
severity of Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were united, and in 
opposing whose settlement and progress those three communions, 
forgetting their mutual dissensions, joined their most rigorous coun- 
cils and endeavors."' This then was the practice of the Reformers, 
Lutherans, and Calvinists, to join hand in hand with the Papists, in 
shedding the blood of reputed heretics ; and who of us, therefore, 
can pretend to say that these persecuting Protestant Reformers were 
not indisputabl}^ one in spirit, nature, and disposition with the priest- 
hood of the mother Church of Rome ? We cannot advance a plea 
in their behalf, as true Christians. The Protestant Reformers could 
encourage ^persecution and by their example, their principles and 
practice unite with the Papists in shedding innocent blood. Then, 
if we claim innocency and martyrdom for those who were tortured 
and put to death by Papal Inquisition, how can we rid ourselves of 
the idea that those who were the subjects of Protestant and Papal 
persecution combined were other than innocent men and martyrs? 

The following is an extract written with Calvin's own hand to 
the Marquis de Poet, Hi^'h Chamberlain to the King of Navarre : 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 423 

" Sept. 30th, 1561. " Honor, glory and riches shall be tlie reward of 
your pains ; but above all do not fail to rid the country of these 
zealous scoundrels who stir up the people to revolt against us. Such 
monsters should be exterminated as I have exterminated Michael 
Servetus the Spaniard." The persecuting spirit of Calvin was not 
confined to Switzerland, but extended far and wide be3'ond that 
countrv. Robinson says : " He and other foreign divines had many 
tools in Poland, particularly Prasnicius, a violent orthodox clergyman. 
With this man, and through him with the nobility, gentry and clergy, 
Calvin and Beza corresponded : and many divines of Germany and 
Switzerland, and even the synod of Geneva, sent letters and tracts 
into Poland, all justifying the murders of Gentilis and Servetus, and 
the necessity of employing the secular power to rid the world of such 
monsters as denied the Trinity and infant baptism. "The advice 
given by the consistory of Geneva to prince Radzivil is a most ig- 
norant and impious attack on the liberties and lives of innocent men. 
They beg his highness, as the first in piety and dignity, to use his 
influence witli the nobility of Poland to engage the Anti-trinitarians 
as they would Tartars and Muscovites." The point of this argu- 
ment will be better understoodif it be remembered that the Poles 
always regarded the Muscovites or Russians as their greatest enemies. 
In Poland, also, the Papists, Lutherans, and Calvinists united in one 
bond of cruelty to crush those who, for the sake of peace, had fled 
thither from the iron arm of persecution in other places. We here 
present to our readers two extracts of letters written by Andrew 
Dudith, of Poland, who had been excommunicated from the Church 
of Rome for heresy. His sentiments favored the Unitarian Baptists, 
a species of popular heretics, who had fled into Poland in order to 
enjoy that religious liberty which was denied them in other places. 
Dudith corresponded with many of the most noted reformers, and 
these extracts clearly discover the spirit by which they were actuated, 
and may serve to sliow the light in whicli that discerning man viewed 
the conduct of these persecuting Protestants. 

" Tell me. my learned friend," says lie to Wolf, " now that the 
Calvinists have burned Servetus, and beheaded Gentilis, and mur- 
dered many others ; having banished Bernard Ochim, with his wife 
and children, from your city in the depths of a sharp winter: now 
that the Lutherans have expelled Lasco with the congregation of 
foreigners that came out of England witli liim, in an exceedingly 
rigorous season of the year, having done a great many such exploits 
all contrary to the genius of Christianity ; now. I ask, how shall we 
meet the Papists? With wliat face can we tax tliem witji cruelty? 
How dure we say our weapons are not carnal ? How can we any 



424 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

longer let Loth grow together until the harvest ? Let us cease to 
boast that faith cannot be compelled, and the conscience ought to 
be free." "You contend," says he to Beza, "that Scripture is a 
perfect rule of faith and practice. But 3-0U are all divided about 
the sense of Scripture, and you have not settled who shall be judge. 
You say one thing, Stancarus another. You quote Scripture, he 
quotes Scripture. You reason, he reasons. You require me to 
believe you. I respect you, but why should I trust you rather than 
Stancarus ? Y''ou say he is a heretic, but the Papists saj- you are 
both heretics. Shall I believe them ? They quote historians and 
fathers, so do you. To whom do you address yourselves ? Where 
is the judge ? You say the spirits of the prophets are subject to the 
prophets ; but you say I am 210 prophet, and I say you are not one. 
Who is to be judge ? I love liberty as well as you. Y^'ou have 
broken your yoke, allow me to break mine. Having freed your- 
selves from the tyranny of popish prelates, why do you turn eccle- 
siastical tja-ants yourselves, and treat others with barbarity and 
cruelty for only doing what you set them an example to do ? You 
contend that your lay hearers, the magistrates, and not you, are to 
be blamed, for it is they who banish and burn for heresy. I know 
you make this excuse ; but tell me, have you not instilled such prin- 
ciples into their ears ? Have they done any thing more than put in 
practice the doctrine that you taught them? Have you not told them 
how glorious it was to defend the faith? Have you not been the 
constant panegyrists of such princes as have depopulated whole dis- 
tricts for heresy ? Do you not daily teach that they who appeal from 
your confessions to Scripture ought to be punished by the secular 
power ? It is impossible for you to deny this. Does not all the 
world know that you are a set of demagogues, or, to speak more 
mildly, a sort of tribunes, and that the magistrates do nothing but 
exhibit in public what you teach them in private ? Y^ou try to justi- 
fy the banishment of Ochim and the execution of others, and 3'ou 
seem to wish that Poland would follow your example. God forbid ! 
When you talk of 3'our Augsburgh confession and your Helvetic 
creed, and your unanimity, and your fundamental truths, I keep 
thinking of the sixth commandment, " Thou shalt not kill." 

If matters of fact can establish anything, then it is certain that 
the two principal pilhirs of the Reformation, Luther and Calvin, as 
"Well as their confederate reformers, were influenced by the same 
spirit of cruelty and injustice which had influenced the hierarchy of 
their mother Church and the tyrants of every age, from Diotrephes 
and tlie Alexandrian priesthood down to the same Luther and Calvin. 
And if, as it luu.st be allowed, a reformation in the church was 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHCTRCH AND STxVTE SYSTEMS. 425 

needed, and for this reason should be approved so far as it is worthy 
of approval ; still we are not obliged to approve either of the manner 
or measure in which it was effected, nor, as Dr. Mosheim liiraself 
confesses, to defend the moral characters of its instruments and sup- 
porters. These men instead of evincing in their lives the self-denying 
godly examples of the first promulgators of Christianitj^ developed, 
with doubtless mucli that was good, all that is evil in human charac- 
ter, and exhibited but little foresight and sound judgment in the 
constitution and fabrication of their system. And thus it was that 
they effected to make the image to the beast which had the wound 
by a sword, and did live, after the model represented in Ilev. XVII. 

The first change of importance which the Protestant Reformers 
established was that which went to supply the office of the Pope ; 
without which the Reformation must have appeared essentially defi- 
cient. Universal experience had confirmed the necessity of having 
a supreme head, a central supreme judge, the authority of which all 
would acknowledge. A body Avithout a head is a monster in nature, 
and no less so in civil and religious society. The titles, offices, and 
powers of the Pope or universal father were not called in question ; 
but it was professedly for the perversion of the sacred office, the 
abuse of power and the false application of titles that the reformers 
protested against and separated from the Church of Rome. 

Doubtless all parties then agreed that the Church ought to have 
a Lord God, a God on earth, a judge of all controversies, etc.; but 
the Protestants denied that the dignity belonged to the bishop of 
Rome : it was therefore their task to point out to whom it did 
belong. 

It must be a matter of the greatest importance which causes a 
nation to change its God. The high pretensions of tlie Roman 
pontiff as the vicegerent of God on earth were not to be supplanted 
bv trifles. He had too long bewitched tlie people, giving out that 
liimself was some great one, and had gained too deep an interest in 
the faith of the multitude to be successfull}^ rivalled at once by a 
monk or a friar. 

Tlieir powerful and superstitious empire had for ages been accus- 
tomed to receive the word of God, as tliey supposed, from their prime 
bishop, their apostolic vicar, by whom kings reigned and princes 
decreed judgment. Of course when his authority was set at nouo-ht 
by men of an inferior rank, it behoved them to furnish the people 
with the true Judge of all controversies, the true oracle on earth, 
which should deliver the true word instead of the old false one. 
And what could the natural sagacity of man devise so suitable for 
tills purpose, as those sacred words whicli had descended from Moses 



426 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and the prophets, from Christ and his apostles, and which the most 
ancient Catholic churches received from the learned fathers, and 
which Augustine and other great saints had acknowledged and 
denominated the canon of Scripture ? 

When the Reformation commenced, it is said, " the ignorance of 
the priests was extreme. Numbers could not read, and the very 
best seldom saw the Bible. Many doctors of the Sarbonne declared 
and confirmed it l)y an oath, that though they were above lifty j^ears 
of age, 3'et they had never known what a New Testament was." * 

Luther never saw a Bible till he was twenty-one years of age and 
had taken a degree in arts. Carlostadt had been a doctor of divinit}" 
eight years before he had read the Scriptures. Now when these 
very sagacious doctors had discovered these inestimable records of 
truth, it is not easy to imagine how great a field of reformation they 
would naturally present to their view in their then conflicting cir- 
cumstances. And assuredly there could be nothing found within 
the comprehension of human reason which would so naturally and 
so properl}' fill the place of that great tribunal, the Roman pontiff, 
as that which both the old and the new church allowed to be the 
word of God, the oracle of God on earth. This most wortliy rival 
of the Roman pontiff did not long elude the notice of the reformers ; 
therefore their appealing to a general council may have been but a 
mei'e evasion to serve their j)urpose for a time ; their grand appeal 
is more emphatically said to have been to the "Word of God."' The 
Scriptures had all along been preserved in the Catholic Church 
according to the edition formed in early times, and never, as yet, 
had been generally recognized as of any authority, only as they 
were expounded and applied by those who were called church 
guides. But in the hands of the reformers they were destined to a 
higher, a more legitimate and proper use. They were destined to 
be not only the tribunal at Avhich religious questions and contro- 
versies should be decided, but when properly translated and inter- 
preted they were also to enlighten and liberalize the nations. So 
important an office, however, could never have been assigned to a 
book which had for hundreds of years been in use, and at the dis- 
cretion of men, without its being thoroughly corrected and reformed ; 
hence the Scriptures had to undergo a new translation, Avhich Luther 
set about in the year 1521, and Avhich, he being afterwards assisted 
in his work hy Aurogallus, a profane author, was accomplished after 
a little while. It will be proper to notice here some of the uses to 
which the reformers put this new judge of controversies, or what 



* Eccles. Researches. 



PROTESTANT-EEFORMED CHUBCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 427 

they called " The voice of our only God," * and see how it came to 
obtain such a high degree of credit among the kings and priests of 
the reforming parties. 

King Henry VIII. had taken to wife Catharine of Aragon, his 
brother's widow, the mother of Mary who was afterwards queen ; 
but growing weary of so aged a consort, he applied to the Pope for a 
divorce, which the Holy father refused to grant. Henry being much 
perplexed thereabout, and hearing of the great wisdom of Mr. Thomas 
Cranmer, a fellow of the University of Cambridge, he sent for 
him to help him out of the difficulty. Cranmer had luckily before 
become acquainted with Luther's " Word of God," and by its power, 
in the hands of that dexterous doctor, Henry was finally released from 
Catherine, and launched into a sea of licentiousness. Cranmer, how- 
ever, first advised the King to consult all the principal Universities 
of Europe upon the question as to the validity or the non-validity 
of the marriage ; and they all rendered a decision favorable to the 
divorce, with the exception of the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. These, however, finally came also to a like decision favor- 
able to the King, as well as the Convocations both of Canterbury 
and York, which pronounced the King's marriage invalid, irregular, 
and contrary to the word of God, which no human power has au- 
thority to dispute. Cranmer also exerted his influence to have the 
consent of the Universities given to Henry's supremacy over the 
Church of England instead of the Pope's. He also himself became 
under Henry, Archbishop of Canterbury. After his second marriage, 
Cranmer had the honor of martyrdom conferred upon him by the 
Protestants, having been burned at the stake by the Papists, in the 
reign of Queen Mary. 

Bishop Cranmer, when on his trial, being accused of perjury, 
retorted the same charge upon his Papist judge the Bishop of Glou- 
cester. " And you, for your part, my lord, are perjured; for you sit 
judge for the Pope, and yet you did receive your bishopric from the 
King ; you have taken an oath to be an adversary to the realm." 
To which his lord and judge replied : " You are the cause that I did 
forsake the Pope, and did swear that he ought not to be Suiireme 
Head, and gave to King Henry VIII., that he ought to be, and this 
you made me do." Cranmer replied : '•'■ You report me ill, and say 
not the truth, and I will prove it here before you all. The truth is 
that m}^ predecessor. Archbishop Warham, gave the Supremacy to 
King Henry VIII. and said that he ought to have it before the bishop ot 
Rome, and that God's Word would agree therewith. And upon the 

* ScoU-h Confession, Art. XX. 



428 CREATOR AND ^uoMUS. 

same, was there sent to both the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, to know what the Word of God would do, touching the Su- 
premacj-, and it was reasoned upon and argued at length, so at the 
last both the Universities agreed to set their seal, and sent to King 
Henry VIII., to the Court, that he ought to be the Supreme Head and 
not the Pope." Thus, the Word of God was made by the Protestants 
instrumental in introducing the reformation into England. But could 
there have been a more presumptuous abuse of the name and Word 
of God, than to be thus used by such licentious and wicked men^ 
as a pretext for carrying out their political intrigues, and their selfish 
designs ? Whether or not will hereafter more fully appear. But how 
glaringly do they expose their deceitful and false foundation, when 
they acknowledge that they had to send to their Universities to know 
what the Word of God would do ! And after they had " reasoned upon 
it, and argued at length," and found which side of the arguments had 
the most votes, then they impiousl}- set to their seal what the Word 
of God did ! And would it not be truly wonderful, if in the circum- 
stances, there could be a man found in the University, who pos- 
sessed courage enough to support his conscience in casting his vote 
against that merciless tyrant Henry VIII ? 

Nothing could furnish the reforming doctors with a more popular 
objection against the Pope, than his universal law concerning the 
celibacy of the clergy, and the corruption of manners and morals 
which flowed from the Papal establishment. And after reasoning 
upon it, and arguing the matter at length in their independent and 
literal sense, they set to their seals that it was more consistent to 
follow the carnal Corinthians openly than to pretend to be followers 
of St. Paul, while living in the gratification of their carnal nature. 
And this has been their universal law and practice ever since, in op 
position to the decrees of their Mother Church. 

In the debate the Protestant priesthood charge their ancestors, 
the Popish clergy, with the vilest hypocrisy, and that they are the 
very ones who departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing 
spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having 
their conscience seared as with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry and 
commanding to abstain from meats; that they are the false Christs 
and the false prophets, the Avolves in sheep's clothing, the dogs and 
sorcerers, and hypocritical liars, and all the base characters spoken of 
in the New Testament ; in fine, that the Romish Church is the horri- 
ble harlot, the church malignant.* On the other hand the Popish 
doctors, who, from a pretended apostolic succession, antiquity, and 



* Scotnh Confession, Art. XVIII. 



PEOTESTANT-EEFORMED CHUCCH Al-JD STATE SYSTEMS, 429 

universal authority claim the pre-eminence, after vevy plausibly de- 
nying that they forbid to marry, and showing that marriage is, nev- 
ertheless, held in the highest respect by the Church, as one of the 
seven Sacraments, " a conjunction made and sanctified by God him- 
self," retorts back upon the Reformers the same charge of apostacy 
with all its base and licentious fruits. And from tlie history of their 
origin and their whole proceedings it would appear tliat the Reformers 
had no reason to refuse taking to themselves every base epithet which 
they had applied to the Popish doctors by whom they had been conse- 
crated. 

How far the first Reformers renounced both law and gospel and 
every obligation professedly held sacred by their mother Church in 
relation to chastity, and how wide a door they opened for licentious- 
ness, is sufiiciently manifest from their own histories. When Dr. 
Carlostadt broke his solemn oath of perpetual chastity which he had 
made to God, what kind of a reforming spirit did Luther manifest ? 
In his letter to Amsdorf, he very plainly shows what his soul was 
most intent upon promoting, as appears from the following words : 
*' The nuptials of Carlostadt please me wonderfully. I know the 
girl. The Lord strengthen him in the good example of restraining 
and lessening Popish licentiousness." But as Carlostadt put off his 
veil of Popish hypocrisy and made a bold provision for his licen- 
tiousness, it was accounted a good example, and Luther himself soon 
followed it. He married a woman whose name was Catharine Bora, 
by which act both of them broke their solemn vows of continenc}', 
which they had made before God. " Even his most devoted fol- 
lowers," says Dr. Robertson, " thought this step indecent, at a time 
when his country was involved in so many calamities, while his 
enemies never mentioned it with any softer appellation than that of 
incestuous or profane."* Some might be inclined to excuse Luther, 
by pleading his former ignorance while under the reign of supersti- 
tion ; that, however, would furnish but an unreasonable excuse, 
while he is represented as a man of such uncommon parts. Had he 
been forced to take such a vow, it would have naturally altered the 
case, but he had done it deliberately, from his own free choice, and 
that from the most solemn considerations. " The death of a com- 
panion killed by lightning at liis side in a violent thunder storm, 
made such impression on his mind as co-operated with his natural 
temper in inducing him to retire into a convent of Augustinian friars, 
where, without suffering the entreaties of his parents to divert him 



History of Charles V., Book IV. 



430 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

from what he thought his duty to God, he assumed the habit of that 
order.* 

" John Calvin was originally designed for the Church and had act- 
ually obtained a benefice;" of course he must have come under the 
common oath of continence. Yet he did not remain subject to his 
solemn oath ; for " he married the widow of an Anabaptist at Stras- 
bourg." Theodore Beza, Calvin's companion and successor, con- 
tributed no little to this part of the Reformation both by his practice 
and his writings. Robinson says that " thirteen years after his con- 
version he published a collection of Latin poems, the most lascivious 
that can be imagined. There is one epigram which in licentious- 
ness surpassed anything that the most unguarded debauchees have 
ever ventured to offer to the public eye." 

From such reforming priests let us descend to the princes, and 
see how far their popish licentiousness was restrained or lessened by 
their reformed gospel. It has been observed that Henry VIII. ob- 
tained a divorce from Catherine his wife, who was formerly his bro- 
thers's widow ; upon which he married Ann Boleyn, a woman of re- 
spectable family and connexions. Her he afterwards had beheaded, 
under pretence of adultery, but really to get her out of the way of 
another woman whom he had set his heart upon. This was Jane 
Seymour, whom he next married, and who died in child-bearing. 
Again he married, Ann of Cleves, whom he also divorced, and in her 
place married Catharine Howard. Her he beheaded. And his sixth 
and last wife was Catharine Parr. Such were some of the fruits of 
that good example which the first reformers set their followers, and 
which was sanctioned by their universities, which set to their seal 
that this same Henry should be supreme head of the Church instead 
of the Pope ; and such was the example of unrestrained licentious- 
ness and butchery which this supreme head of the Church openly 
manifested, as, perhaps, was never equalled by any one who bore 
that title before him. In tracing the progress of the Reformation in 
England we find Archbishop Cranmer making quite a conspicuous 
appearance. When on his trial in the reign of Queen Mary he was 
charged by Martin, a popish doctor, that "being yet free and before 
he entered into holy orders he married one Joan Black or Brown of 
Cambridge." That he married there one Joan, this he granted. 
That " after the death of the aforesaid he entered in-to holy orders, 
and after that he was made Archbishop by the Pope. That he, being 
in holy orders, married another woman as his second wife, named 
Ann, and so was twice married. That in the time of King Henry 

* Hist, of Charles V., Book H. 



PJROTESTANT-BEFOBMED CHUFwCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 431 

VIII. he kept the said wife secretly and had children by her.* This 
he also granted, affirming that it was better for him to have his own 
tlian to do like other priests, holding and keeping other men's wives." 
Martin, " Did you swear obedience to the see of Rome ? " Cranmer, 
" Indeed I did once swear unto the same."' Martin, " Yes, that you 
did twice, as appeareth from records and writings here ready to be 
showed. At your consecration you took two solemn oaths for your 
due obedience to be given to the see of Rome ; to become a true 
preacher or pastor of his flock; yet contrary to your oaih and alle- 
giance, for unity, you have sowed discord; for chastity, marriage and 
adultery ; for obedience, contention, and for faith you have been the 
author of all mischief." " What doctrine taught you, when you 
condemned Lambert, the sacramentary, in the King's presence at 
Whitehall ? " Cranmer, " I maintained then the papist doctrine." 
Martin, "Then from a Lutheran you became a Zuingiian, and for the 
same heresy you will help to burn Lambert the sacramentary, which 
you now call the Catholic faith and God's word." From these short 
hints it is easy to perceive who they were that answered to the char- 
acter of apostates from the faith and practice of the gospel. Or may 
we think that a vow or oath is of so little importance, that for the 
gratification of carnal lust it may be broken with impunity ? There- 
fore Martin, with the highest Catholic authority, addresses Cranmer 
as follows : " Christ foretold there should come against his churclx 
ravening wolves, and false apostles. But how shall we know them? 
Why, Christ teacheth us, saying : By their fruits ye shall know them. 
What are their fruits? St. Paul declareth : After the flesh they walk 
in concupiscence and uncleanness, they contemn power. Again, in 
the latter davs there shall be perilous times. Then shall there be 
men loving themselves, covetous, proud, disobedient to parents, 
treason workers. Whether those be not the fruits of your gospel I 
refer to this audience : Whether the said gospel began not with per- 
jury, proceeded with adultery, and ended in conspiracy." So much 
then did the Protestants gain by endeavoring to prove that the 
Papists forbid to marry, in order that they might be released from 
every obHgation to chastity, and take full liberty in their licentious 
practices ; so that in this respect they majf perhaps be thought to 
have reformed from bad to worse. f 

The Geneva and Scotch confession of Faith pointedly maintains 

* The criminality of this cliarjie is fouuded on liis violation of his oath of continenoy which 
he had taken as an ecclesiastic. 

t This matter, as to whether priests should marry or practice celihacy, is one which misht 
well be left to the discretion of themselves individually. They will find enouRh in the New 
Testament to guide them in this matter; but they will find that this rather inclines to celibacy 
■where it can be practised consistently with practical godliness. 



432 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

that : "A politic magistrate belongs to the church to Avhom it apper- 
taineth to root out all doctrine of devils and men, amonf>- which are 
ranked free will, vows of single life, etc., the punishment whereof, 
although God oftentimes deferreth in this life, yet after the oeneral 
resurrection, when our souls and bodies rise again to immortalitj-, 
they shall be damned to unquenchable fire." There certainly ap- 
pears to be system in this : and there appears also a good deal of 
ttark-mindedness and uncharitable self-confidence in these saintly 
Calvunsts, who condemn to eternal torments all who do not believe 
as they teach. Among other things which they say are to be utterly 
suppressed and abolished are vows of chastity and difference of meats 
for conscience sake, and affirm that '' all maintainers of such abomi- 
nations should be punished with the civil s\yord." And further, 
what they decreed by way of prohibition, or otherwise, they were 
able also to execute by their secular magistrates, so that their kirks 
and kingdoms should be wholly purged, as they expressed it, " from 
all idolaters and heretics, as Papists, Anabaptists, and such like 
limbs of Antichrist." To this may be added the public form of 
prayer of the English establishment : " Almighty God, from Avhom 
all power is derived, we humbly beseech thee to bless thy servant, 
the Lord Lieutenant of this kingdom, and grant that he may use the 
sword which our Sovereign (or Dread Sovereign) Lord the King 
hath committed into his hands for the protection of the true religion, 
established amongst us." We can easily perceive Aie inconsistency 
of offering up prayers to the Deity that he may protect and promote 
the peaceable religion of Jesus, by the terrors of the civil sword. 
But the religion established by the reformers differed essentially 
from that of the Gospel. They, in refusing nothing which tended 
to gratify their carnal lusts, rejected the self-denying religion of the 
Gospel altogether^ and attempted to sanctify by the Avordof God and 
their prayers, that which in itself was evil and corrupt ; Avhich Avas 
only an addition to their hypocrisy, and gave the creature of God 
the utmost occasion to groan under bondage, while enslaved to their 
erroneous and corrupt system. 

The following is an extract from a solemn confession of sins, 
found in the " Westminster Confession of Faith:" "We," that is, 
the reformed Calvinists, "noblemen, barons, gentlemen, burgesses, 
ministers of the Gospel, and commons of all sorts, do humbl}- and 
sincerely, as in His sight Avho is the searcher of hearts, acknowledge 
the many sins and transgressions of the land. We have done wick- 
edly, our kings and piinces, our nobles, our judges, our officers, our 
teachers and our jjeople, and have broken all the articles of the 
'Solemn League and Covenant' whicli we swore before God, 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 433 

angels and men. We have been so far from endeavoring the extir- 
pation of profaneness, and what is contrary to the power of godli- 
ness, that profanity hath been much winked at, and profane persons 
much countenanced, and many times employed, until iniquity and 
ungodliness hath gone over the face of the land as a flood. Nay, even 
those who had been looked upon as incendiaries, and upon whom tlie 
Lord had set marks of desperate malignancy, falsehood and deceit, 
were brought in as fit to manage public affairs. Nay, many of the 
nobility, gentry and burgesses, who should have been examples of 
godliness and sober walking unto others, have been ringleaders of 
excess and rioting. 

" Albeit, we be the Lord's people, yet to this day we have not 
made it our study that judicatories should consist of, and places of 
power and trust be filled with, men of blameless and Christian con- 
versation ; by which it hath come to pass that judicatories have been 
the seats of injustice and iniquity. 

" It were impossible to reckon up all tlie abominations that are in 
the land ; but the blasphemy of the name of the Lord, swearing by 
the creatures, profaning the Lord's day, uncleanness, drunkenness, 
excess and rioting, vanity of apparel, lying and deceit, railing and 
cursing, arbitrary and uncontrolled oppression, and grinding the 
faces of the poor by landlords and others in place and power, are 
become ordinary and common sins. There be many, who heretofore, 
have dealt deceitfully with the Lord, in swearing falsely by his 
name." 

What need of any more comment ? In its public confession this 
church sets forth its own character, exhibiting every mark of false- 
hearted hypocrisy in all the New Testament. From all lliat we have 
seen it is the most manifest judgment of truth that the reformers and 
the reformed did, in a large degree, fill up those characters of Anti- 
christ described before in the New Testament, who profess to know 
God, but in works deny him, being abominable and disobedient and to 
every good work reprobate. And thus the second beast exercises all 
the soul-destroying power of the first beast before him. 

" If we inquire from what articles of faith above or against our 
reason the Reformers have enfranchised their followers (for such 
enfranchisement is a benefit so far as it is compatible with truth and 
piety), we shall rather be surprised at their timidity than at their 
freedom. With the Jews they adopted the belief and defence of all 
the Hebrew Scriptures with all their prodigies apparent or real, from 
Vol. II.— 28 



434 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the garden of Eden to the visions of the prophet Daniel ; and they 
were bound like the Catholics to justify against the Jews the aboli- 
tion of a divine law. In the doctrines of the Trinity and the In- 
carnation the Reformers were severely orthodox ; they freely adopted 
the theology of the four or six first councils ; and with the Athana- 
sian creed they pronounced the eternal damnation of all who did 
not believe the Catholic faith. Transubstantiation or the change of 
the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, is a tenet that 
defies, not only the powers of argument but pleasantry: but instead 
of consulting the evidence of their senses, of their sight, their feel- 
ing and their taste, the first Reformers Avere entangled in their qwn 
scruples, and awed by the words in which Jesus is represented to 
have instituted the Sacrament. But the loss of any mysterious 
doctrine of the Mother Church which the Reformers saw fit to dis- 
pense with was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of 
original sin, redemption, faith, grace and predestination which they 
strained from the Epistles of St. Paul. These subtle questions had, 
undoubtedly, been prepared by the Fathers and school-men ; but 
their final improvement and popular use are due to the first Reformers, 
who enforced them as the absolute and essential terms of salvation. 
Thus far the weight of supernatural belief inclines against the Pro- 
testants ; and many a sober Christian," says Gibbon, " would prefer 
to admit that a wafer is God, than that God is a cruel and capricious 
tyrant. The patriot Reformers," tlie same author adds, " were ambi- 
tious of succeeding the tyrants whom they had dethroned. They 
imposed with equal rigor their creeds and confessions : they asserted 
the right of the magistrates to punish heretics Avith death. The 
pious or personal animosity of Calvin proscribed in Servetus, the 
guilt of his own rebellion ; and the flames of Smithfield in which he 
was afterwards consumed had been kindled for the Anabaptists by 
the zeal of Cranmer. The nature of the tiger was the same, but he was 
gradually de'prived of his teeth and fangs." * 

Henry VIII., being desirous of cementing a union with the German 
Reformers, sent, in 1.538, Christopher Mount to a congress which 
they held at Brunswick ; but this ambassador made but little pro- 
gress in his negotiation. The princes wished to know what were the 
articles in their confession which Henry disliked ; and they sent 
new ambassadors to him who had orders both to negotiate and to 
dispute. They endeavored to convince Henry that he was guilty of 
a mistake in administering the Eucharist in one kind onl}-, in allow- 
ing privates masses, and in requiring the celibacy of the clergy. 



* Milman's Gibbon's Rome, ch. LIV. 



PBOTESTANT-RBFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 435 

Henry would not by any means acknowledge any error in these par- 
ticulars ; and was liighly displeased that they should dare to pre- 
scribe rules to so great a monarch and theologian as he. He found 
arguments and syllogisms enough to defend his side of the question 
and he dismissed the ambassadors without coming to any conclusion. 
Jealous also that his own subjects should become so well versed in 
theology as to question his tenets, he used great precaution in pub- 
lishing the translation of the Scriptures which was finished for him 
this year. He would only allow a copy of it to be deposited in some 
parish churches, where it was fixed by a chain ; and he took care to 
inform the people, by proclamation, " that this indulgence was not 
the effect of his duty but of his goodness and liberality to them, 
who, therefore, should use it moderately for the increase of virtue, 
not of strife ; and he ordered that no one should read the Bible 
aloud so as to disturb the priest while he said mass nor presume to 
expound the doubtful places without advice from the learned." In 
these measures it is seen the Church of England, with its supreme 
head, still held a middle ground between the Papists and the Pro- 
testants. 

In the next year, 1539, he had the parliament to pass the bill of 
the Six Articles, or the bloody bill as it is justly termed by the Pro- 
testants. In this law the doctrine of the " real presence " was estab- 
lished, the communion in one kind, the perpetual obligation of vows 
of chastity, the utility of private masses, the celibacy of the clergy, 
and the necessity of auricular confession. The denial of the first 
article, that with regard to the " real presence," subjected the person 
to death by fire, and to the same forfeiture as in the cases of treason, 
and admitted not the privilege of abjuring; an unheard-of severity, 
says Hume, and unknown to the Inquisition itself. The denial of 
any of the other five articles, even though recanted, was punishable 
by the forfeiture of goods and chattels, and imprisonment during 
the king's pleasure ; an obstinate adherence to error or a relapse 
was adjudged to be felony, punishable with death. The marriage of 
priests was subjected to the same punishment. Their commerce 
with women was, on the first offence, forfeiture and imprisonment : 
on the second death. The abstaining from confession and from 
receiving the Eucharist at the appointed times subjected the person 
to fine and imprisonment during the king's 2)leiisure ; and if tlie 
criminal persevered after conviction, he was punisluible witli death 
and forfeiture as in cases of felony. Conunissioners were to be 
appointed by the king for inquiring into these heresies and irregular 
practices, and the criminals were to be tried by a jury. By this law 
the king laid his oppressive hand upon both Protestants and Papists •, 



436 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and another law, passed by the same parliament, gave to the king's 
Proclamation the same force as to a civil statute, thus making him 
as absolute a despot as ever despot was. 

In 1546 the king, who had been hitherto careful to keep the 
mass in Latin, was at last prevailed* on, priucij)ally bj Cranmer, to 
permit that the Litany, a considerable part of the service, should be 
celebrated in English ; and by this innovation he excited anew the 
hopes of the Reformers who had been somewhat discouraged by the 
severe law of the Six Articles. One petition of the new Litany was 
a prayer '' to save us from the tyranny of the bishop of Rome and 
from all his detestable enormities." Cranmer now employed his 
credit to draw Henry into farther innovations, and he took 
advantage of the absence of Gardiner, a prelate who was favorably 
disposed towards the old regime, and was now on embassy to the 
emperor Charles V. ; but Gardiner having written to the king that 
if he carried his opposition against the Romish religion to greater 
extremities Charles threatened to break off all commerce with him, 
the success of Cranmer's projects was for some time retarded. 

On the accession ot Edward VI., the son and successor of Henry 
VIII., the more advanced reforming party came into power in Eng- 
land. Cranmer, being appointed one of the executors of Henr}-, 
became the principal guardian and instructor of young Edward. 
The Duke of Somerset, Avho became protector, had long before been 
regarded as a secret partisan ot the Reformers; and being now freed 
from restraint, he made no scruple of discovering his intention to 
correct all abuses in the old religion, and to adopt still more of the 
Protestant innovations. " The protector," says Hume, " in his 
schemes for advancing the Reformation, had always recourse to the 
counsels of Cranmer, who being a man of moderation and prudence, 
was averse to all violent changes, and determined to bring over the 
people by insensible innovations to that system of doctrine and dis- 
cipline which he deemed the most pure and perfect. He probably, 
also, foresaw that a system which avoided the extremes of reforma- 
tion, Avas likely to be most lasting ; and that a devotion merely 
spiritual was fitted only for the first fervors of a new sect, and upon 
the relaxation of these, naturally gave place to the inroads of super- 
stition. He seems, therefore, to have intended the establishment of 
a hierarchy which, being suited to a great and settled government, 
might stand as a perpetual barrier against Rome, and might retain 
the reverence of the people even after their enthusiastic zeal was 
diminished or entirely destroyed." * This remark of Hume, that a 



* Hame"s History, Reign of Edward XL 



PitOTESTANT-KEFOKMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 437 

merely spiritual religion is fitted only for the first fervors of a new 
sect, we do not consider just. Behold, for example, the Mohamniedau 
i-eligion, which is very widely spread and established for over a dozen 
of centuries without any regular priesthood or spiritual hierarchy, 
and which is surely a spiritual religion, and we do not find that it is 
now more mixed with superstition than it was at its first promulga- 
tion. Also, Methodism in all its branches, which is likewise in 
effect a kind of Unitarianism (as is also Presbytejianism becoming 
now almost universally), and whicli is in some sense a spiritual 
religion, is not more mixed with superstition to-day than when it was 
first promulgated ; but it is remarkable that its priesthood, in some 
rare cases, displays a spirit of intolerance corresponding to their 
ignorance and bigotry, and of self-aggrandizement, arrogance, and 
hypocrisy resembling that of a lordly hierarchy.* Moreover, Meth- 
odism as almost all other systems within Christianity, is further sus- 
ceptible of improvement, for no object, whether it be of the sense or 
of the imagination, is to be worshipped. The more spiritual the 
worship the more acceptable to God, and the more permanent in its 
good effects. 

" A committee of bishops and divines," says Hume, " was ap- 
pointed by the council under the protector to compose a liturgy, 
and in the year 1549 they had accomplished the work committed to 
them. They proceeded in this undertaking on moderate principles, 
retaining as much of the ancient mass as the principles of the Re- 
formers would admit, and indulging nothing to the spirit of contra- 
diction which so naturally takes place in all great innovations ; and 
they flattered themselves that they had established a service in 
which every denomination of Christians might concur." f The 
mass had always hitlierto been celebrated in Latin, a practice which 
could not have been edifying to the people, but was useful to the 
clergy, in that it impressed the people with the sense of some mys- 
terious virtue in these rites. But the Reformers pretended in some 
few particulars to encourage private judgment in the laity. And 
the translation of the liturgy, as well as of the Bible, into their 
vulgar tongue appeared more comformable to the genius of their 
sect ; and this innovation, with the retrenclung of ])rayers to the 
saints and of some superstitious ceremonies, was the cliief difference 
between the old mass and the new liturgy of the Cliurch of England. 
This form of worship was established by Parliament in all the 
Churches of the Kingdom, and a uniformity was ordained to be 



* This statement is exceptional, not soneral, and is also apjilinible in some degree to all the 
other Christian systems whose priesthoods are not recognized hierarchies 
t Hume, Edward VI. 



438 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

observed in all the rites and ceremonies. Tlie same parliament en- 
acted a law permitting the marriage of priests, and in the preamble 
confesses " That it were better tor priests and the ministers of the 
church to live chaste and without marriage, and it were much to be 
wished that thev would of themselves abstain." 

The doctrine of the "real j^jresence,"' though tacitly condemned, 
b}^ the Jiew liturgy and by the abolition of many of the ancient 
rites, still retained some hold on the minds of the people. And it 
Avas the last doctrine of popery that came to be pretty universally 
abandoned by the English. Bishops Bonner and Gardiner for in- 
culcating this doctrine were committed to prison, and there were 
man}- other instances of persecution for non-conformity with the new 
religion derived from the bigotry and rancor of theologians. 

" Though the Protestant divines," says Hume, speaking with 
reference to this time, '' had ventured to renounce opuiions deemed 
certain during many ages, they regarded, in their turn, the new 
system as so certain, that they would suffer no contradiction with 
regard to it ; and they were ready to burn, in the same flames from 
which they themselves had so narrowly escaped, every one that had 
the assurance to differ Avith them. A commission by act of council 
was granted to the primate and some others, to examine and search 
after all Anabaptists, heretics, or contemners of the Book of Common 
Prayer. The commissioners Avere enjoined to reclaim them if possi- 
ble, to impose penance upon them, and to give them absohition ; or 
if these criminals were obstinate, to excommunicate and imprison 
them, and to deliA-er them over to the secular arm : and in the exe- 
cution of this charge they Avere not bound to obserA-e the ordinary 
methods of trial : the forms of laAv were dispensed Avith ; and if any 
statutes happened to interfere Avith the powers of the commission, 
they were overruled and abrogated by the council." * Thus all 
were compelled to worship this image of the Romish systeni of re- 
ligion. A woman named Joan Bocher, or Joan of Kent, accused of 
heresy, was committed to the flames. Afterwards a Dutchman named 
Van Paris, accused of the heresA" then called Arianism, suffered the 
same cruel death. '• These rigorous metliods of proceeding," says 
Hume, '• soon brought the whole nation to a conformity seeming or 
real Avith the doctrine and the new liturgy. — To dissent from the 
religion of the magistrate was at this time iiniA'ersallv conceiA"ed and 
felt to be as criminal as to question his title, or rebel against his 
authority." 

This state of things was changed bj- the accession of Mar}-, and 



* Hume: Edward. \1. 



PROTESTANT-EEFORMED CHURCH AND ?TATE SYSTEMS, 439 

the progress of the Reformation was retarded in England for four or 
five years, 1553-1558. She retaliated on the Protestants, and during 
her short reign many of the most eminent of them, including the 
bishops Hooper, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, were burned at the 
stake. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth in 1558, the Protestant 
religion was again restored. During her reign of 45 years, the non- 
conformists, the Papists in particular, suffered equal rigors as the 
Protestants did in the reign of Mary. Under this Queen, whom the 
Protestants of a later day have called " that bright occidental star," * 
it was decreed that whosoever, in any way, reconciled any one to the 
Church of Rome, or was himself reconciled thereto, was declared to be 
guilty of treason. To say mass was subjected to the penalty of a year's 
imprisonment and a fine of two hundred marks. The being present 
at mass was punishable by a year's imprisonment, and a fine of one 
hundred marks. f A fine of twenty pounds was imposed for being 
absent from church a month. A severe law was also enacted against 
Jesuits and popish priests. The most reliable historians, and some 
even of those who defend the Queen's measures, allow that in ten 
years fifty priests were executed, and fifty banished. This Queen, as 
her father, Henry VHL, appears to have had an absolute control of 
the parliament. " In so great awe did the commons stand of every 
courtier as well as the crown," says Hume, " that they durst use no 
freedom of speech which they thought would give the least offence 
to any of them." The same author says : " The Queen appeared 
rather more anxious to keep a strict hand over the Puritans ; who, 
though their pretensions were not so immediately dangerous to her 
authority, seemed to be actuated by a more unreasonable obstinacy, 
and to retain claims of which both in civil and ecclesiastical matters, 
it was as yet difficult to discern the full scope and intention. Some 
secret attempts of that sect to establish a second congregation and 
discipline, had been carefully suppressed in the beginning of 
this reign ; and when any of the established clergy discovered a 
tendency to their principles by omitting the legal habits and cere- 
monies, the Queen had shown a determined resolution to punish them 
b}' fines and deprivations ; though her orders to that purpose had 
been frequently eluded by the secret protection which these sectaries 
received from some of her most considerable courtiers." 

It is seen, therefore, that the English Protestant Church, as the 
Lutheran and others, followed the example of its Mother Church of 
Rome, in compelling all to conform to it. But the most powerful 

* See Preface to Kin;; James' transUUioii of the Bible. 
t A mark equalled 13s. 4d. Euglish; about $3.22. 



440 CKJiATOK AND COSMOS. 

and effective instrument of persecution, as well as the most perfect 
substitute fur Papal cruelty, during the reign of Elizabeth, was the 
Ecclesiastical Court of High Commission, established by John Whit- 
gift, the Queen's primate, in 1584. He appointed forty-four com- 
missioners, twelve of whom were ecclesiastics, to visit and reform all 
errors, heresies, schisms, etc., to regulate all religious opinions, to 
puuisli all breaches of uniformity in the exercise of public worship ; 
to make inquiry, not only by legal methods of juries and witnesses, 
but by any other means which they could devise, by rack, by torture, 
inquisition, by imprisonment, etc." When they found reason to sus- 
pect any person they administered to him an oath called ex officio, by 
Avhich he was bound to answer all questions, and might thereby be 
obliged to accuse himself or his most intimate friends. The fines 
which they levied were discretionary, and often occasioned the 
total ruin of the offender, contrary to the old laws of the kingdom, 
by which this commission was not bound. The imprisonments to 
Avhich they subjected any delinquent were limited to no rule but 
their own pleasure. " These ecclesiastical commissioners," says the 
historian,* " were liable to no control ; in a word, this court was a 
real inquisition, attended with all the iniquities as well as cruelties in- 
separable from that tribunal. 

The spirit of this bloody inquisition continued through the reign 
of King James I., who is canonized in the preface to the translation 
of the Bible, effected under his reign, as " The Most High and 
Mighty Prince James." " Under this reign," says Hume, "■ there 
Avas no toleration for the different sects. f Two heretics, under the 
title of Arians, were burned to death. A professor of theology, 
named Vorstius, a disciple of Arminius, was called from a German 
to a Dutch university, in the year 1611 ; and, as he differed from 
his Britannic Majesty, who prided himself highly upon his theologi- 
cal and scholastic learning, in some nice questions concerning the 
intimate essence and secret decrees of God, he was considered 
as a dangerous rival in scholastic fame, and was at last obliged to 
yield to the legions of that royal doctor, whose syllogisms he might 
have refuted or eluded. James, in other incidents of whose reign 
vigor was wanting, here behaved even with haughtiness and inso- 
lence ; and the States were obliged, after several remonstrances, to 
deprive Vorstius of his chair, and to banish him from their dominion. 
The King carried his animosity against that professor no farther ; 
though he had very charitably hinted to the States, " That, as to the 
burning of Vorstius for his blasphemies and atheism, he left them to 



* Hume: Reisra of Elizabeth. t Hume : Reiirii of James I. 



PROTESTANT-KE3'On:\IED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 441 

their own Christian wisdom ; but surely never heretic better deserved 
the flames.'' "It is remarkable," says Hume, "that at this perioJ, 
all over Europe, except in Holland alone, the practice of burning 
heretics still prevailed, even in Protestant countries ; and instances 
were not wanting, even in England, during the reign of James." 

In all tliis we see that the monarch gave his influence to the new 
established religion, and caused that " as many as would not wor- 
ship the image of the beast should be killed." 

High Churchism, or Ritualism, was never carried to a higher pitch 
than by Bishop Laud, in the reign of Charles I., the son and succes- 
sor of James. This King, a severely high churchman, endeavored 
to introduce the English mode of worship into Scotland, but met with 
such a determined opposition from the people there, most of whom 
were attached to the Presbyterian mode of worship, that he failed in 
accomplishing his object. To show the pitch to which bishop Laud 
brought affairs in the Church of England dui'ing his reign, we may 
give an account of the process by which that prelate consecrated St. 
Catharine's Church. On the bishop's approach to the west door of 
the church, a loud voice cried : " Open, open, ye everlasting doors, 
that tlie king of glory may come in ! " Immediately the doors of the 
church flew open and the prelate entered. Falling on his knees, with 
eyes uplifted and arms expanded, he uttered these words : " This 
place is holy ; the ground is holy ; in the name of the Father, Son 
and Holy Ghost, I pronounce it holy." Going toward the chajicel he 
several times took up from the floor some of the dust and threw it 
into the air. When he approached, with his attendants, near to the 
communion table, he bowed frequently toward it. And, on their re- 
turn, they went round the church, repeating, as they marched along, 
some of the psalms ; and then repeated a form of prayer which con- 
cluded with these words: "We consecrate this church and separate 
it unto Thee as holy ground, not to be profaned any more to common 
uses." After this, the bishop, standing near the communion table, 
pronounced many imprecations upon such as should afterwards pol- 
lute this holy place by musters of soldiers or keeping in it profane 
law courts or carrying burdens through it. On the conclusion of 
every curse he bowed towards the earth and cried : " Let all the 
people say. Amen." 

The imprecations being all so piously finished, there were poured 
out a number of blessings upon such as liad given or should here- 
after give to it any chalices, plate, ornaments or utensils. At every 
benediction he, in like manner, bowed toward the east and cried : 
" Let all the people say. Amen." The sermon now followed, after 
which the bishop consecrated and administered the sacrament iu 



442 CBEATOE AND COSMOS. 

tlie following manner : As he approached the communion table he 
made many low reverences ; and coming np to that part of the table 
where the bread and wine lay, he bowed seven times. After the 
reading of many prayers he approached the sacramental elements 
and gently lifted up the corner of the napkin in which the bread 
was placed. When he beheld the bread he suddenly let fall the 
napkin, flew back a step or two, bowed three several times toward 
the bread ; then he drew nigh again, opened the napkin and bowed 
as before. Next he laid his hand upon the cup which contained the 
wine and had a cover upon it. He let go the cup, fell back, and 
bowed three times toward it. He approached again and, lifting the 
cover, peeped into the cup. Seeing the wine, he let fall the cover, 
started back, and bow*ed as before. Then he received the sacrament 
and gave it to others. And after many prayers said, the ceremony 
of the consecration ended. The walls and floor and roof of the 
fabric were then supposed to be sufficiently holy. Orders were 
given and rigorously insisted on, that the communion table should 
be removed from the middle of the area where it hitherto stood iu 
all the churches except in cathedrals. It was placed at the east 
end, railed in, and denominated an altar : as the clergyman who 
officiated received commonly the appellation of peiest. The clergj^ 
were rigorously compelled to observe every ceremony, and were 
suspended and deposed by the High Commission Court if they were 
found to neglect any of them. Oaths were also imposed upon the 
churchwardens by many of the bishops ; and they were sworn to 
inform against any one who acted contrary to the ecclesiastical 
canons. The popish practices which Avere introduced into the 
Church during this reign had so scandalized the minds of the stricter 
Protestants that they zealously opposed them and gladly suffered 
for their principles. " All the severities, indeed, of this reign,'' says 
Hume, " were exercised against those who triumphed in their suffer- 
ings, who courted persecution and braved authority.'" * The Puritan 
and Presbj'terian party attaining the majority in the parliament in the 
latter part of this reign, exercised, in their turn, considerable cruelties, 
beheaded Laud, who haa been made Archbishop of Canterbury, as 
well as the King himself ; and put to death a great number who 
were attached to the party of the King and Church. Oliver Crom- 
well and his son Richard, at the head of the parliamentary party, 
governed England for about a dozen of years, 1649-1660, at the end 
of which period Charles II., the son of the late king, was restored to 
the throne, and another series of butcheries were enacted upon the 



* Hume: Keiiru of Charles I. 



■PEOTESTANT-EEFOEMED CHUECH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 443 

parliamentarians, especially those who were concerned in the late 
king's death. 

By the course which the Puritans and Presbyterians pursued when 
they were in power we see that whatever be the doctrines men pro- 
fess, however spiiitual and free from idolatrous tint, and however 
fervent and enthusiastic these men be iu their religious devotions 
and professions, they still, when they come into power, are not un- 
likely to enact like cruelties with other more formal and idolatrous 
religionists, though probably not to the same extent. And all these 
developments are simply the outworking of human nature, perhaps, 
in enthusiastic devotion, or in excessive zeal in supporting some 
favorite idea, or in bigotry or hatred, or personal animosity, or pecu- 
liarity of temper and disposition in individuals. They are the out- 
working of the principles of human nature which comprises in itself 
the two extremes of bad and good ; and these principles are developed 
in actions, the motives of which are attributed to religion, or God, 
or something else, which latter are merely ideas and may mean really 
nothing more. 

From the beginning of tlie reign of Henry VIII. down to after 
the time which we are now considering, say to the accession of Wil- 
liam III., the rulers of England were distinguished for their cruelties 
in persecuting and killing their fellow-men, and this especially in 
support of an ecclesiastical system which they had establislied. They 
compelled all within the range of their power to bend to tlieir idea, 
their will, or their caprice. 

But what must we think of any religion which will use such un- 
speakably barbarous means to compel people to profess it, as have 
been employed by the Church of England, and some other branches 
of the reformatory system ? What must we think of these thorough- 
ly orthodox, Trinitarian, Catholic systems after all this? Men com- 
pelling others to worship the image wliich they pleased to set up, 
and which was after their ideal? A specimen of the barbarous 
decrees and tyrannical laws establislied in those times down to the 
reign of Charles II., may be seen in the Westminster Confession of 
Faith and National Covenant. We have seen therefore, how that he 
had power to give an influence to the image of the beast, "that the 
image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would 
not worship the image of the beast to be killed." We have seen how 
that this was fulfilled to perfection literally in both the German and 
English reformed systems. But then this prophetic passage may have 
another and more spiritual meaning, a meaning allied to that of the 
passage in verses 13 and 14, where it it is said "he doeth great won- 
ders (signs) etc., in the sig-ht of the beast." This may refer to aspir- 



444 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

itual power or influence which the reformed hierarchj'- would exercise, 
either arising from their superior knowledge or from their art, or 
from both of these combined, enabling them to communicate with 
each other or with whom they would spirituall}-, — that the image of 
the beast should speak spiritually as well as literally, — cause men to 
understand their ideas by spiritual communication in words or other- 
wise, even though they were absent from them, and produce signs in 
the sight, that is, in the imagination of any whose minds were Aveak 
enough to yield to their influence. This power of spiritually in- 
fluencing, even to the extent of spiritual verbal communication, the 
reformed hierarchies exercise, or pretend to exercise, as well as the 
Roman Catholic. We do not assert that every member of these 
hierarchies, from the lowest deacon or presbyter up to the archbishop 
or the prince that sits on the throne, the supreme head of the Church, 
exercises or tries to exercise it, but we do say that the power of 
spirituall}' communicating, and of influencing for bad or good is in 
these systems, and that it is exercised by their priesthoods in general. 
Nor does this power of spiritually communicating and influencing 
belong to either one of the reformed systems, such as the Lutheran 
or the Church of England in particular, but it is inherent in all the 
systems, by whatever names they are called, and exercised to a 
greater or less extent by all the priesthoods. Let a person for 
instance live strictly in accordance with any one of these systems, 
and he may experience a pleasant favorable influence, together with 
a very discontented spirit, which last may arise to him from the er- 
roneousness of the system to which he is attached ; or he may possibly 
not have any experience in particular beyond that of an ordinary life 
from his being attached to this system, and may not experience any 
unfavorable influence working against him. But let him depart from 
this particular system of religion and act independently of it, or it 
may be somewhat in opposition to it, and he will be very likely to have 
full experience of an influence operating unfavorably to him or against 
him. This influence he may find to speak tohim, yea, keep speaking 
to him, and he may find occasionally that others also, even entire 
strangers to him, have acquired some knowledge of him, which he 
has the strongest reason to suspect or may know positively, they 
could not have acquired otherwise than by spiritual communication ; 
this knowlege, however, which may arise to these others from a dream or 
a vision, or a spiritual verbal communication or a transient idea passing 
throueh the mind, is not to be depended upon by those who have it, nor 
should it really count anything for or against the person with refer- 
ence to whom it is or seems to be ; the human being is above all 
dreams and visions and spiritual communications or phenomena, and 



PROTESTANT-EEFOKMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 4'45 

should be allowed to speak and act, and should speak and act for 
hhnself; aud thus by his words and actions show forth what he is, 
or in other words, be justified or condemned ; we should always 
judge the best of men until they prove themselves unworthy of our 
confidence. 

This power of influence pervades all the reformatoiy systems and 
each reformed system in particular, as well as it does tlie Romish, or 
Grreek, or other branch of the Catholic Church, or the whole Catho- 
lic Church in general. But each particular system within this Cath- 
olic or universal Church appears to have an influence which operates 
favorably to itself or against those that act unfavorably to it. Each 
of these systems is as it were a wheel within a wheel extending out- 
wards, towards universality ; and thus there is a war continually 
waging in the invisible spiritual world as well as in the visible 
natural world.* If this war is waged by invisible powers it is none 
the less real, producing often important effects. But if one will 
intelligently and on conscientious grounds separate from any of 
these religious systems, he should not yield again to it on account 
of the persecuting influence which he experiences ; but should re- 
solve, in all reasonable self-denial, to stand on the side of truth aud 
godliness ; this doing he will experience such strength, courage, and 
comfort as he never did in the system he has left. One should, how- 
ever, in all circumstances exercise a strong unwavering faith in the 
power and benevolence of the Deity, which will not fail to produce 
excellent effects in and for him. 

We see then what a strong, an oppressive, and an effective power 
was exercised by the two great reformed systems, Lutheran and Cal- 
vinistic, in compelling conformity to their respective establishments 
within their respective, dominions. The invisible power of the 
priestly craft acted in accordance with the visible power of the sec- 
ular government in compelling obedience to their religious systems. 
Thus, the nonconformists were killed not only literallj^ by the civil 
power, but spiritually by the priestly power ; so that the prophecy 
means that at the time when the reformed systems should be estalv 
lishing and at other subsequent times all who would not conform to 
the legal beliefs and modes of worship should be so looked upon by 
the ruling authorities and laws as if they Avere dead carcases. In 
the reformed church in which we ourself was born and to wliich we 
have given our youthful attendance for some time, we have been 
accustomed to hear the power, the virtue, the antiquity, the apostol- 
ical succession of the ministry, sacramental grace, and the prestige 
of the Church proclaimed from the pulpit and dwelt upon nuich more 
largely in the discourses than simple faith in the one supreme and 



446 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

invisible God with its attendant good works. This is so to a greater 
or less extent in all the branches o± the reformator}^ system : but the 
further these branch systems become removed from the English and 
Lutheran models the more spiritual their worship becomes, althouoh 
it is to be regretted, they all as yet hold to the same creeds as their 
fundamental doctrines. And now we will ask, how long are these 
things going to continue ? How long will the infinite and glorious 
creator endure that the worship due to Him alone shall be oiven to 
the creatures of his hand? Is it not wrong to attract the attention 
of the worshippers from their Almiglit}- omnipresent but invisible 
creator, and fix it upon the gaudy trappings and pompous ceremonies 
of man's invention, i. e., the decorations of the " image,"' the trap- 
pings of the " beast," and to treat them, who conscientiously refuse 
to give their attention to such things as if they were lifeless carcases ? 
But it has been so in all the ages of history ; the humble, intelligent 
worshippers of the true God, the despisers of the pomps, and pleas- 
ures, and fashions of the world, have been looked upon as the off- 
scouring of all things, as the filth of the earth. So were the primi- 
tive Christians looked upon b}- the majesty of Pagan and Jewish 
established systems. So were the Paulicians, the Waldenses, the 
Albigenses and all the other heretics of Christendom looked upon 
and treated for over a dozen of centuries by the sublime majesty of 
the established orthodox systems of the Roman empire. And so 
contemptuously and cruelly were all the reputed heretics and non- 
conformists looked upon and treated by the reformed establishments. 
How long will it be, Ave repeat, before men universally, especially 
those who profess to be Christians, subdue in themselves the spirit 
of i^ride and selfishness, and cultivate the principle of godliness, de- 
veloping all the graces of the true Christian character ? 

The 69th Article, Parliament 6th of James VI. of Scotland, 
declares " that there is no face of kirk, nor other face of religion than 
is presently at this time established Avithin this realm, Avhich there- 
fore is ever styled God's true religion and a perfect religion, which 
by manifold acts of parliament all within this realm are bound to 
profess, to subscribe tiie articles thereof, the confession of faith, to 
recant all doctrines and errors rejDugnant to any of the said articles." 
'•And all magistrates on the one part are ordained to search, appre- 
hend, and punish all contraveners. That all kings and princes at 
their coronation shall make their solemn oath in the presence of God 
that they shall be careful to root out of their empire all lieretics." 

In the solemn League and coA'enant which Avas subscribed by the 
two liouses of parliament and the assembly of divines in England as 
a compact between the Scotch and English nations at the time AA-hen 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 447 

the Puritan and Presbyterian elements predominated in the nation 
in the latter part of the reign of Charles I.,* they bound themselves to 
preserve the reformed religion in the three kingdoms; to promote a uni- 
formity in doctrine and discipline ; to extirpate popery and prelacy ; 
to maintain the privileges of parliament and the liberties of the people ; 
to defend his majesty's person and authority in the preservation and 
defence of the true religion and the liberties of the kingdom, to dis- 
cover incendiaries and malignants, that they might receive condign 
punishment, &c." This being read in the presence of both houses 
of parliament at Westminster, it was ordered that it should be com- 
plied with, by all persons on the following Sunday in their respective 
parishes. 

By the Act of Uniformity passed in the reign of Charles II. on the 
restoration of the king and the English Church, it was required that 
every clergyman should be re-ordained, if he had not before received 
episcopal ordination ; should declare his assent to everything con- 
tained in the Book of Common Prayer; should take the oath of can- 
onical obedience ; should abjure the solemn League and covenant ; 
and should renounce the principle of taking up arms on any pretence 
whatever against the king. The terms of subscription had now been 
made so strict and rigid, that the more scrupulous among the pres- 
byterians and independents would not receive it, and about two 
thousand of the clergy relinquished their cures, preferring, for the 
most part, to rely for support upon the humane charity of society 
than renounce their principles, which it is observed that on other 
occasions they were seen to warp or elude. f Yet Charles 11. was 
not as rigid an Episcopalian as his predecessors the English monarchs, 
and the objection tliat he made to professing and supporting the 
Presbyterian form was " that Presbyterianisra, he thought, was not a 
religion for a gentleman," an expression which, we must allow, does 
not of itself reflect any discredit upon Presbyterianism. Thus we 
see, whichever party was in power, puritanical or prelatic, in the re- 
formed dominions, an equal compliance Avas required from the lui- 
tion to the then established religion. 

We return to the prophecy again and find it to read thus : Verse 
16 : " And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free 
and bond, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foi'ehead." 
Under the heads of small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, 
are included all the inhabitants of a country. Therefore this verse 
is correctly rendered, " he ( /. c, the highest authority) causes all the 
people in his dominions to submit to this, that they, that is the law- 



* Hume: Charles I. t nmne : Charles II. 



448 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

fully constituted authorities, ecclesiastical or civil, should give them 
a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. The fulfilment of 
this is contained in the conformity, voluntary or involuntary on their 
part, of all the inhabitants of the reformed dominions to the relioion 
established therein by law. Upon this mark or their conformity to 
all the rules and regulations of the Church would depend their status 
as citizens. Non-conformity implied imprisonment, banishment or 
death. All this has been transacted in the nations in which the Re- 
formation took place. In Lutheran or Calvinistic Germany and in 
other reformed countries of Europe as well as in Britain, all citizens 
were compelled to conform to the systems of religion established in 
them respectively. 

But as to what the mark was particularly which should be im- 
posed upon the right hand or upon the forehead there has been much 
surmising and research by the learned ; many and good people have 
considered that the mark on the right hand is the ring imposed 
thereon in the marriage ceremony ; and that the mark on the forehead 
is the sign of the cross made thereon by the priest in the ceremony oi 
baptism in the Church of England, and the Episcopal Church sprung 
from it, in common with the Romish Church. In some of the Pro- 
testant churches, the person is baptized by the minister sprinkling 
a little water on the forehead, or by immersing the person beneath 
water and repeating the accustomed formula of words, that is, the 
person is baptized whether by immersion or sprinkling in the name, 
or into the name of the Trinity. But in the Church of England 
and the Episcopal Church, its offspring, together with sprinkling a 
little water on the forehead, the sign of a cross is made thereon and 
also the accustomed orthodox formula of words is used. This sign 
of a cross, however, being made merely with the tip of the priest's 
fingers, leaves no apparent mark, and only denotes that the baptized 
person is received into the Church, or, as it is called, the kingdom of 
Christ ; and that the person is intended to be the servant or soldier 
of Christ, when he becomes able to judge for himself. We, the 
writer, having not got married, know not how they manipulate the 
ring in that ceremony ; but some intelligent men have expressed the 
opinion that the conditionsof this prophetical mark on the right hand 
Avere fulfilled in Lutheran Germany, in all being obliged to subscribe 
the Lutheran " Confession of Faith " with the risiht hand, or to swear 
to the same with the right hand uplifted ; and in Calvinistic Britain 
by the people being required to swear to the terms of the interna- 
tional covenant with the right hand uplifted in the latter part of the 
reign of Charles I., as Ave have mentioned above. The latter would 
appear to be the better representation of the mark upon the right 



PROTESTANT-KEFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 449 

hand; for although we read of men and women being tempted to 
m,UTy, a temptation to which they should never yield irrationally 
and without mature consideration ; and of the leformed priests being 
allowed to marry or abs^tain from marrying as they pleased, still we 
never learn that men and women in any nation or church were in 
general restrained to marry, and so get the ring as a mark on their 
right hand. But the prophecy means that all would be required to 
receive a mark upon their right hand or on their forehead. But more, 
the Anabaptists, for renouncing the mark on the right hand or on the 
foreliead, were decreed to be rooted out of the Protestant dominions.* 
•' Moreover, the civil and ecclesiastical powers ordain and command 
that their said Confession of Faith be subsciibed by all his Majesty's 
subjects, of what rank and quality soever under all civil pains." 

They caused all to receive the oath, all masters of universities, 
colleges and schools ; all scholars at the passing of their degrees ; 
and finally all members of the church and kingdom ; thus compre- 
hending under their mark both small and great, rich and poor, free 
and bond. 

Verse 17 : " And that no man might buy or sell save he that had 
the mark, (or) the name of the beast or the number of his name." 
After what has been stated it will not be difficult to understand this. 
It means that a state of things would exist when these forcible meas- 
ures should be put in practice to compel universal conformity and 
compliance with the established ordinances, creeds and confessions 
of the national religions in which it might properly be said that those 
who could not be prevailed upon to conform, profess, or comply, that 
is, to receive the mark of this symbolic beast, either by a sign of a 
cross on the forehead at the baptism, or by signing a confession of 
faith, a university test, or the like, with the right hand, or by swear- 
mg to the terms of the international covenant with the right hand 
uplifted, " could not buy or sell," would be deprived by the law, or 
by the ruling power which was a standing law in those dominions, 
of all civil privileges, and condemned to suffer penalties or banished. 

The reformatory mark (yafxiypji) of a Christian was always an 
outward ceremony, a sign of a cross, a subscription, an oath, or a 
profession ; and so the}'' caused all in their dominions, both small and 
great, to receive that Christian character or mark. All the masters 
and scholars, and ministers, such doubtless as made merchandise of 
the Gospel, as well as merchants in burgh and all who paid rent to 
the Kirk must receive the true Orthodox Christian " character," 
the sealing ordinance, the only mark of God's true religion. The 



* Westiiiiuster Confession of Fiiitli. 

Vol. II.— 29 



450 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

-Reformers in North Britain in coming into power decreed "that the 
whole rent of the Kirk abused in papistry shall be referred again to 
the Kirk. That tithes, the uppermost cloth, the clerk mail, the 
peace-offerings, tithe ale ; all friaries, nunneries, chanteries, chaplain- 
ries, etc., be reduced to the help of the Kirk : the deacons disponing 
them to the ministry ; and, moreover, that merchants and craftsmen 
in burgh should contribute to the support of the Kirk." * 

That man could not in this life rise to anything higher than him- 
self, that he must continue to be fallen man, mere man, a daily trans- 
gressor of the commandments of God, was the distinguishing Pro- 
testant doctrine, and to this they must all subscribe, covenant and 
swear, and the seal of this character is their distizaguishing point of 
communion. 

Moreover, the mark on the forehead or on the right hand would 
especially indicate the slavery or entire subjection of mind and body 
into which mankind should be brought by this power ; the forehead, 
symbolizing the mental or intellectual and rational faculties; the 
right hand, the principal organ of corporeal labor, the bodily faculties. 
The entire subjection of mind and body in the great mass of the peo- 
ple was actually achieved by the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches 
in all Christendom and maintained for many ages; and it had been 
accomplished also to a great extent, especially in the principal 
branches of the Reformed Church, the Lutheran and English system. 
The priesthoods, by the exercise of their arts, have brought men's 
minds into such subjection that they were afraid to use their reason 
to think independently about matters, lest the priest might know 
what they were thinking about — might be acquainted with their 
secret thoughts. This is so to a great extent to-day in all the Chris- 
tian systems of religion. Men should never be afraid to use their 
reason ; they should think as freely and as well as they please ; but by 
their words alone and by their actions they shall be justified or con- 
demned. The subjection of the minds of the people to the priests, 
so as to interfere with the exercise of reason or freedom of expression, 
is the surest sign of a triumph over reason, and the most effectual 
mark of the beast. Until men's minds become thus enslaved their 
bodies will most probably remain unsubdued ; for the mind is the 
governor and director of the body, the latter follows and is obedient 
to the former. So men should, above all things, not neglect to use 
their reason freely, fearlessly, and aright, for it is the highest and 
noblest faculty Avith which man is endowed, and he should appreciate 
and use it, and not permit any man or men to enslave it and him 

* Book of Discipline, ch. 17. 



ORTHODOX CATHOLIC CHRISTENDOM. 451 

most basely with it. But while mm freely use and cultivate their 
reason and follow the course which it leads them in, they should, at 
the same time, always remember to cultivate modesty and exercise 
c'harity. 

Verse 18th and last : " Here is wisdom. Let him that hath un- 
derstanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a 
man ; and his number is six hundred three score and six." The 
wisdom here relates to what follows, and particularly to the enigma 
of the number of the beast. It means that it Avould require Avisdom 
to understand it ; that only the same spirit could understand it 
aright as that which inspired and actuated the prophet who foretold 
it; that few could understand it. In the explanation of this verse 
two things shall have to be distinctly and relatively considered, the 
mark and name of the beast, the number really being given. In 
chapter XIV., 11, the mark is called " the mark of the beast's name ; " 
and in chapters XV., 2, XIII., 17, the number is called " the num- 
ber of the beast's name," ; which according to the last clause of verse 
18 of this chapter XIII. is in the original Greek /r-, which in English 
computation is 666. The ancient Greeks a-; well as the Romans used 
their alphabetic characters instead of figures to express numbers. 

Thus the first character ^ equals 600 
" second " ,- " 60 
" third " c=st" 6 



Which added together " 666 

And in the letters of our alphabet / equals Ch. 

a a u (( (( a a iz u -^-i 

(( 11 u ii. it. ii. a - u st * 

Which put together form Chxist, a specious resemblance of the name 
Christ. 

The two first radical letters of the name Christ Cli. R., which are 
the first radicals of the mark, Charagma, and constituted the imjier- 
ial monogram of the Christian Roman Empire, represent 700, the 
perfect number. The Ch, x, st, represent 066, an imperfect number, 
a triple falling away, (aposkisy) from septenary perfection, as Words- 
Avorth calls it. The early copies A and Vulgate write the numbers 
in fidl in tlie Greek ; but B writes merely the three Greek letters 
standing for numbers, Ch, x, st. C reads 616, but Irenaeus, one of 



* The chnracter <■ is an abreviation for sti. or st., all of wliich denote tlie .same number fi. 
[See an unabridyecl Greek Lexicon as to tlie numerical values, and equivalents iu Englisli letters 
of tlie Greek letters i;, ^, ^^-.J 



452 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the earliest and most learned of the Fathers, opposes this and main- 
tains 6t)b. 

Thus, we see that Chxist is the name of the beast and 666 the 
number of his name. Let him that hath understanding to compute 
his pernicious doctrines, horrid blasphemies, and savage cruelties 
make the application. 

A word as to the " mark." In the ancient languages, as in our 
own, a man's mark is the first letter of his name. If we ask a man 
to endorse any document, say, a bank-note, and he says he cannot 
write, we write his name and under it or over it he inscribes his 
mark, the initial letters of his name, or most commonly, and curiously 
enough, a character like a cross. And so the distinctive mark or 
seal of the beast, whether it be of ChRist, representing in a sense the 
complete Roman empire, or Chxist representing in a sense the complete 
Reformatory empire, we see is /, or a figure sometimes written like a 
cross. But how entirely different is this false Christ or Chxist and 
his mark from the true Christ represented in the gospels and the 
mark of the true Christian character, a truly godly life ! The true 
Christ is represented by the truly godly wherever or in whatever em- 
pire they are ; the false Christ, or, as in the text, Chxist, by the ungod- 
ly, wherever they are. 

But lastly, and in confirmation of what has been before said, it is 
stated in verse 18, that the number of the beast is the number of man, 
not only of a man as it is translated in our common version of the Bible, 
but of man. We remark there is a parallel passage in Rev. XXI. 17., 
where the same word, (hopm-ou \'6 used also without the article in de- 
scribing the dimensions of the new Jerusalem. If man rejoresent the 
dimensions of the symbolic beast, man also represents the dimensions 
of the new Jerusalem, or redeemed man. 

Therefore let him tliat hath understanding count the number of 
the beast, for it is the number of man, not only of some jjarticular 
man as an individual; but of mankind, including both male and 
female. Then as the number of the beast is the number of man, so 
the character of the beast is the character of man, even beastly man 
in all his natural depravity, which he established, supported and 
applauded under a profession of the name of Christ, and his name un- 
der this profession is in the original Greek /?"?■, that is Chxist, which 
means the perverted Christ or Anti-Christ. 

And as the dimensions of the new Jerusalem are the dimensions 
of man, not only of some particular man, but of mankind including 
male and female ; so the chai'acter of the new Jerusalem is the charac- 
ter of the angel, which represents redeemed man, man though not 
freed from, yet exalted above human frailties, man living in the world 



PROTESTANT-REFORMED CHURCH AND STATE SYSTEMS. 453 

but not of it, understaudiug Avhat he is, and keeping his inferior na- 
ture in subjection; and thus the true Christ is exhibited in the per- 
fecting, and the perfected human character. This is the gospel idea 
fulfilled. But no human being, or being in any conceivable form, 
is to be worshipped. The infinite and invisible Deity, which is 
neither an object of the sense, nor of the imagination, is alone to be 
worshipped, witli the speech and with the understanding, in spirit 
and in truth. 

As the Jews limited the favor of God to their peculiar mark and 
their number, so did the reformed systems, and so do all the Christian 
world to their peculiar mark or profession ; therefore the character 
and doom of both are well described by the prophet: " But ye are 
they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that pre- 
pare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering to that 
number. Therefore will I number you to the sword ; and ye shall all 
bow down to the slaughter ; because when I called, ye did not answer, 
when I spake, ye did not hear, but did evil before mine ej^es, and did 
choose that wherein I delighted not ; — for (this) the Lord God shall 
slay thee, and call his servants by another name."* " If any man wor- 
ship the beast and his image, and receive his mark on his forehead 
or on his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, 
which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation ; 
and he shall be tormented with fire and ])rimstone in the presence of 
the holy angels and in tlie presence of tlie Lamb." f Tliis voice comes 
now direct from God to tlie worsluppers of the beast, the dwellers in 
Babylon : " He Avill not always chide, neither will be keep his anger 
for ever." :j: 

If our readers will now turn to the eighteenth chapter of this 
book of Revelation they will notice that the dominions of the second 
beast are included in the mystic Babylon, that sitteth upon many 
waters; which waters are explained to be, (ch. XVII, 15,) peoples 
and multitudes and nations and ton^'ues, over which the woman 
ruleth ; and that they are subject to a like destruction to that of tlie 
Eastern and Western empires, which destruction the increase of 
their wickedness is, we fear, fast bringing upon them, and which 
will come, sooner or later, if they turn not to the right way and live 
therein. There they Avill find a mercantile nation intimated (see v. 
17 &c.,) which we cannot consistently apply to Rome or Constan- 
tinople at any period of their history ; but refers, doubtless, to a 
great luxtion that would arise in the course of the ages within the 
dominions of the mystic Babylon, a nation distinguished for naviga- 



Isahih, cli. LXV. 11, 12, 15. j Rov XIV. 9, 10. J Psalm, CIII. 9. 



454 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

tion. and Avhose dominions should extend far and Avide. This nation 
may be called the characteristic seat of the second symbolic beast 
which we have been considering. In chapters XIV, XV, and XVI 
the second beast is especially mentioned; and in ch. XVIII, his 
overthrow seems to take place almost contemporaneousl}' with that 
of the first beast, though it seems to be more prolonged, which may 
mean that this power would exist and flourish for many hundreds of 
years after the fall of the Roman empire of the East and West. 
These powers combining both the civil and religious branches were 
to be overthrown by secular and spiritual warfare ; for in ch. XIX, 
19, 20, 21, it says : " And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth 
and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat 
on the horse," that is, the agencies of trutli personified, "■ and against 
his army. And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet 
that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that 
had received tlie mark of the beast and them that worshipped his 
imasre. These' both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning: with 
brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that 
sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth ; and 
all the fowls were filled with their flesh." The false prophet means, 
the second symbolic beast, especially in its spi]-itual character ; and 
his false j^rophecy mainl}- consists in his confidently filling people 
up with promises which they shall not ever realize ; and in his mani- 
fold deceptions of them. The beast and false prophet being cast 
alive into the torments means that after these powers ai-e subdued 
secularl}" and to a considerable extent spiritually, the)' Avill still 
exist in the world waningiy, and suffering affliction while they are 
in subjection to the powers of truth, and obstinately persisting in 
their blasphemous doctrines and practices. 

The sword which proceedeth out of his mouth has reference to 
the word of truth spoken by all God's true agencies for the conver- 
sion and enlightenment of mankind ; and which is otherwise called 
the sword of the spirit, the Avord of God ; God's true doctrine. And 
the white horse on which the rider is, denotes victory full and com- 
plete ultimately for the truth. 

Babylon, as represented in ch. XVITI, includes not only the dom- 
inions and worshippers of the first beast, but also those of the second. 
But Ave have seen that these two symbolic beasts at their rise and 
dining their proq'ress were essentially one. being actuated by the 
same spirit, which all comprises characteristically the beast or or- 
thodox Catliolic Christendom, and in a wider sense mankind. There- 
fore the call is now as it ever has been to come out of the mystic 
Babylon, and, that is. to he no longer partakers of her sins and of her 



CONCLUSION OP PAKT SECOND. 455 

plagues ; and rather if need be rejoice in tribulation aud affliction as 
the people of God, than enjoy the pleasures of sin and of delusion 
for a season. 

CONCLUSION OF PART SECOND. 

"We repeat at the end what we have stated in the beginning of 
this book, that man comprises in himself the principles of evil and 
good : and that being a free agent he has it in his power to cultivate 
and develope either of these to an almost unlimited extent. If he 
cultivate and develope the evil |ie resolves himself into a being far 
worse than any wild beast, a fact of which our readers have had 
abundant evidence from history in this book. If he cultivate and 
develope the good, he becomes the more god-like, attains to more of 
the knowledge of God and of things divine, experiences a heavenly 
happiness in himself, is a benefactor of his race, and well-pleasing in 
the eyes of God. The cultivation and development of the good in 
human character implies self-denial and perhaps suffering, but with 
all this the testimony of a good conscience and a sense of the favor 
of God, which implies happiness. The cultivation and development 
ot the evil, also implies suffering, for vice, sooner or later, brings its 
own reward, and when the suffering comes to the vicious person, 
there is not likely to be to him any compensatory consolation of a 
conscience void of offence toward God and toward men ; but rather 
a fearful expecting of the judgment and wrath of God, of which he 
finds himself deserving for his known transgressions and sins. 

What a pitiable condition, then, is that of the wicked, sinning 
human being, whatever and however favorable his worldly circum- 
stances are ! 

How desirable, in comparison, is the condition of the one who 
lives a holy life, a life of active godliness, even though such an one 
be poor as to worldly possessions, and even despised and persecuted 
by the wicked worldlings ! Is it not therefore much better to culti- 
vate and develope the good ? 

To be good and to do good individually and universally while at 
the same time cultivating an unwavering faitli (aud this in all cir- 
cumstances in which Ave may be placed) in the power and benevo- 
lence of the Deity, who alone infinite, invisible, and omnipresent is 
to be worshipped with the speech and with the understanding, in 
spirit and in trutb, is what will assure the knowledge and favor of 
God and tlie highest happiness of human beings. Written forms of 
prayer for modes of worsliip are plainly unnecessary, and, to restrain 
the wanderings of the miiul wliile in the act of devotion, the eyes 



456 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

and the thought of the worshippers might be directed toward the 
West. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
thy neighbor as thyself. Henceforth let love be the bond of the 
Union of enlightened and regenerated mankind. 

Finally, we may remark in closing that notwithstanding this fair 
and impartial representation of the fulfilment of prophecy in history, 
and notwithstanding the clearness and completeness of the demon- 
strations, and the moderateness of the language which we have used 
in the demonstrations and conclusions, (for, using plain language as 
the vehicle of our ideas, we did not mean to give offence to any 
human being or to any society of human beings, however distin- 
guished or by whatever name called, well knowing that with all the 
evil there is, and always has been, some truth and goodness in all 
sects ; and our design being to convey the truth to all with the 
utmost impartiality, candor and justice on our part,) that notwith- 
standing all this we repeat, there still may remain some who will 
not incline to agree with us in the general conclusions. There will, 
of course, be vast numbers who will never read this book, who in- 
deed do not read any book ; and there will be some who will read it 
through hastily and superficially, not dreaming of the impossibility 
of taking in and digesting in a few days the product of the careful 
study and labor of a lifetime ; to these two classes or sorts of men 
■we do not allude. 

But speaking in general we may say that if, after having perused 
this book, some see fit to differ from its conclusions, of the correctness 
of which we have not the slightest doubt, it is not our intention to 
interfere with individual judgment, our desire being that all may 
intelligently exercise their judgment in coming to a knowledge of 
the subjects under consideration, and that when they shall have 
arrived at the truth concerning them they may abide in it and in- 
culcate it. 

As however, but few out of the mass of mankind understand re- 
ligious or learned subjects sufficiently from the little attention they 
bestow upon them or have time to bestow upon them, the explanation 
of such subjects, especially theological subjects, devolves mainly upon 
Christian ministers who, giving most of their attention to them, should 
reasonably be supposed the most competent to explain them, and they 
should on their part, while recognizing their responsibility to God 
and man, set forth the truth to the people without any mixture of 
error or superstition, and show themselves faultless examples or prac- 
tical godliness worthy of their imitation in every respect.* But, on 



* A pnrefiil and impartial perusal of this book cannot fail, we are persuaded, to be of great 
benefit and use to Christian ministers. 



TAITH AND WORKS. 457 

the other hand, as there are some Christian ministers of very limited 
education, and consequently incompetent to derive <|X' demonstrate 
their knowledge from the original sources, but have to deal it out at 
second hand (and sometimes it is noticeable this is done in an off- 
handed, wholesale way, no scholarly discernment being evinced) it 
is, we say, also reasonable that such should give a listening ear to the 
suggestion or advice of some intelligent member of tlieir congregation 
or even some friendly outsider who may understand the subject 
much better than they do ; that such should seek and receive instruc- 
tion, whencever they can derive it in the spirit of meekness and hon- 
esty. 

Ten brief discoukses, didactic, and explanatory of promi- 
nent Christian doc Irenes, designed to supplement the 
preceding, and in which the intended idea of the 
Gospel religion, or of the true Christian religion, is 
more fully set forth and will be more clearly un- 
derstood. 

On Faith and Works. 

Epistle of James, ch. II., verse 20 ; " But wilt thou know, O vain 
man, that faith without works is dead. " 

-Many are the creeds and confessions of faith among men. Many 
are the different opinions on religion entertained by human beings. 
Each Church, both of the Christian and the heathen world, has a 
creed or a faith of its own ; and each individual of each of those 
Churches, is likely to have a somewhat different belief from those of 
his neighbors. All these creeds, all these beliefs, all these different 
opinions cannot be true. There must be some, or many of tnem 
false, and some of them made up of truth and' error, or, it may be, 
some of them the very opposite of truth. Hence, we gather that 
faith is often very different from fact. Faith may be truth ; it may 
be a mixture of truth and error ; or it may be the very opposite of 
truth. How important, therefore, it is that men should have and 
cultivate the true faith ! 

It is always commendable in human beings to exercise a strong, a 
trusty, and an unwavering faitli in the power and benevolence of the 
Deity. It helps to the living happily, sulijectively, and benevolent- 
ly and beneficently objectively. The Deity is present everywhere, 
and a most important phase of his charact'^r is that he is infinitely 
good, and men's believing firmly in the ])ower and benevolence of the 
Deity makes liim for them powerful and good. Cultivate then an 



458 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

unwavering faith in the power and benevolence of God. This is 
true faith, faith that has for its object truth and fact. The Hindoo 
prostrates himself before the wheel of Juggernaut's car to be crushed 
to death, believing that thereby he will attain an eternally blissful 
immortality ; but his is a mistaken faith, a faith which prompts 
him to sacrifice life and all that is dear to him, for the possession of 
some imaginary object which he never can realize. Here his false 
faith causes him to destroy himself, and hence is seen the importance 
of liaving and cultivating the true faith. The Antinomian professes 
to believe that the practice of the moral law is not incumbent upon 
Christians, that men will be saved through faith in the merits of 
Christ, by their appropriating to themselves his righteousness, even 
while they neglect all good works. This is also a false faith, a faith 
which destroys men no less effectuallj-, though differently, than that 
which prompts the Hindoo to throw himself under the wheel of Jug- 
gernaut's car, a faith which is exceedingly pernicious in its effects. 
The unenlightened votary of the Greek or Roman Church believes 
that by the performance of such an amount of penance, b}^ the repe- 
tition of so many prayers, all told upon his beads, by the confession 
of his sins to his priests he will obtain remission of his sins, and be 
made meet to become a partner with the saints in light ; his is also 
a mistaken faith, pernicious in its effects toward men, and dishonor- 
ing to God. The worldling believes that if he pays so much to his 
minister to do it for him, he has no need to pra}- or perform duties of 
active godliness himself, that he can, in short, serve God hj proxy, 
while he wholly occupies himself in the cares, and pleasures, and 
fashions of the world. His is also a false faith, pernicious in its 
effects upon him and others, for each one must do his own part in 
performance of duties towards God and towards men, while living 
the life of active godliness, which is the only surety for salvation, tlie 
only road to happiness and to heaven. 

Our text implies that though faith, true faith, is important to the 
human being, that there are other things also which are of equal im- 
portance for him to cultivate: and what are these things? Why, 
they are good works. "Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith 
without works is dead." The doing is necessary as well as the be- 
lieving, for it goes on to say, " Show me thy faith without thy works, 
and I will show thee my faith by my works," implying surely that 
good works are the necessary attendants of the true and living faith ; 
'' For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works 
is dead also." We may, through faith, believe a thing to be in a 
certain state or condition and the thing may be just as we believe it 
to be. We may, for example, believe that a 2:)recious gift awaits us 



FAITH AND WORKS. 459 

at a certain place, and it may really await us there ; bat if the con- 
dition of our receiving it be that we shall have to come for it, then 
if we do not fulfil the condition and come and take it, what is the 
use of our believing it is there? We may gratify our fancy by thus 
believing, but we do not benefit ourselves. A man may essay to 
offer us a o-ift and may stretch forth his hand with it toward us, yet 
if we doubt his willingness or his intention to give it to us and do 
not stretch forth our hand to receive what he offers us, we shall not 
receive it. We must believe his willingness to give us what he 
offers us and must second our belief by the act of stretching forth our 
hand for the gift. Though the little book, the symbol of Divine light 
and knowledge, be in the right hand of him that sits upon the throne 
(Rev. Ch. v.), yet there it remains until the self-denying Lamb steps 
forward and takes it out of the hand. Action then, or good deeds, 
is just as necessary as faith, and the true index to the character of 
human beings, be their faith what it may, is that given in the Gospel : 
" By their fruits ye shall know them ; " by their good works ye shall 
know the true Christians, the children of God ; by the neglect of good 
works or the commission of evil deeds, the children of the wicked 
one are known. How important then that people act as well as be- 
lieve, work as well as trust, do good as well as be good, in short, 
show their faith by their works ! 

Every human being has the option and power of cultivating and 
developing the spirit of goodness, the principle of which each one 
has in themselves, and may with the assistance and faith of God de- 
velop to an almost infinite extent. They have also the option and 
privilege of cultivating and developing the spirit of evil, the princi- 
ple of which they also, as they well know, have in themselves, and 
may develope to an astonishing degree. This principle of evil is de- 
veloped world-wide, and its cultivation appears to be more attended 
to on the whole than that of the principle of goodness and benevo- 
lence. And how pitiable, how miserable the character in which the 
principle of malevolence is cultivated and developed ! How lovely 
in comparison is that in which the principle of benevolence is culti- 
vated and developed in all the Christian graces ; in the practice of 
humility, lowliness of heart, and contrition of spirit, of self-denial, 
love, meekness, gentleness, faith in the power and benevolence of 
the Deity, charity, temperance, and active, honest industry. The 
cultivation of these graces implies not only the denying but the sub- 
duing of all the malevolent affections, the crucifixion of the llesh 
with its affections and lusts, tlie bringing of the lust of the flesh, the 
lust of the eye, and the pride of life into subjection to the obedience 
of Christ; the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and the living 



460 CREATOE AND COSMOS. 

soberly, righteously, and honestly in this present world. The deny- 
ing of the flesh with its affections and lusts, and the living a life of 
active godliness in the development of all tlie ciiaracteristic Christian 
graces, are the all-important things to practise and achieve ; this is 
the great idea which the gospel sets forth and inculcates. There is 
joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, that is converted from 
a life of sinfulness to a life of active godliness ; the angels rejoice 
over such a one ; the redeemed among mankind experience a filial 
affection toward such a one ; and God puts the spirit of his children 
in all their hearts, whereby they cry, Abba, Father ! Such feel, fully 
experience themselves to be the children of God, and if children then 
heirs, heirs with God and joint heirs with Christ. To be heirs 
of God, is not that a prize worth seeking for, worth denying our- 
selves for ? To be joint heirs with Christ, is not that worth seeking 
after ? 

Oh, that all would now begin to cultivate the principle of good- 
ness, of benevolence, to develope the spirit of Godliness ! Parents 
teaching their children to practise it, and, by their own practice, 
setting them the example ; children and young men and young 
women being godly examples to each other, and vieing with each 
other in the practice of true virtue, and benevolence, and in the culti- 
vation of all the Christian graces. Each one may do their own part 
of this. There is no valid reason why each and every one may not 
cultivate the true and complete Christian character in all its aspects 
and bearings ; why each one may not exercise good works as well as 
cultivate the true faith, doing good to manldnd and glorifying God 
in their body and spirit which are God's, Will not all who hear 
these words begin now to do as well as to believe, to believe as well as 
to do? Will not all everywhere practice and inculcate this doctrine ? 
Thus, we shall have inaugurated a new era wherein God shall be 
glorified and worshipped in spirit and in truth. Then the world Avill 
present a brighter, pleasanter scene ; our places of education, schools, 
academies, and colleges will be used for the cultivation of the prin- 
ciple of godliness, the development of the whole Christian character 
in the youth as well as for the culture and development of their 
mental faculties, and the acquisition of the sciences and the- arts. 
Our counting-houses and all our places of business and resort will 
wear a better, a more pleasing aspect, when all shall practice right- 
eousness and benevolence towards each other. Our men of wealth 
and influence will be forward to assist from their resources and ex- 
amples all noble and godly enterprises, experiencing in themselves 
in thus doing, that it is more blessed to give than to receive, to coun- 
tenance and assist good enterprises than to abstain from doing so. 



FAITH AND WOEKS. 461 

They will all, in short, be forward not only to believe but to do, to 
perform good deeds at the same time that they exercise the true 
faith. 

Many noble examples have we in sacred and secular history and 
in the people of our own time in which true virtue and benevolence 
were practised, in which faith in the power and benevolence of God, 
and good will and beneficence toward men, were exemplified. What 
has been done once by human beings may be done again, and the 
godly character that is developed and manifested in one human being, 
or in one class of human beings, may be developed and manifested in 
another. Let none despair then while they cultivate faith and good 
works, while they worship only the infinite and invisible Deity, 
which is neither an object of the senses nor of the imagination, in 
spirit and in truth, of being able to attain to a good degree of per- 
fection in heavenly wisdom and knowledge, and of godliness of char- 
acter. Let none suspect that while thus being, thus doing, they 
will not experience happiness in themselves, and diffuse happiness 
all around them by the influence of their example, — their faith and 
their practice, — which will be infinite in its effects for good. While 
all are anxious for the coming of the Millennium, let none expect that 
blessed era to be fully introduced unless they themselves do their 
part to bring it in. That long expected, happy era, eminently one 
of self-denial and active godliness among mankind, an era of life in 
the spirit and denial of the flesh, will only be fully introduced when 
each and all shall deny themselves ungodliness and worldly lusts 
and shall live the life of righteousness and holiness, the life of active 
godliness in the world. The true light now shines, but it will then 
more clearly, more fully shine. Let none imagine that the profession 
of any particular faith or creed, be it what it may, the being attached 
to any particular church, be it called what it may, or the being as- 
sociated with any particular office or society whatever it may be 
called, or however respectable it may be deemed, will avail to save 
them from a pitiable condition of error and ignorance with respect 
to heavenly things, and a state of sin and of ungodliness in the 
world — being dead while they live here — if they do not with the 
profession of the faith also perform good works and show by their 
fruits that they know God and serve and worship him aright. Men 
should then cultivate firm and unwavering faith in the power and 
benevolence of God in all the circumstances of their life, even in 
the most trying and difficult, as well as the most prosperous and 
happy. This will enable them to live better and happier, and more 
actively zealous in the cause of God. We should love God witli all 
our heart and soul and our neighbors as ourselves, which is the su- 



462 CEEATOR AND COSMOS. 

preme law of action of all true religionists ; and this active principle 
of love to God and man should be the bond of our union. We 
should all grow up into the gospel likeness of Christ, always imbued 
with and actuated by the spirit of Christ, and we should cultivate 
and develope in ourselves that perfect character as there represented. 
All should henceforth walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise 
redeeming tlie time, since the days are short and evil. We should 
individually and collectively do all the good we possibly can while 
Ave are on the active scene of this life, and always cultivate the lively 
faith and hope, that we shall live consciously, intelligently, and bliss- 
fully in the hereafter. My heart's desire and prayer to God, my 
friends, is that ye all may be and do thus. And I ask you that your 
earnest desire and prayer to God may be with mine that we and all 
mankind shall be and do thus. Let us rise above the world of sen- 
suality, of folly, and of fleeting fashion, and live the life of sobriety, 
of holiness and of godliness in the spirit, and show, by our example, 
our precept and our practice, that we are God's children, and that we 
heartily desire all mankind to be sons and daughters of our heavenly 
Father. 

On Providence and Predestination. 

Romans, Ch. VIII, verse 28. 

" And we know that all things work together for good to them 
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." 

This subject we shall consider under two heads : first, as to those 
that love God ; and, second, as to those that are the called according 
to his purpose, or, in other words, them that are predestinated and 
elected to salvation. The moral world or the world of mankind may 
be considered as made up of two parts, namely, those that love God 
and live in obedience to his requirements, and those that love him not 
and do not order their life and conversation as he requires. Itmay also 
be considered as one whole, namely, mankind, onepart of whom choose 
to love and obey God, and the other part of whom live and act in a 
contrary way and manner. Each and every human being has in- 
herent in them the principles of good and evil, either of which they 
may cultivate and develope to an almost infinite extent. The culti- 
vation and development of either of these is a matter of choice with 
the individual, that is, each rational being is a free agent, free to 
choose either the evil or the good course of life, free to be and to do 
either good or evil. They who choose to be good and to do good, to 
follow the godly course of life, are those alluded to in our text as 
them that love God and to whom all things work together for good, 



PROVIDENCE AND PREDESTINATION. 463 

and they are otherwise spoken of as the children of God. And they 
who follow the evil course of life, who are and do evil, either from 
negligence or deliberate choice, are they, on the contrary, who are 
called the children of evil, children of their father the devil, whom 
they serve and ohey. The great majority of the human race are of 
this latter class who serve the devil and the world in a vast variety 
of ways. The small minority are they who love God, they who 
deny themselves ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly, 
righteously and honestly in this present world. The character and 
law of God is written upon the face of nature and discovered in the 
pages of Revelation ; in other words we read and understand the 
character of the Deity not only from nature, but also from the experi- 
ence and the testimony of good men in past ages. A compendium of the 
law which God has imposed for the obedience of mankind is found 
in the Ten Commandments recorded in the Old Testament, and this 
law is confirmed and rendered of equal obligation uj^on mankind by 
the teachings of tlie New Testament. " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart and soul and strength, and thy neighbor 
as thyself" is the principal commandment of the Old Testament as 
well as of the New, a commandment which embraces in itself all the 
others. 

But the love of God spoken of in the text comprehends the 
Avhole life of I'eal and active godliness ; it means the being good sub- 
jectively and the doing good objectively, the motive being love to 
God and for the advancement of his cause, not self-love or for self- 
aggrandizement. To them, therefore, all things, even things that 
seem perplexing and trying and vexatious and adverse, things that 
they would rather escape and be rid of, work together for good, to 
them, I say, who are actuated by this love and who live the life of 
active godliness. The true Christian life is sometimes considered a 
hard and trying one, embracing, as it does, self-denial, a foregoing 
of the lusts of the flesh and all worldly lusts, and sometimes, it may 
be, suffering persecution for truth and righteousness sake ; for we 
read in the writings of the apostle Paul that they who will live p-od- 
ly in this present life shall suffer persecution. But with all this 
thorny self-denial and this bitter experience, it is a comforting 
thought to the children of God that these things, even these bitter 
experiences, are working together for their good. The more devoted 
they are to, and the more active in the service of God the stronger 
the opposition Satan will raise against them ; but fully realizing that 
they are the children of God they know that all things are working to- 
gether for their good ; though Satan enrages the wind and the tide, 
the promise assures them the Lord will provide ; when the enemy 



464 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

is coming in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord Avill raise up a stan- 
dard against him. It is a comforting tliouglit, I say, to tlie true 
Christian, the child of God, that amid all the dangers, seen and 
unseen, through which he passes, amid all the trials, persecutions and 
snares from visible and invisible enemies, amid all the circumstances 
in which such a one is placed, whether they be adverse, adventitious 
or prosperous, all things are working together for his good ; that amid 
all the apparently unfavorable dispensations of providence his heaven- 
ly Father still retains for him a benignant countenance, though con- 
cealed from his view. The life of the true Christian, in all its various 
phases and aspects, is beautifully depicted in the " Pilgrim's Progress" 
of John Bunyan, and this appears in its true light to all who rightly 
interpret that allegory. There it is seen that the child of God, al- 
though pressed down with the knapsack of his sins andti'ansgressions, 
has to go forward in the character of a warrior, arrayed in the com- 
plete Christian armor, having on the shield of faith, the breastplate 
of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit 
which is the true word of God, and that he has to fight strenuousl}' 
and overcome all the enemies and opponents that appear in his way, 
a work in which, however, he is abundantly assisted by his leader 
and God. Hence the true church of God being made up of such 
self-denying and faithful soldiers is called the church Militant, that 
is, the fighting Church, the Church that fights its way into the king- 
dom of heaven, not with carnal Aveapons, for the weapons of its 
warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty to the pulling down 
of the strongholds of sin and Satan, but by faith and patience and 
perseverance in active godliness it overcomes all its enemies, seen 
and unseen ; the Church that obtains a complete victory over the 
world with its pomps and vanities, its allurements and enticements ; 
over the flesh with all its lusts and debasing seductions ; and over 
the devil with all his powers and agencies visible and invisible ; the 
church that presents itself before the throne of God arrayed in the 
white robes of holiness and righteousness. Every child of God hath 
in his own breast this experience, which he derives from the course 
he pursues in his onward march toward heaven ; and although there 
are scarcely two whose spiritual experiences ai-e precisely alike, yet 
the experience of all is so much alike that that of one may be said 
to be, in some sort, a copy of the other's, that is, if they ever reach 
heaven they shall have to get there by following the example of 
their leader, the captain of their salvation, who, as represented in 
the gospel, was made perfect and conquered thi'ough self-denial : in 
short they shall arrive there only by pursuing the course of active 
godliness. There is no royal road to heaven ; people need not 



PROVIDENCE AKD PREDESTINATION. 465 

expect to oe carried there ou flowery beds of ease ; iio, they shall 
have to tread the path of self-denial and holiness and even suffer 
persecution for trutli and righteousness sake, before they have 
attained to perfection in heavenly wisdom and knowledge, or are 
made perfect in godliness. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you 
and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you for truth 
and righteousness sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad that ye are 
accounted wortliy to suffer in the cause of God; for so the world 
has maltreated the good men of all ages that have been before you. 
Rejoice for this, that when ye are contemned and despised of the 
world, ye are recognized of Grod : when ye are excommunicated of 
the world, counted out of the world's fashionable society, ye are 
found of God and recognized as his children ; ye realize yourselves 
to be fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God. 
The children of God always rejoice in this, that they believe and 
know that all things work together for their good and that nothing 
that is reall}^ for their good will be Avithheld from them that live a 
godly life. The little boy or girl may sometimes desire a thing, 
Avhich, if ■ they receive, may prove detrimental to them, nay, may 
even do them a p)Ositive injury ; but if their request be not granted 
they may feel so hurt that they will sit sobbing and crying, and 
brooding over the slight or injury Avhich they imagine themselves to 
have received. Even so it is sometimes the case Avith those of little 
experience in the true Christian life, those Avho have but lately 
begun to live the life of active godliness, Avho are apt fondly to 
imagine that they can, at the same time, serve God and the Avorld ; 
that they can in the common way of expressing it, take both sides 
of the road Avith them. Tliis they soon find to be a delusion, and 
Avill see that they cannot serve God and the Avorld at the same time, 
and that they ought not to feel that they are injuring themseh^es by 
denying themselves the pleasures of the Avorld, or that they are 
slighted and contemned and rebuked and reproached of tlie Avorld ; 
knowing that the friendship and the pleasures of the Avorld are at 
enmity with God, and that they cannot serve God and tlie Avorld at 
the same time, they receive this contempt and persecution of tlie 
Avorld as the best of omens, as indicating that they haA'e made, and 
Avill make progress, in the true Christian course. Patiently and 
clieei'fully enduring and persevering in the course of godliness, tliey 
realize that even when the adverse Avinds of tlie world's evil in- 
fluences are blowing hardest against them, Avhen envy and pride and 
selfishness and all the powers and agencies of the prince of darkness 
are, as it Avere, exerting their utmost foi- their destruction, (o defame 
tlieir character and to blot out their name among men, that even 
Vol. II.— 80 



466 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

then all things are co-operating for their good. From the beginning 
it hath not been heard that God ever proved false to them that 
trusted in him and 2ived the life of godliness. Falsity and deception 
spring from the devil and are characteristic of him. 

But, as I have before intimated, the children of God patiently 
endure and cheerfully and contentedly suffer all that befalls them 
from all adverse influences, seen or unseen, Avhile they are pursuing 
the true Christian course. Like the child that is denied of that 
wliich, if received might prove an injury to it, or that suffers from 
its parent a gentle chastisement for some fault or offence it had 
committed, thej' do not display' a sullen and morose temper on 
account of the slights and contempt and persecution which they 
have received, or they imagine themselves to have received from the 
world ; but they go on actively and perseveringij' in the course of 
godliness, exhibiting always a cheerful and contented spirit, display- 
ing all the graces of the true Christian character, being always exem- 
plary in their life and conversation, and showing, by their whole 
spirit and deportment, that they do not regard themselves as serving 
a hard master, but that they rather regard themselves as conquerors 
of the world, having evercome it and keeping it in subjection, and 
that they feel it to be their dutj- to bring all men into the same posi- 
tion of conquerors of the world and heirs, yea, inhabitants of the king- 
dom of heaven. But instead of being discontented and dissatisfied 
with their lot they rather rejoice in that they are accounted wortliy 
to suffer shame and persecution for the cause of God. So far as to 
them who, according to our text, love God. 

The second head under which we have proposed to consider our 
subject is as to those who are the '' called " according to his purpose. 
The word " called " in this connection is another term to set forth 
the idea contained in the expression '* predestinated or elected to life 
or to salvation." God is omniscient, he knows all that has come to 
pass in the past, and he knows all that will come to pass in the 
future ; the past, present and future are 23i'esent to the all-wise God, 
to whom time is nothing, a thousand years being in his sight as one 
day, and one day as a thousand years. God is the ever and ever}-- 
Avhere present being. All events in the natural world take place in 
accordance with the course of nature. Things in the moral world, 
or in that world which exists in relation to man as a free intelligent 
agent, take place generally as man will have them to take place ; yet 
in some such way as that history repeats itself, the events of one age 
being a repetition of the events of a preceding age or of preceding 
ages. In this way the events which take place in the moral world are 
analagous to the events which lake place in the natural world, in the 



PROVIDENCE AND PKEDESTINATION. 467 

latter of which the events of one year are merely a repetition of the 
events which took place each previous year. Predestination or election 
then, when spoken of with reference to man, has rather respect to the 
foreknowledge of God than to predetermination on his part- For we are 
told that God willeth the repentance and salvation of all mankind, or, 
that he willeth that none should perish but that all should turn from 
their evil way and live. If, therefore, it be said that God wills oi- pi-edes- 
tinates all things that come to j^ass, it is said that he wills and predesti- 
nates misery and destruction to the wicked, and we shall liave a contra- 
diction in terms, and logical contradictions, we know, implj- untruth. 
Men's own wickedness and depravity bring evil and destruction to 
them. The very fact of man's free agency and consequent accoun- 
tability teaclies this. For if he be a free agent he has the power of 
doing either evil or good to almost any extent he will; and if he do 
the evil he will reap ilie fruits of his evil, for vice sooner or later is 
sure to bring its own reward, which will be his misery and destruc- 
tion ; but if he do the good he will experience happiness from the 
favor of God and of all good men, and a conscience void of offence 
toward God and toward men. If he be not a free agent he must, 
doubtless, be a being predestined to all that will happen to him in 
life, and if he lives a life of wickedness it must be said that God has 
willed and predestined him to that life of wickedness and conse- 
quently to destruction, and we shall again have a contradiction in 
terms which implies falsehood ; for it is said that God willeth not 
the death of a sinner but rather that he luay turn from liis evil wa^^ 
and live, and that he has intended salvation for all men, not Avilling 
that any should perish, but that all should come unto him and be 
saved. It is plain, therefore, that man is either a free accountable 
agent or a predestined being, governed, for weal or for woe, in all 
that he does or that happens to him so long as he has an existence. 
But man is evidently a free agent, an accountable being, as all law as- 
sumes ; he may, howevei-, be predestined Ijy his fellow man or men 
to a certain course, state or condition of life. A man, for example, 
maybe condemned or predestined to the galleys or the mines, or the 
state's ])nson for the term of his natui-al life, in consequence of his 
violations of the laws of his country, but it is not God that condennis 
or predestines him' thus, it is his fellow-men and he himself Ihrough 
his transgressions, or they through a perversion of justice : tlin t is the 
cause of this predestination. Also, a child, from the natural dispos- 
ition of its parents, may be predestined to a good temper and disjjo- 
sition or to a sullen and morose or even wicked one ; or he may be 
predestined to wealth and honor or to poverty and shame, accord- 
ing as he derives and inherits from his parents or from the circum- 



468 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

stances of his birth and education. All this, therefore, implies and 
shows free agency in man, unless so far as men are predestinated 
by their own species. 

But notwithstanding all that has been said there is still a sense 
in which predestination may be understood as it relates to God's 
government of mankind. This sense is derived from the omnipre- 
sence and omniscience of Deity who is always and everywhere pre- 
sent in essence and intelligence, and has his purposes to accomplish 
among men and in relation to them. Men are not all alike in char- 
acter. The different nations differ from each other in a variety 
of ways. Even the individuals of tire same nation or of the 
same community, and even of the same family and household, 
differ from each other in character, and that in many respects. 
They all differ from each other in physical appearance, and they 
differ just as much in their moral character, some of them being of 
good, others of bad moral cliaracter, and otliers again of all shades 
and degrees of moral cliaracter between these two extremes of good 
and bad. So it is analogously with the animals of different species 
or of tlie same species or Avith the trees or plants or herbs or minerals 
of different species or of the same species, they all differ from each 
other, respectively, in a variety of ways, so that even no two indivduals 
of any one particular species are exactl}^ alike in every respect, in every 
point of view, from which they may be contemplated. Men, therefore, 
as all other beings, animate and inanimate, that pertain to the earth, 
have their differences of character, and as God makes use of men of 
all sorts of character, good and bad and middling, in that respect, to 
accomplish his purposes of benevolence or of justice among mankind, 
and as these men are sure to accomplish the purposes of Deity before 
they leave this earthly scene, — ^just as sure as that the tree will not 
fall unless with old age if it be not from a shock of nature oi- by the 
art and power of man, which all doubtless happen in accordance 
with the will of God — men therefore, may in this sense be said to 
be predestined of God. Thus, the instruments of God's purposes 
among men arise in the course of the ages, for the most part among 
mankind themselves ; Avarriors that overrun nations, inflicting on 
them punishments in consequence of the retributive justice of the 
Deity, as well as cruel and oppressive rulers and magistrates ; re- 
formers to effect a change for the better in the national systems of 
religion or superstition or morals ; philanthropists and good men 
and women in various spheres of life to accomplish in various ways, 
the benevolent purposes of Deity among mankind. Now all power 
as well as benevolence has its origin in God, spi'ings from him, and 
since God is infinitely good even so it is said with truth that God 



BAPTISM AND THE TRINITY. 469 

makes all things work together for good to them that love liim and 
are called according to his purpose. But some of my friends may 
be wishing to learn how they are to know whether or not they 
themselves are predestinated and elected of God to life and salva- 
tion. In answer to such an inquiry I may say : show me a human 
being who lives a godly life and believes himself or herself to be one 
of God's elect, (for if one lives not a godly life one will not have 
any such belief or confidence,) and I will show you one who is of 
the number of God's elect. Comforting thought, which may each 
one of you realize for yourselves, and glorify God in your body and 
spirit which are God's, always still keeping in mind that you are 
free moral agents, and, therefore, responsible toward God and toward 
men for the manner of your life and your actions, and that as you 
believe it to be, in the matter of predestination, so shall it be unto 
you. 

On Baptism and the Trinity. 

Romans, Ch. VI., verses 3-6. " Know ye not that so many of us 
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death ? 
Therefore, we are buried with Him b\^ baptism into death, that like 
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father 
even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have 
been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in 
the likeness of his resurrection." 

In Christianity, Christ is the symbol for perfection, and godlike- 
ness of human character as well as for true doctrine. The idea of 
Christianity itself originated b}^ the wisdom of God with the move- 
ment that was inaugurated and carried on by John, called the Baptist. 
This John was a real historical personage, a man that existed and 
acted much as he is represented to have done in the New Testament 
and in the Jewish history of Josephus. He lived in tlie time of 
Herod the Great, King of Judaia, nearly nineteen centuries ago. He 
is represented in the New Testament as preacliing to the people 
repentance and baptism, or the l)aptism of repentance, for ■ the 
remission of their sins, and as proclaiming liimself to be the fore- 
runner of one that was to come after him, one who was mightier 
and worthier than he. The bulk of the evidence both direct and 
indirect which we liave in the New Testament goes to i)rove that 
John and his disciples baptized by immersion, a fact which is also 
implied in our text, where it is said that so many of us as " are " 
(wliicli is tlie literal meaning of it, not '• were," as translated,) 
baptized intff Jesus Clirist are baptized into his death, etc." And in 



470 CREATOR AKD COSMOS. 

the last chapter of Matthew, verse 19, the command is given to go 
and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Fathe;c- 
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And in the epistle to the 
Galatians, chapter III., verse 27, it is said : " For as many of you as 
have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." We see, there 
fore, that in the primitive times of Christianity, they regarded it ai 
meaning the same thing to baptize the person into the name of 
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or into the name of Jesus Christ. 
Therefore Jesus Christ represents Father, Son and Holy Spirit ; 
and conversely, Father, Son and Holy Spirit represents Jesus 
Christ; that is, the one means the same as the other. In tlie 
operation of baptism the person was immersed into water and 
the formula of words pronounced upon him or her: I baptize 
thee into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Spirit, or, I baptize thee into the name of Jesus Christ. This 
method of baj)tism, it is certain, was practised in general in 
all the ages of the primitive Christian Church, or for the first 
three centuries of the Christian era, and probably for many cen- 
turies later until baptism by aspersion or sprinkling came to 
be generally practised in the Catholic Church, when that was the 
established religion of the Iloman Empire, especially by the 
Church of Rome. The being baptized then into the name of Father, 
Son and Holy Spirit, or into the name of Jesus Christ, means that 
the persons baptized were to consider themselves in the mercy of 
God as representing the same, symbolized by that one into whose 
name they were baptized. 

'' For,'" it says, " as many of you as have been baptized into the name 
of Father, Son and Holy Spirit," or " Christ," have taken upon you 
this name, have appropriated the name which has been called upon 
you. Christ, therefore symbolizes all that would live the life of ac- 
tive godliness, the complete Christian life, ever after. Jesus Christ, 
I say, rej^resents not only one, but also many, even all who, in all 
ages, would practise repentance and baptism for the remission of sins 
and would ever afterwards live the life of entire and active godliness, 
the perfect and complete Christian life. John being the forerunner 
of Jesus Christ, he that was to come after him was he or they who 
had submitted to repentance, a change of heart and of life, and to 
baptism, in the perfection of wisdom, and knowledge, and holiness, to 
which they had attained by living the life of entire and active godli- 
ness ever afterwards. H(?nce we may understand the Trinit}- know- 
ing that he that is a father must necessarily be a son, and may if he 
Avill, that is if he will live the entire life of active godliness, be a holy 



BAPTISM AKD THE TRINITY. 471 

person, spirit, or influence; if one be not a lioly person and live not 
the life of godliness, one will not be likely to understand one's self 
as representing the Trinity, otherwise called Jesus Christ. 

But you will ask doubtless, how is it that a human being can be 
a spirit? You will say that each human being has a spirit or soul in 
them by which they live, and breathe, and think, and rationalize. I 
will further inform you that each human being is a spirit, even a 
master or controlling spirit, if one will have it so ; and that not only 
is each and ever}' liuman being a spirit but that the cosmos i-n which 
we dwell all the media in which we exist, live and move, and of which 
we are constituted is spirit. This is something that most people 
have not realized before, but this is true. And not only the orb 
which we inhabit but the heavenly orbs that exist in space, as the 
sun, moon, planets, and stars, are spirit ; not literal spirit, as the air 
which we breathe, but nevertheless real spirit? You will perhaps 
say that this is not how you have ever understood sjjirit, and doubt- 
less you speak truly as to your previous understanding of it. But 
what is spirit? Literally it is that which we breathe. Spirit from the 
Latin Avord Spirare, to breathe, means that which we bi'cathe or 
breath; for instance, the air or atmosjjhere which surrounds us, and 
which we breathe is literal spirit. And the whole planet, on which 
we live, is of a nature reducible to a gaseous or aeriform state. But 
though this is true, that this globe is of a substance reducible to the 
state of air, yet this reduction of our globe, as a whole, is not practi- 
cable ; but it may always for what we know to the contrary exist 
as spirit in a condensed form. The principal difference between the 
air we breathe and the solid terrestrial sphei-e is that the one 
is spirit in a rare and breathable form, tlie other spirit in a con- 
densed form, not fit to be breathed by living creatures not ever 
meant for that purpose. Water is also spirit in another form. 
Therefore man, though not a literal spirit, is none the less a real 
one, and the principal difference between spirit, AA'liich we can see 
in a solid tangible form and that which is invisible and breathable 
is one of density and rarity of substance. Yea, the solidest rocks 
and the densest metals and minerals, Avith all earthly substances 
as well as water, are all of a nature reducible to a gaseous or 
aeriform state. Matter, therefore, may be said to be spirit in a 
condensed form ; and spirit may be said to be matter in a rare or 
breathable form; and it can therefore l)e said with tlie strictest tiuth 
that nothing exists but spirit in various forms; and it can be said witli 
equal truth that nothing exists but matter in various forms, even the air 
Ave breathe and the ether which exists in space, as well as Avater, bein*)- 
material. The principle of intelligence is present everywhere and in 



■472 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

■everything, and intelligence, as it exists in man or in any of the animate 
creation, is a development from matter or spirit. All vegetables and 
animals bring forth after their kinds respectively, and a man of to-day 
inherits the intelligence, the reason, and the genius of his ancestors 
which he can and does cultivate and develope. 

But Jesus Christ symbolizing not only one but also all who would 
submit to baj^tism and repentance and live tlie life of active godli- 
ness, you can easilj^ understand how that he who was to come after 
John, or those who had attained to perfection by following the 
teachings and submitting to the discipline of the new dispensation, 
was or were also before John. And, although John was a wise man, 
a great man, and a proj^het, doubtless there were many of his disci- 
ples and followers., as well as many men in all ages previous to him, 
that were as great and as wise as he. Jesus Christ then, in the way I 
have explained it, is he that is spoken of as tlie Alpha and Omega : 
he that is past, present, and to come ; the beginning and the ending, 
the first and the last ; all of which expressions are partly I believe 
meant to teach the eternal sonship of Christ. Now, knowing that 
man is a spirit you will easily understand how that he may represent 
a holy spirit, or the holy spirit, and how that he may be an evil, 
wicked and unholy spirit, for his free agency says he can choose 
to be either ; and, therefore, you will with the greatest ease under- 
stand how that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit represent the same per- 
son under three characters, under the character of a Father, of a Son, 
and of a Holy Spirit, person, or influence. 

The word Trinity is not found in the Scriptures. We find it first 
made use of by Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, in the second century 
of the Christian era, who invented it to express the distinction of 
persons in God. "• The Christian Church," says Dr. McLaine, the 
translator of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, " is very little obliged 
to him for his invention ; " and no wonder, when it is understood 
that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, mean not three persons in one 
but one person under three characters or names. " The use of this 
and other unscriptural terms," adds the same writer, " to which men 
either attach no ideas or false ones, has wounded charity and peace 
without promoting truth and knowledge. It has produced heresies 
of the very worst kind."* 

But having come to some knowledge of the Trinit}, the next 
question that will probably arise in your minds with respect to it will 
be : Is it required or permitted to worship the Trinity ? The wor- 
ship of the Trinity is not taught in the Scriptui'es, neither was it 
practised by the primitive Christians. The worship of Uie Trinity 

* Ecdes. Hist. Chrou. Table. 



BAPTISM AND THE TRINITY. 473 

under the idea of three persons in one God is peculiar to mystified 
or perverted Christianit}-. Only the worship of the infinite, invisible, 
and omnipresent God, is inculcated in the Scriptures ; and the wor- 
ship of the same infinite and invisible God, with or without the inter- 
me diate idea of Jesus Christ, appears to have been the universal prac- 
tice of the early or piimitive Christian Church. "If we understand 
what prayer is," says the celebrated Origen, who wrote about the year 
230, A.D., " it will appear that it is never to be offered to any oj'igi- 
nated being ; not to Christ himself ; but only to the God and father 
of al], to whom our Saviour himself prayed and taught us to pray." * 
The worship of the same infinite and invisible God alone is peculiar 
to the good, intelligent, and holy of all ages ; and the worship of 
any tiling^ Avhether it be an ol)ject of the sense or only of the imagin- 
ation, is taught by Scripture and reason to be idolatry, dishonoring 
to the Deity and displeasing in his eyes. The ancient Hebrews, or 
Jews, had no idea of the worship of the Trinity, or, in other words, 
of man. They worshipped Jehovah alone, who, they were taught, 
was infinite and invisible. The Mohammedan religion, which is very 
widelj^ spread and largely professed, recognizes only the worship of 
the infinite and invisible God ; and it is believed that Trinitarian, 
or mystified Christianity, or rather systematic Christian Polytheism 
which was augmented by gradual increments, was the cause why the 
Mohammedans so successfully overran the Roman Empire, and why 
the crescent has waved for so many centuries over Jerusalem, Con- 
stantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, where for so long the cross 
was triumphant and the Roman eagles fluttered to the breeze. Since 
then, Ave have not Scripture, or reason, or the practice of the primi- 
tive Christians of the first three centuries of our era to favor the 
Avorship of the Trinity, and since the worship of no visible being is 
permitted by the Scriptures, as it is dishonoring to the Deity and 
displeasing in his eyes ; therefore it is plain that the infinite, invisi- 
ble, and omnipresent Deity, is alone to be worshipped with the 
speech and with the understanding, in spirit and in truth ; which, if 
persisted in, in all holiness and righteousness of life, will insure to 
the worshipper his omtiipotent favor, as idolatry will ensure his dis- 
favor and displeasure. Man, therefore, be it known, is not to be 
worshipped ; nor is mankind in any Avay personified to be wor- 
shipped ; but, man of the present age, and of future ages, after tlie 
example of all good men of the past, is to worship the infinite and 
invisible God alone, in spirit and in truth. 

But to return to our text, it sa3's : " Know ye not that so many 



• Origen' s Works. 



474 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

of US as are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into his death. 
Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like 
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
even so we also should walk in newness of life." The act of baptism 
or the immersion of the person beneath the water is here compared 
to the burial of a dead body ; and baptism is a symbol, the immersion 
representing the putting off of the old or natural man with his 
deeds, the laying him, as it were, in the grave ; and the act of raising 
the person from the water, the putting on of the new man or Christ, 
with all his perfections of holiness, and righteousness, of true godli- 
ness and all of which represents, as the Church of England Prayer 
Book clearly expresses it: "A death unto sin, a new birth unto 
righteousness." The operation of baptism and complete repentance 
being affected, much of the Avork of regeneration is accomjilished ; 
of regeneration, I say, which is the great, the all important object of 
Christianity. Many persons like to be told about the creation of 
the world, and the sky, and the stars ; they like to be told some 
wonderful things about these, and there are teachers of Christianity 
who appear to take delight in amusing them with such relations. 
Now it is not the old creation spoken of in Genesis, but the new 
creation spoken of in John that people should delight to be told 
about, or- which ministers of the Gospel should like to tell them 
about. The former stands in a like relation to the latter, as the 
chaff does to the wheat, as the unreal to the real. This regeneration 
or new creation has its beginning in a change of heart, brought 
about by true repentance, and is carried on and accomplished by 
living the life of entire and active godliness. Hence, comes forth 
the new man which, after God, is created in knowledge, righteous- 
ness, and true godliness ; he who was to come after John. But it is 
necessary that those, newly converted to the truth, those who by 
repentance and godly obedience have begun to walk in the true 
Christian course should persist in the way of godliness ; for as Christ 
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we 
also should walk in newness of Life. Such should not be weary in 
well-doing, knowing that in due time they shall reap, if they faint 
not ; that though they follow a life of self-denial while the world is 
rolling in sinful pleasures and luxuries and pride all around them, 
though they even experience some persecution from the wicked 
worldlings, they still are contented ajid satisfied that they are tread- 
ing the right course ; for they are aware that the wages of sin is 
death, and they see that the gift of God which is eternal life by fol- 
lowing in the wa}^ of Jesus Chi-ist is infinitely preferable. 

But our text uses still another illustration when it says : " For if 



THE lord's supper. 475 

we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall 
be also in the likeness of his resurrection." The act of immersion 
in baptism is here compared to the planting of the seed in the earth, 
Avhich seed, as is well known, dies, and a new plant springs up from 
it. And the act of raising the baptized person out of the water is 
compared to the springing up of the new plant from the seed. This 
may be considered as even abetter illustration than the other, namely, 
that of burial by immersion of the body in water and resurrection 
by the raising of the body from it, as it shows the gradual growth in 
grace of the Christian from the time of his new birth or the beginning 
of his regeneration to his perfection in godliness. The grace of 
God, as the result of repentance and godly obedience, begins first to 
germinate in the heart, then it becomes every day more sensible in 
the life of the Christian, until it finally brings forth all the desirable 
fruits and graces of the true Christian character. The grace of God 
in the heart of the Christian who is beginning the new life has been 
compared to a flower in the bud ; the grace of God as manifested in 
the perfect Christian to a flower in full bloom. As I have before 
remarked, regeneration is the all-important thing in Christianity, 
carnal ordinances are as nothing in comparison. 

On the Lord's Supper. 

1. Corinthians Ch. II. verses 23-27 : " For I have received of the 
Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, in 
the night in which he was betrayed, took bread : and when he had 
given thanks, he brake it, and said : Take eat, this is my body which 
is broken for you ; this do for a remembrance of me. After the same 
manner also (he took) the cup, when he had supped, saying : This cup 
is the New Testament in my blood ; this do ye as oft as ye drink it for 
a remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bi-ead and drink 
this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till become." Paul, tlie writer 
of the Epistle in which our text is found, is not represented to have 
been one of the immediate disciples of Jesus Christ. It is not re- 
corded tliat he ever saw Jesus Christ in the flesh, his conversion not 
taking place till some years after Christ is represented to have been 
crucified. Wlien, therefore, he speaks of liaving received from the 
Lord that which also he delivers to the Corinthians concerning the 
institution of the Lord's Supper, it must mean that he was taught 
this by the spirit of the Lord. In the Old Testament prophecies it 
is foretold that in the time of the new or Christiuu dispensation all 
should be taught of the Lord, and tliat none should need to teach 
another the knowledge of the Lord, for all should know him from 



476 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

the least to the greatest : For the earth shall be filled with the knowl- 
edge of the Lord, as tlae waters cover the seas. And in speaking 
witli regard to the Church of the future, it is said of it : All thy 
children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of 
th}' children. All tliis means that the knowledge of the Lord would 
become very general among mankind, among those especially who 
lived under the Christian dispensation. But it does not mean that 
all would be equally versed in the knowledge of the Lord and in 
things divine, a state of things which has never yet been realized in 
the Christian Church ; nor that all would possess the same divine 
gifts and endowments, for the gifts of the spirit are as various as they 
are manifold ; nor that they who should possess the same gifts and 
endowments would possess them in an equal degree. What it means 
is, that the knowledge of the Lord would be very widely diffused 
among Christians generally, and that there would be a time when 
this diffusion would be very great, marked and significant, a time 
which doubtless in the fulness of the signification is yet to come, 
and which we ought to hope and strive and pray should soon come. 
Paul was taught of the Lord, he was taught of the spirit of 
truth.* He lived in the times of the Primitive Church, Avas himself 
one of those who first helped to introduce Christianity, and would 
be supposed to know exactly the state of the case with respect to the 
way and manner in which the Lord's Supper was celebrated. An 
account of this institution is given in three of the Gospels, in Mat- 
thew, Mark, and Luke, as well as in the first Epistle to the Corin- 
thians, the place from which we have taken our text. Although 
baptism was in practice before it, this was one of the first institutions 
of the Christian Church. It would. appear to have been designed 
to be a substitute for the Jewish sacrificial ritual, at least it was 
afterwards made to have this design. The way in which it was 
practised in the primitive Church, that is, speaking in regard to this, 
the Church from the latter part of the first century on to the thij'd 
or fourth century of the Christian era, teaches this. According to 
Mosheim, in his Church history,the following was the way in which this 
institution was carried on in the primitive Church. " The Christian 
people, according to their wealth, brought oblations of bread and 
wine and other things, which they offered to the Lord. Of this 
bread and wine such a quantity was separated from the rest as was 
sufficient for the purposes of the holy supper, which was consecrated 



* This means tliat he was of tliat spirit which enabled him to understand ariglit what was 
communicated to him in words by anotlier, or what he saw recorded in writing concerning the 
matter under consideration. The expression need not be understood to favor tlie modern 
notion of insiJiration, for that tends to superstition. 



THE lord's supper. 477 

by certain pi'ayers pronounced by the bishop or presiding elder, to 
which the j^eople assented by saying: Amen. This consecrated 
bread and wine was distributed to the people by the deacon ; (for 
even in the latter part of the first century, we find in the Christian 
Church what may be regarded as three orders of the clergy, namely, 
bishops or presiding presbyters, presbyters and deacons ;) and the 
Lord's Supper was in some churches followed, and in others pre- 
ceded by the Agapce or feasts of love, institutions so peculiar to the 
primitive Church." Hence it very plainly appeal's, that the Christian 
priesthood and the institution of the Lord's Supper were designed, I 
will not say positively according to the Gospel, to be a substitute for the 
Jewish priesthood and sacrificial ritual ; the Christian bishop or presid- 
ing elder representing the Jewish high priest ; the presbyters repre- 
senting the Jewish priest ; and the deacons the Levites ; the popular 
oblations of the Christians representing those of the Jews, and the 
offices of the bishops, presbyters and deacons, with respect to the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper and the Christian service gener- 
ally, representing those of the high-priests, priests, and Levites, 
with respect to the sacrifices of the Jews and the Jewish ser- 
vice generally. The primitive manner of celebrating the Lord's 
Supper was much changed in the course of time, and was also 
varied according to locality. Also, the purport and meaning 
of that institution was differently understood by different per- 
sons in the earliest times of Christianity, and all along in the 
succeeding ages by the different Christian sects; some believing 
the representation of it in the New Testament to be allegorical 
and symbolical, others to be literal and real. Their opinions and be- 
liefs always differed Avith respect to the Lord's Supper, as they did 
with respect to Christ, whom the Gnostics, a numerous and intelligent 
sect of primitive Christians, believed to be rather an allegorical or 
spiritual character, than a real man. The sects of the Gnostics, of 
which there were many, were also called Docetce from the Greek JozZiv, 
to appear, because they professed to believe that Ciirist Avas onl}^ an 
appearance, a phantom and not a real body. Lrstead of being born 
of a virgin, as those who understood the New Testament literally 
professed to believe, they taught that he descended on the banks of 
the Joixlan in the form of perfect manhood, where he imposed upon 
John the Baptist, as afterwards his persecutors the Jews, and upon 
Pilate and his ministers, who wasted their rage upon an airy phantom 
that had no real corporeal existence. The orthodox, as they were 
called, on the other hand professed to believe the New Testament 
literally ; and tlius taking the four Gospels, they made out the Lord's 
Supper to be a real literal institution. But considering the four Gos- 



478 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

pels by waj^ of comparison with each other, we are led to conclude that 
the representation of the Lord's Supper must be of the same charac- 
ter with respect to literal or allegorical as the other representations of 
the Gospels. Now the four gospels come to us with equal authority 
and as of equal credibility respectively, that is, we have as much rio-ht 
to believe any one of them to be authentic and genuine history as we 
have to believe any other of them to be such ; and thus from a fair, 
careful, and impartial comparison we find the Gospels, although their 
representations are founded upon facts, the facts connected with the 
movement inaugurated and carried on b_y John the Baptist, to be alle- 
gorical, but their design to be such that rightly interpreted, they are 
quite as important as if they were of literal signification, and as such, 
consistent with one another and with themselves in everything. What, 
therefore, does the representation of the Lord's Supper mean accord- 
ing to the gospel idea? And what do all the symbols employed in 
that representation mean? Would not the Gospel Feast be an appro- 
priate name for the representation of the holy supper? Would it not 
mean the feeding on the pure doctrines of the Gospel ? Would not 
Christ, which in the gospel's representations sometimes sets forth 
Gospel truth, and sometimes truth and perfection personified and 
persecuted in a human being in whom they were exemplified, here 
SATubolize not only truth itself, but also the faithful and true Christian 
ministers or instrumentalities, who impart sound doctrine, the spirit- 
ual bread of life, to the Christian Church of all ages, which in this 
case is represented by the twelve apostles, twelve being the symbolic 
number for the complete Christian Church ? The bread and wine 
which the true Christian minister gives to the people are thus the 
pure doctrines of the Gospel, the symbolical body and blood of the 
New Testament. It means the pride-subduing, the illuminating, and 
the soul-reviving doctrines of the Gospel. This is what the represen- 
tation of the Lord's Supper properly means, in accordance with the 
literary character of the Gospels. But there was such an institution 
in the primitive Church as a literal supper corresponding to that 
called the Lord's Supper in the Christian Church at the present day, 
at which professing Christians used to assemble together for tlie 
purpose of mutual and friendly intercourse, and to contemplate the 
self-denying life and crucifixion of Christ. This institution, as I 
have before remarked, was thus prattised in the Christian 
Church at a very early period of it ; and was designed to be 
a substitute for the Jewish sacrificial ritual. This last sense, as a 
whole, was doubtless given to the institution of the Lord's Supper 
at the time of the rise of the bishops over the presbyters in the latter 
part of the first century, which sense it has retained in all churches 



THE loed's supper. 479 

governed by bishops ever since. The bishops of to-day recognize 
themselves as the representatives of the high-priests of the Jewish 
Church ; the presbyters as the representatives of the priests ; and the 
deacons of the Levites. But the institution of the Lord's Supper in 
this latter sense is of human origin, and is litei'al in its signification ; 
the representation of the Lord's Supper in the Gospels is evidently 
symbolical. If, therefore, we wisli to follow the divine and not 
the human institution ; if we wish to have the Gospel sense of it and 
not the sense that men have attached to it, we shall take this institution 
in the sense I have given it above, in the sense of a feast of pure 
Gospel doctrines, partaken of by humble godly Christians; in the 
sense, I say, of pure Gospel doctrine, the symbolical body and blood 
of the New Testament. Nor can it be injurious to Christians, we 
think, to practise this institution in the second sense, namely, in the 
sense of a literal supper, provided they practise it aright. But even 
so they should hardly look upon it as an ordinance of human insti- 
tution; they should fi-equent it for the purpose of friendly inter- 
course and of mutually cultivating the spirit of charity and benevo- 
lence towards each other, and above all they should, on such an occa- 
sion, contemplate the sllf-den3'ing life of the true Christian, the life 
of holiness and of active godliness. 

They should not, as the Church of Rome teaches and even some 
Protestant churches teach, imagine that the bread and wine they 
receive in that ordinance are transmuted into the body and blood of 
a man, a doctrine which has long been, and still is, the source of 
untold blasphemy ; in receiving these symbols or signs of true Chris- 
tian doctrine, they should resolve and endeavor to live the life of 
holiness, and of entire and active godliness, which the Gospel incul- 
cates. They should be heartily sorry for their past sins, and desire 
and endeavor to live holier and better in the future. This, doubt- 
less, was the way in .iiich they practiced tliis institution in the very 
early times of the primitive Church before the rise of the early 
bishops. The primitive Christians were distinguished for their 
humility, their purity, and their zeal for truth and for God. They 
were distinguished, too, as being for the most part of the humbler 
and more illiterate classes of the people. But when the bishops 
sprung up and the design was accomplished of making the Christian 
system a complete substitute for the Jewish system, then came the 
pride of the world into the Churcli whicli increased enormously 
Avhen orthodox Christianity was established in the Eomau Empire. 
Then the proud and the wicked ricli came into the Churcli in great 
numbers and had all things in their own way. They, as it were, 
took the kingdom of heaven by storm. Wlieu Pride came in, Hu- 



480 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

mility, the parent of godliness, with all her kindred graces, had to 
go out. They both could not live in the same house nor sit on the 
same throne together ; and then commenced the long and doleful 
reign of Antichrist, which has continued, till, in our own time, the 
freedom which the spirit of the Lord inspires is now beginning to 
show itself, and the true light of the Gospel, which has long only 
glimmered, has now begun to shine more fully. Where the spirit of 
the Lord is, there is perfect liberty. Where the spirit of Anticln-ist 
prevails there is complete slavery, slavery not only of body but of 
mind ; for we know the body follows and obe^-s the mind ; captivate 
the latter and you have the former in subjection, just in the same 
way that all the members of the body, as the hands and feet and 
eyes and muscles, and even the head itself are obedient to the mind 
and will. Llence it is said in Revelation, ch. XIII., that the beast 
gave them a mark upon their right hand or upon their forehead, the 
latter denoting the intellectual, and the former (the right hand being 
the principal organ of corporeal action,) representing the bodily 
faculties ; and the whole taken in connection with what precedes 
and follows in narrative signifying that the anti-Christian power, 
which was symbolized very propei-ly by a wild beast, would bring all 
people within its jurisdiction, into such complete subjection, that 
they should be enslaved to it body and mind. This has been ac- 
complished in all the ages of Catholic Christianity in the Roman 
Empire, both at Constantinople and at Rome, and in other nations 
and places until the present time. And any man who reads the 
history of the Christian Church, or even the secular history of the 
Roman Empire and of modern Christian nations till the present 
time, will see what an untold amount of evil, and contention, and 
bloodshed, and wickedness, and blasphemy against God the doctrine 
of transubstantiation has given rise to among mankind. And even 
in some churches calling themselves Protestant, that doctrine is 
taught in the height of its absurdity. Some people, it appears, must 
have a visible and tangible God ; and a great portion of mankind, 
dispensing with the evidence of their sense and reason, have made a 
piece of bread or wafer their God ; have put it up and worshipped 
it ; and have talked, and debated, and Avrangled to no end Avith 
respect to it. Did we not know positively that this is so we could 
hardly bring ourselves to believe that men could be so senseless and 
silly as to consent to or admit such absurd doctrines and believe 
them so strongly as to subject their fellow-men to the most cruel 
tortures and to death for not professing to believe them ; yea, and 
to themselves endure cruel sufferings and death in support of them. 
Christians should be always on their guard against the deceptions of 



THE lord's supper. <I81 

their own hearts, for the heart is deceitful above all things and des- 
perately wicked. They should likewise be on their guard against 
the wily deceptions of Satan, their invisible enemy, which is on the 
watch to ensnare and deceive them, which not only goeth about as- 
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but can also transform, 
himself into an angel of light, and so under this mask of deception,, 
beguile the unstable and unwary soul ; and none can resist his de- 
ceptive attacks but those Avho are of an humble, a contrite, and a 
prayerful spirit. Satan sometimes deceives men by causing them to 
set up a visible god or idol. It has been the propensity of men in 
all ages to go openly or glide imperceptibly^ into idolatry. 

Behold the Jews whose national characteristic it was to worship 
the infinite and invisible God ; how that large numbers of them set 
up idol calves at Bethel and Dan, which they worshipped for many 
centuries. All this brought upon them the severe judgments of the 
Deit}', and their long captivities in Assyria and in Babylon witness 
his retributive justice. What is the difference in guilt between the 
one that worships a calf-idol and the one who worships a Avafer 
or a piece of bread as his god. The latter appears to do even 
more absurdly than the former and to act more inconsiderately. 
Christians, surrounded and beset as they are with enemies without 
and within, which all may be summarized under the heads of the 
world, the flesh and the devil, should walk circumspectly, not as 
fools but as wise, redeeming the time and making the most they can 
of their powers and their privileges, and should not only avail to keep 
the flesh and the world in subjection, but should always faithfullv 
■fight the good fight of active godliness to bring them more into sub- 
jection and make still larger conquests in the world for God. 

But what are they to do in order to achieve and maintain this, 
dominion for God? Are they to be taken up with the fashions, the 
allurements and the pleasures of the world, to the neglect of godly 
living? Or are they to remain entangled in the sacerdotal net of 
carnal ordinances, to the neglect of practical godliness? Oh no ; but 
while the observance of the Lord's Supper, as indicated in the Gos- 
pel, properly understood, conduces to practical godliness and all holy 
living, it is a fact that if that institution is observed merely as a carnal 
ordinance and as commonly practised in the Catholic Church and in 
some churches called Protestant, its tendency is not to practical 
godliness but rather the opposite. The observance of carnal ordi- 
nances is as nothing in comparison with pure ])ractical Christiani(y. 
Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing; but keeping of 
the commandments of God is all important. 
Vol. II.— 31 



'482 CEEATOK AND COSMOS. 

On the Law and the Gospel. 

Cralatians, Ch. III., verses 23-27. " But before faith came, we 
"vrere kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should after- 
wards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to 
bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after 
that faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye 
are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." 

The chief argument of the Apostle in this letter of his to the 
Galatians is that they are no longer bound by the law or the old 
Mosaic dispensation since the gospel or the new and Christian dis- 
pensation has come : that under this new dispensation all are the 
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. The law, says the Apos- 
tle, was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be 
justified by faith. The word here translated schoolmaster, namely, 
-aidujcoy.):; meaus oue who, it is said, not only taught the children, 
but conducted them from their homes to the school ; and to their 
homes from the school ; and, therefore, it is said, the law was our 
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, unto the school where the true 
faith of God is cultivated. The law was given by Moses, but grace 
and truth came by Jesus Christ. The law or the old dispensation 
implied guilt, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, as where no law 
is there is no transgression, no law to be violated or transgressed, no 
sense of the penalty due to transgression ; but the gospel dispensa- 
tion implies grace or favor, a sense of justification to him who em- 
braces the truth, for in this we are ju^->ifijd by the faith of Christ 
and thus become children of God. It is therefore plainly seen how ' 
superior is the new dispensation to the old ; the dispensation of grace 
to that of works and carnal ordinances, the Christian system to the 
old Jewish. The law or the Jewish ritual was very narrow in its 
application ; it was designed for a single nation, and if the Israelites 
had complied with the command which required their males to pre- 
sent themselves thrice a year (See Exodus XXXIV., 23 ; Deuteron- 
omy XVI., 16) before the Lord in the place which he should choose, 
or Jerusalem, they could never have extended themselves much be- 
yond the limits of the promised land. But they did not comply very 
xigidly with this injunction as they did not with many other require- 
ments of the law. and we find the Jews, even in early periods of their 
history, scattered in distant countries far beyond the boundaries of 
the land of Israel. This was a necessary consequence of the natural 
increase of the people, who could not all subsist in their successive 
venerations if they were confined to a limited portion of the earth. 
The new or Christian dispensation is more extensive in its applica- 



THE LAW AND THP: GOSPEL. 483 

tion, applying as it does to mankind world-wide. Christianity was 
designed for and is applicable to all the nations of the earth. It 
knows no difference between Jew and Gentile ; for all are the chil- 
dren of God by faith in Christ Jesus. According to the commonly 
received chronology the Jewish dispensation continued from the giv- 
ing or promulgation of the law by Moses to the destruction of Jeru- 
salem by Titus, a period of nearly sixteen hundi-ed years. The Jews, 
however, continue yet to practice their religion wherever they hap- 
pen to reside, and they have always been obstinately tenacious of it. 
Neither persuasion nor force could induce them to allow the gods of 
other nations to be introduced into the temple of Jehovah, and An- 
tiochus Epiphanes, Pilate, and Caligula realized this by the opposition 
they encountered to their introducing to the temple their images or 
to the city their institutions. The Jews had a great respect for their 
law, and it has beeu remarked that the farther they were removed 
in time from their lawgiver, the greater was their respect for him, 
and the stronger their belief in the miracles he was represented to 
have wrought. That law, as I have said, was designed for a single 
people and was very limited in its application. There is a summary 
of it in the Ten Commandments, otherwise called the Decalogue ; but, 
considered in detail, the observance of the law must have been very 
laborious and difficult. The law enacted frequent sacrifices and many 
observances ; it besieged not only the priest and the Levite, but the 
citizen in all the positions of life and exacted from him the amplest 
and most implicit submission to its dictates and requirements. Its 
conditions were, he that doeth these things shall live by them ; he 
that doeth them not shall die. The conditions then on which tlie 
law saved men were works, the doing what the law required. The 
condition on which the Gospel offers salvation to men is, according 
to our text, faith, for it says : Ye are all the children of God by 
faith in Christ Jesus. We must, however, if we wish to expound 
the Gospel consistentl}' with itself, take another conditional item as 
necessary to secure salvation, namely, works ; for in the Epistle of 
James, it is said that faith without works is dead, that is, it counts 
for nothing. Hence, according to the Gospel plan, faith and works 
are necessary to secure salvation to men. But by works we are not 
here to understand the works or observances which the law re([uired, 
but the good works which s^jring from chaiity and love, which 
invariably accom[)any the true faith and are included in it. Tlie 
Gospel dispensation did away with the necessity of the works and 
observances required by the Mosaic dispensation, which consisted 
mainly in the observance of carnal ordinances and in obedience to a 
sj^stem of rules and regulations. But, becoming the cliildron of God 



48-i CKEATOR AKD COSMOS. 

by faith of Christ and tlie performance of all good works which tend 
to godliness, men under the new dispensation become perfectly free, 
free from tlie works and observances of the law : they become God's 
freemen at the same time that they become God's children. The law 
and the Gospel were both revelations from God to man, the law a par- 
tial revelation, as it were a sclioolmaster, to bring men to the full light 
of knowledge and wisdom concerning heavenly things. The law was 
as the morning star which uslrersin tlie sun and the full light of day, 
which last represents the Gospel rightly understood. Before faith came, 
men were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should 
afterwards be revealed ; they were, so to speak, groping in the dark to 
get into the right way ; they were surrounded and enveloped with mj-s- 
tery, not knowing the true God, and slaves to the ordinances and 
works of the law. The law ruled men with a rod of iron, compelled 
them to an obedience to it ; the Gospel chastises men with a scourge 
of small cords, and leads them gentl}' to a profession of its doctrines 
and an obedience to its requirements. The law was our schoolmaster, 
and almost every person can bear witness to the terror which the 
schoolmaster inspired them with iir their youth ; and those who were 
disobedient or negligent can doubtless bear witness to his actual sever- 
ity to them. But the Gospel brought men into the position of chil- 
dren ; children of a loving parent, no longer under the severe rule of 
a rigid and an inflexible schoolmaster; and if children, then heirs, 
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Where the spirit of the 
Lord is, there is liberty ; under the true Gospel, men are full of 
light and knowledge and Avisdom as to all things that concern god- 
liness ; and the result of this is freedom, the freedom which the love 
of God, their father, imparts, for perfect love casteth out fear with 
all its torment. 

But men were in bondage to the law and its requirements ; they 
were in darkness, shut up unto the faitli which should afterwards be 
revealed ; yea, they were groping in the darkness of their ignorance 
for the way of life, not knowing the true God, nor whither they 
should go to find him. That is the state the majority of the Jews 
are in to-day, shut up in the dai'kness of superstition, in bondage to 
the requirements and observances of the law. They do not believe 
that the Messiah has come, and it may require an extraordinary 
revolution in their opinions before they come to believe it. The 
prime difTficulty in this respect is that they do not know what the 
Messiah or Christ means. Nor are the great majority of those called 
Christians to-day in any better condition. They have heaped up to 
themselves a large amount of superstition and increased their gods 
without number ; so that when we speak of the Gospel in contra- 



THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 485 

distinction from or in relation to the law, we si^eak of the true Gos- 
Del, rig-htly understood, without any mixture of the errors which 
were from time to time introduced into it and into Christianity. If 
it be asked which are in the best and the truest position to-day, the 
Jews or the idolatrous Christians, we can hardly answer that the 
Christians are, for the Jews, though exceedingly formal, exclusive, 
and somewliat unamiable in their wa}', cannot be called idolaters 
in the ordinary acceptation of that term, while the great majority 
of those called Christians are the most absurd of idolaters. The 
Roman Catholic, it is said, whether truly or otherwise I do not 
pronounce, worships a wafer as well as a great many deified human 
beings, men and women, as also the people of the Greek Church 
and of other branches of the Church Catholic, do as much. They 
also observe feasts and fasts and holidays kept in honor of the Saints 
to no end. But the Jews, though they observe many feasts and 
carnal ordinances, 3'et profess to worship only the invisible and in- 
finite God, the creator, preserver, and governor of all. But after 
that faith is come ye are no longer under a schoolmaster. Great 
are the rewards of faith. By faith the elders, God's servants in 
every age, obtained a good report. By faith Abel offered unto God 
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness 
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and in it, he being 
dead, yet speaketh. . By faith it is believed that Enoch was translat- 
ed, that he should not see death ; and even u<e become the children 
of God by the faith of Christ. By faith Abraham, when he was 
called to go out into a place which he should afterwards receive for 
an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he 
went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange 
country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs 
with him of the same promise. For he looked for a citv which hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith ]\Ioses, 
when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's 
daughter ; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of 
God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming tlie 
reproach of Christ greater riches than tiie treasures in Egypt; for 
he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith lie 
forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king ; for he endured as 
seeing Him who is invisible. And wliat shall we say of those who, 
through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained 
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, 
escaped the edge of the swoi'd, out of weakness were made strong, 
waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 
Others had trials of niockings and seoiirgiugs, yea, moreover, of 



486 CREATOR AXD COSMOS. 

bonds and imprisonment. The}' ^vere stoned, tlaey were sawn asunder ; 
were tempted, were slain with tlie sword ; they wandered about in 
sheepskins andgoats kins,being destitute,afflicted, tormented. Of whom 
the world was not worthy , they wandered in deserts and mountains 
and in dens and caves of the earth. But these all having obtained 
a good report through faith, received not the promise : God having 
provided some better things for us, that they, without us, should 
not be made perfect. But without faith it is impossible to please 
God ; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. and that 
he is a re warder of them that diligently seek him. He that cometh 
to God. saj's the Apostle, must believe that he is. The fool hath 
said in his heart, there is no God. Rejecting the evidence of sense 
and reason and all that nature and revelation affords him, he saith 
in his heart : There is no God. The condition of no man we can 
imagine is more pitiable than that of liim who saith there is no God. 
Such an one is profoundly dark-minded, ignorant, and of a perverse, 
obdurate heart. The work of regeneration has never taken effect in 
the heart of such an one. , The heavens declare the glory of God ; 
and every little plant and flower and pebble and microscopic animal- 
cule ; every object that is seen in the domain of nature declares liis 
presence and power. And still there are some who say in their 
hearts : There is no God. Yea, and there are many, ver}' many, 
who act and conduct themselves all through their life as if they 
believed there is no God, as if they had no realizing sense of the 
existence and presence of that omnipresent-, omnipotent, and infin- 
itely glorious Being. Their hearts are perverse and estranged from 
the right way ; and the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts 
are only evil continually. Such men, it appears, would certainly 
need a pedagogue to bring them to a knowledge of the truth. They 
would need to be dealt with, not as children, until they become 
babes in Christ. They would need to be required to lay aside their 
ignorant self-conceitedness and to receive the truth as little children. 
Then, when they had come to a knowledge of the truth, liad arrived 
at the true faith, they had become the children of God, heirs of God, 
and joint-heirs with Christ, and, consequently, have no longer need 
of a schoolmaster, no longer themselves attach any importance to 
carnal ordinances and man-devised ceremonies and rites, with so 
many of which the Jewish Church abounded, and the largest part of 
the nominal Christian Church now abounds. But they will recog- 
nize the necessity of cultivating and practising active godliness as 
the one thing needful and altogether above comparison witli the 
observance of carnal ordinances, rites and ceremonies. They live 
as becometh children of God, having no longer any need of a school- 



THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 487 

master, to bring them to the school of Christian faith ; but being 
joint-heirs with Clirist, they are as heirs in subjection to the obedi- 
ence of Christ. Here, when I speak of the obedience of Christ, I 
refer to the life of holiness and of entire and active godliness which 
the true Cliristian lives, and not the obedience to any man or to any 
combination of men to the neglect or compromise of obedience to 
God, and his truth and righteousness. When I speak of the obedi- 
ence of Christ, I mean the obedience which the child of God renders 
to his heavody father, a loving, childlike, filial, unconstrained obedi- 
ence while pursuing the course of godliness in all the circumstances 
and conditions of life. The observance of carnal or man-devised 
ordinances in comparison with this life is as nothing. The Apostle 
in speaking of this says : Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is 
nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. The chil- 
dren of faith are dead to the law, that is, the law in respect to its 
ordinances and ceremonies is null and void as regai'ds them. But 
there are nevertheless parts of the law which are always obligatory 
on the Christians, as, for example, that part called the Ten Com- 
mandments. 

In regard to the Ten Commandments, the Christian dispensa- 
tion does not annul, but it confirms them. Whosoever breaketh 
even the least of these commandments and shall teach men so, the 
same shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven ; but who- 
soever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called the greatest 
in the Kingdom of heaven. To the Ten Commandments, the New 
Testament has added another : A new commandment give I unto 
you, that ye love one another. This is a command to all men, and 
more especially to Christians, to love one another, and may be called 
the eleventh commandment of the all-comprehensive divine law. 
God would govern men by the law of love ; and he would also have 
them live and act in relation to each other in accordance with the 
same law. If men universally would live in accordance with God's 
requirements, they would not ordy love God, but they would love 
each other. Love would be their motive power to action, and it 
would also be the bond of their union. There need be no more 
among men the distinctions of Jew and Gentile, of Christian and 
Pagan ; all would be the children of God by the faith of Christ 
Jesus ; all would love their God and each otlier with an unfeigned,, 
an unvarying love, a love which would go forth benevolently and 
beneficently in action and expression. The old walls of partition 
between Jew and Gentile, l)ctweeii Cln-istian and Pagan, would 
tlien be broken down completely, and tiicir differences entirely ob- 
literated, and maid<in(l generally might tlien be called one holyv 



488 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

happy family, even the family of God. Let Christians then esteem 
the privileges which they enjoy of living in an age of Gospel light 
when all may become the children of God by cultivating the faith 
of Jesus Christ. Let them estimate these blessings by comparino- 
their condition with that of the Jews for sixteen centuries that they 
continued under the law, shut up unto the faith which should after- 
wards be revealed, the faith in which we live. Let them also esti- 
mate their privileges by comparing their condition with that of the 
hundreds of millions of heathen people now^ on the earth by whom 
they are surrounded, who prostrate themselves to stocks and stones, 
and serpents and almost all the objects and powers of nature ; who 
in the darkness of their ignorance and superstition, bow in abject 
submission to everything else but the true God. Let those of the 
Christians who worship the infinite and invisible God alone in spirit 
and in truth, wlio live the life of active godliness, look with compas- 
sion upon many millions of their idolatrous brethren also called 
Christians, whose religion appears to be very little if any better 
than that of their Pagan neighbors. Let such I say look with com- 
passion upon their idolatrous neighbors, of the nominal Christians, 
and resolve to do all in their power to free them from their error 
and idolatry, to advance the cause of God among them, and to make 
them the Lord's freemen ; free from the thraldom of superstition 
and from the power of priestcraft ; so that thej' all, with the true 
Christians, and the truly-converted Jews and Pagans, may become 
the children of God by the faith of Christ Jesus. 

On the Resurrection. 

I. Cor. Ch. XV., verses 35-45 inclusive : " But some man will say : 
How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? 
Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. 
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, 
but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But 
God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to evevy seed his 
own body. All flesh is not the same flesh; biit there is one kind of 
flesh of men ; another flesh of beasts ; another of fishes ; and another 
of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial ; but 
the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is an- 
otlier. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, 
and another glory of the stars, for one star diff"eretli from another 
star in gloiy. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in 
corruption ; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is 
raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is 



THE RESURRECTION. 489 

sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural 
body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written: the first 
man Adam was made a living soul ; the last Adam was made a quicken- 
ing spirit." The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is one that 
eminently distinguishes Cliristianity. It is not taught in the law of 
Moses, and is only hinted at in the prophets of the Old Testament. 
After the return of tlie Jews from their captivity in Babylon, after 
Ezra had established tliera again under the law, two celebrated sects 
arose among them, called the Pharisees and the Sadducees. It was 
peculiar to the former of these that they professed to believe in the 
existence of angels and spirits, and in the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion ; to the latter, that they professed unbelief in the resurrection ; 
but I will not say, as is said by some, that they did not believe in the 
existence of angels and spirits. In the mythologies of the Greeks 
and Romans, and of some of the Eastern nations, especially those in 
which the doctrines of the Magi prevailed, we find evidence of a belief 
in some sort of a future state, both of rewards and punishment. The 
judgment, both as to time and place, and manner, and the character 
of the future state were defined in their systems with minute partic- 
ularity. And it is concluded, from what we regard as very satisfac- 
toiy evidence, that it was from the Magians that the sect of the 
Pharisees derived their characteristic belief during their sojourn in 
Babylon. The Magi, or wise men, were a priestly caste especially 
peculiar to the Eastern countries of Babylonia, Media, and Persia. 
The}', as well as the Brahmins, or priestly caste of India, the Druids 
of Gaul and Britain, and the priesthood of the German nations, had a 
mythological system jjeculiar to themselves. As to the belief of the 
Druids concerning a future state, we can tell but little, owing to the 
secrecy which they observed in their religious rites, wliich prevented 
all others than the Druids or priests themselves from knowing pre- 
cisely what their religious system was, and to their leaving no liter- 
ary records behind them which would inform us respecting it. The 
doctrine of the transmigration of souls was one eminently character- 
istic of the Brahininical religion, andalso of the religion of the ancient 
Egyptians, whose religious belief it was, according to Herodotus, that 
the soul of the human being, after it had passed through all the an- 
imals of tlie land and sea, came again to re-animate the human body, 
which it liad once animated; and their pyramids, their vaults, and 
their catacombs were constructed, and tlieir mummies were pre- 
pared in order to preserve the ancient mansion of the soul for three 
tliousand years, the period of time wliicli it was thought the soul speni 
in performing its migrations. Tlic lengtli of time wliicli lias passed 
since this belief began to Im3 cultivated, and no sign of re-aniin;if ioi 



490 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

having appeared as yet iu any of the mummies, proves this belief or 
theory to be entirely groundless ; and it is with a more philosophical 
spirit that Mohammed, who also taught the doctiines of the resurrec- 
tion, relies upon the power of the Deity to effect the resurrection of 
the body in his own time, and in his own way. Nor is there any satis- 
factory evidence or proof whatever that the so-called transmigration 
of souls takes place. All these beliefs of the heathen nations concern- 
ing the resurrection of the dead, it is seen, are different from that 
inculcated in the New Testament. As to the literal resurrection of the 
body, it is explained by Paul to take place analogously to the germina- 
tion and growth of the plant from the seed. The body, as the seed, 
has to die and decay before it is again quickened. Thou fool, says 
the Apostle, in answer to him who inquires how the dead are raised 
up and with what body do they come — Thou fool, that which thou 
sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest 
thou sowest not that body which shall be, but a naked kernel, it may 
be of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it 
hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. Hence, we see 
that that belief must be false which goes to say that the same body 
that is consigned to the earth shall again rise from the dead, animate 
and intelligent.* And we also perceive the falsity of the doctrine 
of transmigration among the Egyptians, which led them absurdly to 
believe that after a period of three thousand years, the same body 
would again become animate and Avalk the earth. The Apostle 
to the Gentiles inculcates a contrary doctrine, namely, that it is not 
that body which dies which shall be again revived, but another body, 
which according to this illustration springs from it. Thou sowest 
not, says the apostle, that body which shall be, but God giveth to 
every seed a body as it hath pleased him ; but still and withal to 
every seed its own body, that is, a body after its own kind. And 
this is merely saying that all living things, plants and animals, are 
produced after their respective kinds. If a grain of Avheat is sown, 
an ear of wheat Avill result from it, if anything do result, and that 
kernal of wheat ma}^ be said to exist in the new ear. And in the 
same way, human beings live in their children or descendants. A 
man also may be said to live in his acts, as, for example, he may write 
a book in which his ideas Avill be perpetuated to future generations 
in which he may be said to live ; or he ma}^ not Avrite any book him- 
self, but still he may be a subject of history, some one else having 



* See (ill Locke's Works) the long di.scussion between Mr. Locke and the bisliop of Worcester 
concerning the resurrection of the body, in whicli the one maj' be said to have been as correct 
or as incorrect as the other, for they were equally inconsistent, puerile and absurd in their 
arguments. 



THE RESURRECTION. 491 

written about him, and thus he lives ; or it may happen that neither 
he has written nor any one else has written about him, but still by 
his acts and example or the institutions he has founded he may live 
for a time in the remembrance of the people. Now man, properly 
speaking, lives only in man. Man of the past lives in man of the 
present, and man of the present will live in man of the future. As 
man he cannot properly be said to live in any other way. The na- 
ture and domains of the spirit world it is very difficult for us to fully 
understand, very hard for us to explore. But it is evident that the 
intelligent period of the existence of a human being, is while one 
exists a human being, properly speaking, and not before or at any time 
after ceasing to exist as such. The human body, we know, does not, 
when it dies, cease to exist, for it retains the principal of life which is 
inherent in all matter and spirit (for matter is spirit in another 
form) ; but as an intelligent conscious human being it ceases 
to exist and becomes as it were an indefinite part of the uni- 
versal whole : ceasing to exist as an intelligent actor, then, it must 
remain in peace ; if it be capable of knowing and thinking, it does 
not know or think as a human being, but differently from anything 
that we can conceive . and we infer tbat in peace it remains with 
and in infinite existence, under the shadow of God, foi' Deity is 
everywhere present and comprehends in Himself all extremes and 
means; all existences are comprehended in the infinite and infinitely 
glorious Deity. God gives to every seed its own body. All flesh is 
not of the same kind ; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another 
kind of flesh of beasts ; another of fishes, and another of birds ; now 
each of these tribes of living creatures named here brings forth after 
its own kind. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial ; 
but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial 
is another. That the apostle in speaking of the celestial bodies re- 
fers to what we understand as the heavenly bodies, as the sun, moon, 
stars, etc., is plain from what follows in connection ; for he says : 
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and 
another glory of the stars, for one star differeth from another in glo- 
ry ; or, translating literally, star differs from star in glory. This is 
what we understand by the heaveidy bodies, properly speaking, and 
what was understood by them in the time of the Apostle Paul. But 
there are celestial and terrestrial bodies spoken of in another, a sec- 
ondary sense, but with special reference to human beings. In this 
latter sense, the natural man, the old Adam, represents the terres- 
trial body or being ; the regenerate man, the last or second Adam, 
who is made a quickening spirit, represents tlie celestial body or being. 
The burial and resurrection arc; licrc aL-o of a &econdary sense, and 



492 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

refer to the immersion of the body in water in the act of baptism, 
and the raising of the body again from the water. And so in verse 
29 of chapter XY., of I. Corinthians, the same chapter in which our 
text is found, it is said by the apostle, as he reasons about the cer- 
tainty of the i-esurrection : Else what shall they do which are bap- 
tized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? Why are they then 
baptized for the dead ? There have been many curious and unnat- 
ural constructions put upon this passage, some claiming that it was 
the custom in the jjrimitive Church to baptize persons in the place of 
other persons who had died unbaptized. But the true meaning of the 
passage is that these persons were Captized for the dead, that is, as 
dead themselves in sin and natural . depravity, — their burial being 
represented by the immersion of their body in the water, and their 
rLSurrection by the raising of their body from it, — and that, with 
their baptism and repentance, commenced their new life of regenera- 
tion, which was fully represented by the raising of their bodies again 
from the water after immersion. And in this sense the body is sown 
or buried in corruption, it is raised in in corruption. It is sDwn in 
dishonor, it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in 
power ; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 
All nature or existence is, however, spirit, in some form or 
different forms, but the regenerate human being is holy in 
Spirit. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. 
And so it is written : The first man Adam was made a living soul : 
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit, The soul as ap- 
plied to man properly means the human being in the possession 
of his natural faculties, his senses, and intellectual and corporeal 
powers. And every regenerate human being, every one in Avhom 
repentance has had its proper effect, and the new life of active godli- 
ness has been begun and is carried on, is a quickening spirit. Every 
truly godly man or w'oman is a quickening spirit. And so the last 
Adam is a quickening spirit. The resurrection, which is the effect 
of regeneration, is that which is meant principally Avhen the resur- 
rection of dead bodies of Christians is spoken of in t'le New Tesia- 
ment. And this is altogether the most important resurrection, and 
so it is said in the book of Revelation : Blessed and holy are they 
that have part in the first resurrection ; on such the second death 
hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and 
shall reign with him a thousand years. As the first death spoken of 
in this book of Revelation is a death of sin and ungodliness, from 
Avhich people might rise and become regenerate, so the second death 
means a death of sin and of ungodliness, into which the unrepentant 
and those who would refuse to accept of the truths of the Gospel 
would plunge themselves, a death-state even more fearful and terri- 



THE EESUEEECTION. 493 

ble to contemplate than the first, because of the ideas of desperation 
and permanency implied in it. The first death means the death of 
sin which all died in the body after the similitude of Adam's trans- 
gression ; and the regeneration or the life of entire and active godli- 
ness consequent upon baptism and repentance represents the resur- 
rection of the body ; which is in its most important sense, as is seen, 
a resurrection from a death of sin to alife of righteousness and entire 
holiness ; which is the putting off of the old man with his deeds and 
the putting on the new man, which after God is created in knowl- 
edge, righteousness, and true holiness. Hence Christ is represented 
in the Gospel as saying : I am the resurrection and the life. It is 
not said that he imparted life and effected the resurrection, although 
that is in a sense meant also, but that he is the resurrection and the 
life. Now Christ represents the new man, the second Adam, that is, 
any thoroughly regenerate man, who lives the entire life of active 
godliness. And this- new life of regeneration is principall}^ the New 
Testament sense of the resurrection. As I have before said, properly 
speaking man only lives in man ; man of the past lives in man of the 
present, and man of the present will live in man of the future. 
Hence is seen how important is the subject and the practice of re- 
generation, the living the life of active godliness, of entire holiness. 
This is the great design of the Gospel, the great object it has to achieve 
for mankind. This is that Avhich, if effected in this age, will produce 
its appropriate fruits in succeeding ages. Christ not only symbolizes 
the pure doctrines of the Gospel, but he represents the truly godly 
men who receive those doctrines, and who by their practice and precept 
teach them to others. Hence these men are instrumental in the conver- 
sion and regeneration of others; and hence, in this sense, not only 
pure Gospel doctrine, but they that teach it, may be called the resur- 
rection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life ; he that 
believeth in me though he were dead, — meaning dead in sin and 
natural depi'avity, — yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die, — meaning the death of sin ; living, 
he shall always live unto God; he shall be active in God's cause, 
and therefore by God's preventing and sustaining grace he will not 
fall into the death of sin ; but it does not mean that any human 
being will exist who shall not die a natural death, for all men have 
to die a natural death. It does not mean that any human being 
lives forever, however it may be as to personal consciousness with 
respect to spiritual existences. And when Christ is represented as 
crying with a loud voice: Lazarus, come forth, it merely ri'])rcsents 
the heralds of the Gospel awakening mankind from the death of sin 
to the life of rioiiteousness : this is the resurrection taught in tlie 



494 CBEATOR AND COSMOS. 

Gospel which the representation of the resurrection of Lazarus sym- 
bolized. Nor is this resurrection or regeneration effected ordinarily 
in a moment : like the existences in the living and animate king- 
doms of nature it has a beginning, a progress, and a perfect growth 
to maturity. There is first the bud, then the blade, then the ear, 
and after that the full ripe corn in the ear. Grace in the heart of 
man has been compared to a flower in the bud ; grace in the truly 
regenerate man to the flower in full bloom. I do not say it is im- 
possible for the sinner to become regenerate all in a moment, for I 
believe that God can effect this if he so wills it. But I mean to say 
that the ordinary operation of grace in the regeneration of human 
beings is gradual. People should then rojoice if they feel the spirit 
of God beginning betimes to operate in their hearts, and should 
delight to cultivate the fruits and graces of that spirit. They will 
begin to experience the love of God in their hearts, they will feel 
towards God as their father, and will delight to practice self-denial 
for his sake, and to work in his cause, knowing that their work for 
God is a labor of love. They will not be hindered in their godly 
action through fear, for the love of God in their heart casts out fear 
Avith all its torment. And the deeds that they do and the spirit 
which they manifest, evince that they are born again, not of corrup- 
tible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth 
and abideth forever ; that they are practising regeneration, and that 
they are raised or resurrected from the death of sin to the life of 
righteousness, holiness, and active godliness. Christ then, by which 
I mean not only pure and true Gospel doctrine, but also the truly 
regenerate and actively good man, by whom that doctrine is imparted 
in precept and example, they will come to understand; and this ideal 
will appear to them as the all-important achievement, the perfect 
man, the resurrection and the life. Thus, my friends, I have ex- 
plained to you the resurrection, how that man lives, properly speak- 
ing only in mankind of every age, and in this sense never dies, that 
is, he ever lives : how that the individual man may live in other 
senses, as by his example, his precepts and his deeds ; but how that 
the New Testament sense of the resurrection is, properly speaking, 
of a resurrection from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, 
which is symbolized by the different phases of the act of baptism ; 
and which is in effect, the regeneration, otherwise called the new 
creation, or the generation of the second Adam, and to which may 
you all seek to attain. 



HEAVEN, HELL, AND THE JUDGMENT. 495 

On Heaven, Hell, and the Judgment. 

Matthew, ch. III. verses 1, 2 : " In those days came John the 
Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying : Repent 
ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

Luke, ch. XVI. verse 23 : " And in hell he lifted up his eyes, 
being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his 
bosom." 

Matt. ch. XVI. verse 27 : " For the Son of Man shall come in the 
glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every 
man according to his works." The kingdom of Heaven, when 
spoken of in the New Testament, has mostly reference to the king- 
dom of Christ on earth. It refers to the true Church of Christ , and 
so in our text, John is introduced as preaching (preaching, from the 
Latin word J9roecor, I proclaim, is another word for proclaiming) that 
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The word heaven is an old 
Anglo-Saxon term, and signifies literally that Avhich is heaved up, or 
elevated. The Greek word translated heaven is (uopavo:) and literally 
means the visible heavens, or the sky, in which sense the word 
heaven or heavens, is used in the Old Testament. The word heaven, 
in the sense of its application to the Christian Church, is rather 
peculiar to the New Testament. In Matt. ch. IV. verse 17, Jesus is 
represented as beginning to preach, saying : Repent, for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand. And in ch. X. verse 7, as he sends forth 
his disciples, the twelve apootles, he commands them, saying; "And 
as ye go, preach, saying : The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Thus 
heaven has in this sense a secondary, yet a real, but not a primary 
and literal meaning. It applies to the moral world, but not to the 
physical, and represents mankind or a part of the human race as 
about to be elevated, exalted morally, by the religion of Christ. 
As the New Testament resurrection means the awakening from a 
death of sin to a life of righteousness and active godliness, which the 
preaching and inculcation of the true doctrines of the Gospel would 
effect, so the kingdom of heaven means the state of holiness and of 
active godliness, to which those who would embrace the Gospel and 
practice its precepts, would attain. And so the apostle Paul in his 
Epistle to the Romans, ch. XIV. verse 17 says : " For the Kingdom 
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy 
in the holy spirit." This, therefore, plainly shows that by heaven 
in the New Testament is meant a state of mind and of heart, and 
not a place or locality ; it means the state of naind of the truly godly 
])C'rson, of the true and genuine Christian. Now, this state of mind 
pertains to and characterizes not only many, but one, so that even an 



49G CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

individual Christian may represent the kingdom of heaven, yea, and 
may represent a great deal more than that, though this may appear 
to be an exalted state for one to have attained. And, moreover, 
heaven may represent not only one, but many, even all the truly 
godly of mankind, all real and true Christians on the face of the 
earth being members of the kingdom of heaven ; yea, and they 
are inhabitants of that kingdom, inhabitants of heaven. And so 
John came preaching : The kingdom of heaven is at hand. He 
came introducing that blessed era when all might become members 
of the kingdom of heaven if they vi^ould but practice the doctrines 
which he taught. In the beatitudes recorded in the fifth chapter 
of Matthew it is said : Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is tlie 
Kingdom of heaven. This is one point of character in which the 
heavenly state is known in Christians ; those who are of the King- 
dom of heaven are of an humble and a contrite spirit. And in the 
same chapter it is said : Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
see God. Now, in the first chapter of John, verse 18, it is said : No 
man liath seen God at any time ; and Paul in his first epistle to 
Timothy, chapter VI. verse 16, says that no man hath seen God, or 
can see him. It tlierefore might appear that there is here an incon- 
sistency, but doubtless the verb, to see, means, in the case of that 
beatitude, to know or understand. Blessed are the pure in heart, 
for they shall know God. And in Isaiah, ch. LVII. verse 15, it is 
said : " For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, 
whose name is Holy : I dwell in the high and holy place with him 
also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the 
humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." And in ch. 
LXVI. verse 2, it is said : " For all those things hath mine hand 
made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord ; but to this 
man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and 
trembleth at my word." The truly good man or woman, therefore, 
the one that is humble and of a contrite spirit and lives a truh^ godly 
life, God is immediately acquainted with, and such an one comes to 
know God and to be taught of him. But there may still be a sense 
in which the truly godly see God, namel}^ in the New Testament 
sense of Christ as God. The truly regenerate man or woman who 
lives the life of active godliness represents Christ. The apostle 
Paul, in one of his epistles, says : " It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like 
him ; for we shall see him as he is." Christ appears in every truly 
regenerate human being ; as the apostle intimates when he speaks 
of Christ being " formed in you," and " Christ in you the hope of 
glory." This, therefore, is a sense, a New Testament s*nse, in which 



HEAVEN, HELL, AND THE JUDGMENT. 49T 

men might see God, and taken in this sense the verb "see " in tlie 
passage we liave quoted, namely, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for 
they shall see God," would have its literal signification. But we 
are not to understand from this that the supreme Deity, the infinite 
and invisible one who alone should be worshipped in spirit and in 
truth, can either be seen with the eye or conceived by the mind. 
Purity of heart, holiness of life, true practical godliness bring men to 
a knowledge of God such as those who follow the wicked and uniioly 
ways of the world never attain to while thus living. While they are 
at home in the world, following the dictates of the flesh and of their 
wayward mind, the}^ are strangers to God, they do not see or know 
him ; nor does it yet appear to them what they shall be ; but when 
they have turned from their evil manner of life, Avhen the true 
Christian character is fully formed in them, when Christ appears, 
then they recognize him, for they are like him, and they see him as 
he is. And where in Revelation, ch. XII. verse 7, it is said that : 
" There was war in heaven : Michael and his anefels fouefht a'>ainst 
the dragon ; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; 
neither was their place found any more in heaven. 

" And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the 
Devil, and Satan, Avhich deceiveth the whole world ; he was cast out 
into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him, &c ; " this 
represents prophetically the contest of the primitive Church with pa- 
ganism, and its gradual as well as final victory, when established in 
the Empire by Constantine, when paganism became disestablished, 
and the gods of paganisni were prostrated in the dust before trium- 
phant Christianity, or rather Christian polytheism, which Christianity 
was now fast becoming; In the prophecy Michael and his angels 
represent symbolically the whole doctrine and agency of Christianity 
as the dragon does of paganism. And tlie contest which is represent- 
ed to have been waged in heaven was the contest of the Church 
with the world in the world, with the existing and old-established 
religions of the world, and not a contest of any hostile powers away 
above the clouds, in regions unknown to man, and with which he 
has nothing to do. It means the contest of the Church in the world 
with the world as well as with the invisible powers of the prince of 
darkness, a contest in which the Church gradually and ultimately 
prevailed. 

Hell is also an Anglo-Saxon term, from hd or Jiclcm, to roof, cover 
over, or conceal, and signifies literally a place covered over or con- 
cealed. 

But as heaven in the New Testament sense signifies the state of 
mind of the truly godly, whether of one or of man}', so hell signifies 
Vol. II.— 32 



498 



CREATOE AND COSMOS. 



the state of mind of the uugodlj, whether of one or of many. It 
means a state of unquietness, of torment, of trouble and of appre- 
hension ; it means the opposite in every respect of righteousness, 
and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The terms darkness and fire 
are sometimes applied to that state signifying the darkness of mind, 
ignorance, and superstition, and the disquietude and torment of soul 
in which they are who are estranged from God and do not walk in 
the way of godliness. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, as 
according to our text, it is said in Luke, ch. XVI. : " And in hell he," 
the rich man, •' lifted up h^s ej^es, being in torments, and seeth Abra- 
ham alar off, and Lazarus in his bosom," which parable is a symbolical 
representation showing the opposite states and conditions of the 
righteous and the wicked in the present and future. 

As the state of darkness and superstition in which the sinner is, 
is called death, so the state of sinfulness and of active ungodliness 
is called hell, which latter term always implies more than the term 
death does, at least in their New Testament significations ; it imj^lies 
not merely carelessness and indifference on the part of the person in 
a state of sin and ungodliness, but unrest, torment, trouble, wicked- 
ness of mind, hardness of heart andreprobateness of the one in that 
unhappy state. Again, where in the book of Revelation there is 
mention made of a lake of fire and brimstone into which the wicked are 
cast and in which Satan is bound for a thousand years, &c., it means 
merely the state of the wicked, a state of reprobation, of deathlike 
sinfulness, of active ungodliness, of unrest and torment ; and this 
state pertains to many as to one, and to one as to many. This is 
the state in which those are represented as being who worship the 
beast or his image, or any false gods, idols of the ej^es, of the heart, 
or of the imagination, to the neglect of the worship of the true God, 
the omnipresent infinite and invisible Deity, or to the dishonor of 
him by bestowing the worship due to him upon any visible object 
wdiatever ; for the infinite and infinitely glorious Deity is neither an 
object of the sense nor of the imagination, and therefore cannot be 
worshipped under an^^ visible or conceivable form. 

Thus, all the heathen who worship false gods are in this unhappy 
state, and the greater their degree of light and knowledge, or the 
greater their advantages for acquiring light and knowledge showing 
their religious system to be false, the greater is their condemnation 
and the more miserable and desperate their condition. They are 
Avithout the knowledge of the true God, and without any reasonable 
religious and holy ho2)e in the world. In this state are particularly 
all idolatrous Christians, those who worship the saints, relics or im- 
ages, those who worship men or women or mankind personified in 



HEAVEK, HELL, AND THE JUDGMENT. 499 

anyway; and even the Trinity must necessarily be an object or a 
compound object of the sense or the imagination, whether it should 
be worshipped we leave men to judge for themselves. The Deity 
is not pleased to have the honors that are due to him alone given to 
any object whatever; he does notsuffer his glories to be given to an- 
other, nor his praise to graven images ; and those who worship false 
gods, especially those who possess or may possess knowledge to teach 
them that their practice is wrong, will realize the experience of the 
penalties of their oifences in themselves. ■ Whosoever lives a truly 
godly life, the name of that one is written in the Book of Life. 

And where it says in Revelation, Ch. XX., verses 14 and 15, that 
" death and hell were cast into the late of fire, and whosoever was 
not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire; " 
here death and hell and the lake of fire mean three phases of the 
state of the wicked, only waxing more intense in misery and wretch- 
edness until the lowest point is reached in the lake of fire burning 
with brimstone. This last, it ajjpears is the most miserable state in 
which human beings can be, namely, in the state represented sym- 
bolically by the lake of fire. That person is in the death-state who 
is living in sin, in the gratification of the lusts of the flesh and of the 
natural mind, and who is careless and indifferent as to the worship 
of God and the practice of true godliness. That person is in the 
hell-state who is living in sin, in the gratification of the lust of the 
flesh, and of the mind, and not only careless and indifferent as to 
the worship of God and the practice of godliness, but accivelv en- 
gaged in the practice of all ungodliness. While the one in the 
death-state is at home in the flesh like Moab settled on his lees, sunk 
and degraded in ignorance, dark-mindedness, si;perstition and sin, 
with none of the light of truth and of God shining on his soul, the 
one in the liell-state is not only degraded in ignorance, superstitron 
and sin, but is an active agent in the service of Satan, in the practice 
of all ungodliness, and witli all this experiences in himself the trou- 
bles and the torments characteristic of hell ; while the one in the 
state represented by the lake of fire burning with brimstone, we 
must consider to be in the worst possible condition of ungodliness, of 
despair, of hopelessness and of torment in which a liuman beino> can 
possibly be, mentally. Shall we pronounce that there is no possibility 
for one in this last-named condition, or in either of these conditions 
of the wicked, to become better and reform tlieir life, to become, in 
short, the child of God by the pi'actice of active godliness? We shall 
not indeed pronounce thus. Men of never so evil a character and 
disposition have it in their power to turn from their evil wav and 
manner of life, from their evil and unholy dispositions and practices 



500 CEEATOE AXr COSMOS 

and become holj', just ar,d. good : become, in short, clnldren of God 
by adoption and grace. To affirm that men cannot turn from their 
evil way and be good, is to affirm that they are bound by some power 
to be evil even against their will, which is the most absurb and 
groundless of doctrines. All men are free moral agents, which means, 
that the\- may, as they will, choose to be good or evil in life : and con- 
sequeutl}- possessing this power, men are never sunk so low but that 
they can, with the grace of God, which is always vouchsafed to the re- 
pentant and to those who, from a course of sinfulness, resolve to live a 
new life of active godliness, become good and do good, and realize that 
they are the children of God by the faith of Jesus Christ. But alas I 
what a miserable condition men are in so long as they continue to 
live in sin and ungodliness, so long as they continue to neglect, or 
to be indifferent- about their duties to God, so long as they persist 
in living unhol\- and ungodly lives, so long as they are estranged 
from God, enemies to God, indifferent as to him or his cause, and 
actively engaged in the service of Satan and of sin ! What a miserable 
state of darkness, of superstition, of death-like ignorance, of wicked- 
ness and torment they are in I They are dead while the}' live, or 
they experience the pangs of remorse, the torments of a troubled 
conscience, or the chastising hand of a justly incensed Deity. Why 
should they not turn from their evil way and live ? What prevents 
them from doing so? Why should they not leave off their old 
wicked ways, their ungodly practices, and bear the cross of self- 
denial in the paths of true godliness ? Why should they not resurrect 
themselves, so to speak, from the state of death or hell, or a worse, 
in which they are, and by prayer and faith, and the grace of God, 
which is always vouchsafed to the penitent, live the new life of god- 
liness in the spirit. They can do so certainly ; we have said the}^ 
can ; for they are free moral agents, and being such, they can become 
and do good if they will, and God will assist them in doing it. The 
assistance of God the penitent will obtain by faithful, trustful prayer 
to him, and by firm resolution to persevere in his cause in the way 
of active godliness. There is nothing, therefore, to prevent the 
wicked, sinning human beings from becoming the servants, and, at 
the same time, the children of God. Servants they have to become 
first, but they will he well repaid for their services in becoming chil- 
dren of God and joint heirs with Christ, inheritors of the kingdom of 
heaven. 

Likewise in the two last chapters of Revelation, where it describes 
the new heaven which the sons of men were to see and experience in 
due time, it means that there should be in the future (I mean the 
future as regards the time of the giving of the prophecv) a happy 



HEAVEN, HELL, AND THE JUDGMENT. 501 

era ror mankind, wlierein truth should hirgely prevail, when men 
generally should live holy and godly lives, should deny the flesh and 
practice the life of holiness in the spirit. The same blessed era is 
foretold in Isaiah, Ch. LXV., verse 17, as follows : " For behold I 
create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be 
remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever 
in that whicli I create; for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and 
her people a joy." And in Ch. LXVI. of the same book, verse 22, 
and so on, it says, by way of promise to the Israelites : " For as the 
new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain be- 
fore me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. 
And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and 
from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before 
me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the car- 
casses of the men that have transgressed against me ; for their Avorm 
shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be 
an abhorring unto all flesh." This last verse is by way of contrast 
to show the happ}^ and the miserable state of the righteous and the 
wicked, which as commonly we see would exist togetlier in the world. 
It means, however, that at the period indicated the good would be 
far in the majority, and that the age would be characterized morally 
as aii age of godliness and of blessedness. And this new creation, 
spoken of by Isaiah, is the regeneration or moral change to be affected 
in mankind spoken of in the New Testament, especially explained 
in the Gospel of John. In like manner in the second Epistle of 
Peter, Ch. III., verse 13, it says : '' Nevertheless we, according to his 
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth 
righteousness," which means the same thing, namely, the regenera- 
tion which should be effected among mankind. 

In like manner, as to the Judgment, God is the supreme judge, 
but the judgment is meted out to mankind while in the condition of 
human beings. How it may be as to spiritual intelligences in the 
future existence I do not pronounce, but shall speak of this subject 
in a subsequent discourse. God gives to every man happiness or 
misery according to his works. As in Jeremiah, Ch. XVII., verse 10, 
it is said : " T, the Lord, searcli tlie heart, I try the reins to give to 
every man according to his works and according to the fruit of his 
doings." And in Jeremiah, Ch. XXXII., verse 19, the jn'ophet. in 
speaking of the Loi'd in his dealings with men, saA\s : " For thine 
eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every 
one according to his ways and according to the fi'uit of liis doings." 
And in Matt., Ch. XVI., verse 27, it 1s said : " For the Son of Man 
shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and iheii lie 



602 CEEATOE, AND COSMOS. 

shall reward every man according to his \yorks." And to show that 
this judgment j^ertained to man in this life, it says, in the next verse: 
" Verily, I sa}' unto you, there be some standing liere that shall not 
taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." 
They should not taste of death till they shoidd see this judgment 
taking place or experience it in themselves. And in Romans, Ch. 
II., verse 6, the Apostle, in speaking with regard to God's dealings 
with man, says : " Who will render to every man according to his 
works." And in Rev., Ch. XXII., v. 12, the spirit says by the pro- 
phet : " And, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to 
give ever}" man according as his work shall be." It is plain, there- 
fore, from all this, that God does not condemn men for their inherent 
proneness to sin, or what may be called their original inclination to 
sin, but for their sinful acts. He judges every man according to his 
works, that is, the man stands justified or condemned before God 
according as the acts of his life are good or evil; and his conscious 
experience tells him whether he is a justified or condemned man. 
In the symbolical representation of the judgment found in Rev. XX., 
verses 12-13, it says : " And I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
before God, and the books were opened ; and another book was 
opened, which is the Book of Life ; and the dead were judged out of 
those things which were written in the books, according to their 
works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and death 
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them ; and they Avere 
judged every man according to their works. And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And 
whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into 
the lake of fire." Llere the prophet, in his vision, sees the dead» 
small and great, stand before God, and he sees the books opened 
which books represented the acts of the individual lives ; and ht 
sees another book opened, the Book of Life, Avhich represents the 
acts of the life of the godly ; and he sees the dead judged out of 
those thino-s which were written in the books, namely, according to 
their works. Men stand justified or condemned in their own con- 
sciences before God. And he sees death and hell cast into the lake 
of fire, which means that those who were in the death-state, and those 
Avho were in the hell-state of ungodliness should become into a, 
worse state of misery, wretchedness, and desperation. And he sees 
Avhoever was not found written in the Book of Life, wliicli means 
the ungodly, cast into the lake of fire, wliich is here called the second 
death, and doubtless means a death in sin and wickedness more 
effectual, more intense, so to speak, than that which the death-state, 
or the hell-state spoken of before allowed of. Hence at the time 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 503 

that this part of the prophecy refers to, it appears there should be 
two remarkable classes of mankind, namely, the godly and the ex- 
tremely wicked ; and that those of an intermediate character between 
the wholly godly and the ungodly, would have a tendency to wax 
worse, becoming extremely ungodly, sinful and wicked ; while in the 
following Chapters, XXI. and XXII., is depicted the new heaven, the 
new Jerusalem, tlie happy and blessed state of the godly, which 
contrasts remarkably with the miserable and desperate state of the 
wicked, of those who were in the state represented by the symbolic 
lake of fire, the entirely ungodly and desperately wicked. In the 
mean-time, my friends, it is well that all should cultivate firm and 
unwavering faith in the power and benevolence of the Deity to effect, 
in His all-wise providence, that they may, after their natural death, 
live consciously, happily, and eternally, in the spirit world. 

On the Cross of Christ. 

Galatians YI., 14 : " But God forbid that I should glory, save in 
the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified 
unto me and I unto the world." 

The apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatian Christians admon- 
ishes them against the teachings of those amongst them who contend- 
ed for the continuance of the old Levitical regime, especially as it 
regarded the rite of circumcision. For, he says in the two verses 
immediately preceding that in which our text is found : "As many as 
desire to make a fair show in the flesh they constrain you to be cir- 
cumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of 
Christ. For neither the}^ themselves wlio are circumcised keep the 
law, but desire to liave you circumcised that they may glory in your 
flesh." The original Jewish converts to Christianity were, for the 
most part, warmly attached to the rites of the old Mosaic dispensation, 
and prided themselves especially in the distinguishing mark of circum- 
cision. The first fifteen bishops or presiding elders of the Christian 
Church at Jerusalem, histoiy or tradition informs us, were circum- 
cised. It was no wonder that the example of the parent Church at 
Jerusalem should have been followed by the Churches which came 
to be planted throughout the provinces of the Roman Empire, ])ar- 
ticularlyby the Jewish converts of those churches; and here we find 
this very class of converts in the Church of Giilatia adhering scrupul- 
ously to the old lite of circumcision contrary to the will of the a{)ostlo 
to the Gentiles, who says (literally) in his letter to them : " Let it not 
be to me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by wliicih 
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ 



504 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but 
a new creature." And in another place in tlie same Epistle (Gal. V, 
6), he sa} s : " For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any- 
thing nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love." And, 
again, in I. Cor., VII. 19, he says : " Circumcision is nothing, and un- 
circumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of 
God." It is evident, therefore, that the apostle Paul did not place 
godliness or true Christianity in the practice of the old i-ites and 
ceremonies of the Mosaic dispensation, but in faith which worketh 
by love, in the keeping of the commandments of God, or, in other 
words, in the being a new creature ; in the living a new life of true 
practical godliness. With the introduction of Christianity the old 
rites and ceremonies of the Jews were abolished to those who would 
accept of the new religion. True, the Christians substituted other 
rites and ceremonies for the old Jewish ones that were done away, 
such as baptism, that stood for circumcision, as the initiatory rite by 
which individuals were admitted into the Church, and the Lord's 
Supper, which represented the Jewish pascal feast, and the Jewish 
sacrificial ritual. But the essence of true Christianity consider- 
ed as the true religion always consisted, as the apostle plainly 
enough intimates, in the being a new creature, in the keeping of the 
commandments of God, in the living the new and entire life of prac- 
tical godliness. The Jews gloried in their old Mosaic ritual, and it 
is said that the farther they were removed in time from their great 
Lawgiver the greater was their veneration for him and the stronger 
their belief in the miracles he was represented to have wrought. 
Eut Paul, who in his youth had so firmly supported, had ere this 
ceased to have confidence or to glory in the old Mosaic institutions, 
and represents himself as deriving his confidence and glorj^ from a 
different source, — a source of confidence and joy not heard of in the 
times of the old dispensation, — namely, in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by which the world was crucified unto him, and he unto the 
world. 

But some may ask how could he have such confidence and glory 
in that of which, if it represented reality, he had no personal experi- 
ence, for we have no reason to-sav that Paul ever saw Jesus Christ 
or his cross ? 

The answer to this is, first, that if he had in his mind a literal 
crucifixion of Christ, the way in which he could contemplate and glo- 
ry in it was by faith, depending upon the information, oral or written, 
which might have come to his knowledge concerning it; and this is 
a, way in which all ma}', if they will, contemplate and glory in Christ 
crucified, as the exercise of faith, especially if it be at all reasonable 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 506 

to the mind, is and has always, been accounted legitimate. If the 
Gospel's representation of the crucifixion means a literal eveirt, then 
Paul yi .('.-; us on faith that which if we accept at all we must accept 
on faith. 

Secondly^ if the Gospel's representation of the crucifixion had not 
a literal signification but symbolised something accomplished in real 
individual life, then Paul knew well that in which he liad confidence 
and glory, for he experienced it in his own life, that is, he had a most 
intimate personal experience of it. It was that by which the world 
was crucified unto him and he unto the world. It was that which he 
preached, which to them that perish, — them that are dead in sin, 
absorbed by the world and its fashions, the flesh and its allurements, 
and are indifferent to the practice of self-denial and active godliness, 
— is foolishness; but to them that are saved, — them that understand 
and practice it, — is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 

The contemplation and practice of the cross of Christ as under- 
stood in this latter sense, the self-abnegation and devotion to the 
cause of God implied in it, have a sanctifying effect upon the heart 
w^hich imparts true life to the soul and turns the mind from flesh and 
sense heavenward and to God. While it humbles the temper and 
disposition it purifies and elevates the soul, and inspires the man 
with holy impulses and with heavenly aspirations. It teaches man 
his own nature and character, and makes him acquainted with the 
nature and character of God. It brings him into communion with 
the Father of Spirits, makes him realise his own Sonship, and experi- 
ence in his heart the sanctifying influences of the holy spirit. Such a 
state does a continued contemplation and practice of the cross of self- 
denial, symbolised by the cross of Christ, an unreserved and invari- 
able practice of godliness, bring one to. 

But the continued practice of active godliness must go hand in 
hand with the contemplation or practice of the cross of self-denial. 
It will not do to waste and emaciate the body by fasting and prayer 
and perform no active work for God or man. Nobody doubts that 
the monks and hermits, who lived an ascetic life vcqow a scanty sub- 
sistence of coarse food and clad in the coarsest garments, practised 
self-denial. They did indeed, but they did«not live the life of active 
godliness which the Gospel requires. They neglected, they were 
averse to, the performance of the active duties of life whicli each one 
owes to perform for himself and his fellow-men. It has been aptly 
said that " tliey lived like drones in a beehive," supported as they 
were by the charity of an industrious but ignorant people whom they 
deceived. 

Nor is the so-called religion of those who incline to sav much 



506 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

about godliness but do nothing in its practice, who are inclined to 
preach but do not carry out in their life and conversation the good 
principles which they inculcate ; who do not stoop to the humble 
task of the performance of those duties which are incumbent on all 
and which the Gospel requires, nor is this so-called leligion, I sa}-, 
much if any better than that of the ascetic monks and hermits. 

There are only too many of that class of men in the world who 
say too much and do too little, and who, in the common way of 
speaking, are severely orthodox in order to the preservation and 
perpetuation of a certain creed, or a certain number of opinions 
mutually dependent on each other which they have conjured up in 
their mind, which if they can be understood at all will be found to 
be quite as inconsistent and absurd as those who propound them, 
men who are so selfish, unchari talkie, and intolerant, that they would 
not if they could suffer any other opinions than their own concerning 
religion to exist or be perpetuated. 

Some such men are very desirous of raising large and costly 
structures, commonly called " churches," for the practice in them of 
their form of worship, as if a large and costly edifice could in the 
estimation of men of experience and judgment make their creed 
more true, their sect more respectable, or their worship more accept- 
able to the Deity. Some of them also incline to vaunt themselves 
upon their superior learning and eloquence, and estimate themselves 
very highly upon these grounds, (so that it has been said with some 
degree of truth that theological pride is the worst species of pride) 
as if men of an humbler frame of mind, an humbler carriage, may 
not be much better learned than they ; and what does learning 
amount to if not to actual evil, if it be not employed in the inculca- 
tion of truth in all things, and, speaking religiously, of the practice 
of self-denial and active godliness, the worship of God in spirit and 
in truth, among mankind ? In my own experience I have observed 
that far too much of the idea of worldly self-interest comes into 
plaj'in the case of some teachers of religion, which is indeed direct])' 
contrary to the spirit of the Gospel ; for such men as I allude to do 
not Avish any competition from anything that is not exact!}' in accord 
with their views lest it might endanger their status in any waj" ; and 
if any such happens to turn up they either openly or secret!}'- oppose 
it, sometimes with great rancour ; not considering as they should 
that men are of different characters, different turns of mind, that, in 
common parlance, men's minds are not all run in the same mould ; 
that if men of equal or better education than theirs have on some 
points a little different views from them, their views are at least 
worthy of consideration and respect ; and that if they have a right 



THE CROSS OF CPIRIST. 507 

to rise iu opposition and grow angry, others have the same right ; 
and that there should be consideration and charity rather than intol- 
erance and secret or overt persecution used by them in such cases. 
They in particular who stand up as teachers and examples of godli- 
ness to the people, should manifest as much as possible the spirit and 
character of Christ, they should be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow 
to wrath, always remembering that the wrath of man worketh not 
the righteousness of God. 

The practice of self-denial and active godliness, which includes 
the worship of God in spirit and in truth, and is that only which is 
worthy of the name religion, should be a practice of the dailv life. 
It will not do only for stated times ; religion is not to be put on and 
taken off with the Sunday clothing. When once put on it should 
never be put off, laid aside, or dispensed with. One should always be 
clothed with the righteousness of Christ, the garments of salvation, 
which are pure and spotless, and not with the garments of one's own 
wicked practices, one's own natural depravity, which are in the sight 
of God as filthy rags. The old man, the old Adam, with his deeds 
of sin has to be "j)ut off," and the new man, Christ Jesus, with his 
entire life of righteousness and holiness has to be " put on," and 
having been put on should never be put off. 

The cross of Christ as rightly understood is the means wliich 
infinite wisdom has devised by which to bring men to the knowledge 
of the truth and to the kingdom of heaven. It is b}^ the practice of 
the cross of self-denial, which the cross of Calvary represents, that 
human beings can attain to the knowledge of God, and to an inheri- 
tance in the kingdom of heaven as God's children. 

The whole Gospel representation, therefore, of the cnicifixion 
each one should realizingly contemplate for one's self in order to their 
self-abasement, their becoming intelligently and reasonabl}' humble, 
their becoming sanctified in heart and in life, peaceable, kind, and 
gentle in temper and disposition, and full of the knowledge and love 
of God and of love to man. The practice of self-denial and active 
godliness tends to lowliness of heart and contrition of spirit, -which 
is of so great worth in the sight of God, it tends to humble the 
proud and liaughty spirit. 

Pride is the great bane of our race. Men are accustomed to tliink 
much more of their human dignities than of their duties to God, or 
to their fellow-men. '' From whence," as according to James, Ch. 
IV., 1—11, it is said, " come wars and fightings among 30U ? Come 
the}'- not hence even of your lusts, that war in j-our members ? Ye 
lust and have not: ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain ; 
ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and 



508 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your 
lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship 
of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend 
of the world, is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the Scripture 
saith in vain : The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy. But he 
giveth more grace : Wherefore, he saith, God resisteth the. proud and 
giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to 
God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to 
God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, 
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn 
and weep ; let j^our laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to 
heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall 
lift 3"ou up." How much envy and discord and contention and 
bloodshed and strife, how many long and bloody wars, which have 
desolated nations, filled the land and sea with blood, and caused un- 
speakable sufferings to human beings, might have been avoided, if 
only these injunctions of the Apostle had been attended to as they 
ought to have been by those who had the control of human affairs ! 
How mucli disquietude and ill-feeling, and wrangling, and brawling, 
which are too common to private life, and too often to the social and 
famil}' circle, might be avoided by attending to these simple injunc- 
tions. Humble yourselves in the sight of God. Be kindly affection- 
ed one toward another. Love thinketh no evil. Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself. Charity suffereth long and is kind, &c. 
Intelligent, genuine humility, which arises from the cultivation of a 
pure and contrite spirit, elevates the soul and unites it to God, while 
that humility, which is assumed and spurious, and arises from the 
practice of hypocrisy, only debases the soul and separates it farther 
from God, from his knowledge and his love. God resisteth the proud, 
but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves unto God, 
practise unfeigned liumility, live soberly, honestly, and righteously 
in the active practice of godliness before him, in the fulfilment of 
your duty towards God and towards men. Fight valiantly and faith- 
fully, under the banner of Christ, glorying in the practice of self- 
denial and all godliness, which the Gospel representation of the life 
and crucifixion of Christ symbolizes. Put on the spotless robe of 
the righteousness of Christ, and be no longer clothed with the gar- 
ments of your own natural depravity made manifest in an uVirigh- 
teous and unholy life which will avail you nothing before God, but 
will separate you farther from his presence, and his peace, and from 
the glory of his power. 

The preaching of the cross, says the apostle, is to them that per- 
ish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is the power of God. The 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 509 

bearing, the carriage, of the humble and godly Christian, causes the 
proud spirits of the world to blush and hide their heads for shauie. 
Resist the devil, not by opposing pride to pride, not by opposing 
railing to railing, cursing to cursing, evil to evil, but contrariwise, 
lowliness of heart, a peaceable and gentle temper and disposition, 
blessing and goodwill, and all soberness and ex;enx[)lariue.-5S of life. 
By following such a course you will acquire more divine strenglli. 
God, who resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble, will 
increase strength to you. By his assistance you will become effect- 
ual to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and will acquire 
a continuous victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. The 
gates of hell shall not prevail against the intelligently humble, and 
the actively godly Christian. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and 
purify your hearts, ye double-minded. The double way and the 
froward mouth are abominations to the Lord. He resisteth the proud 
but giveth grace unto the humble. He knoweth them that are his, 
them that obey him in all sincerity though in the midst of a wicked 
and perverse generation, who will in their seasons of trouble and all 
through life always experience the comforts of his spirit and his as- 
sisting grace. The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, but 
none should despise that which the wisdom of God devised for the 
salvation of men to bring them to the knowledge and the sonship 
of God, and make them inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. None 
should despise the way of the cross, the way of self-denial, and of active 
godliness. Let it not be that men shall glory save in the cross of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto them and they 
nnto the world. Of an humble and a contrite spirit at the foot of the 
cross they are nearest to God and farthest from the wicked ways of the 
world. They know that the friendships and the wicked ways of the 
Avorld are enmity with God, and therefore they prefer, as wise men, 
to follow in the way of the cross, patiently to ascend the Calvary of 
entire self-abnegation, and there, having crucified the flesh, Avith its 
affections and lusts, obtain a complete victory over the world, with 
its pride, its pomps and allurements over the flesh, with its seduc- 
tions and evil propensities, and over the devd, witli his wily tempta- 
tions and deceptions, and his sudden and violent assaults. Except 
ye be converted and become as little children, children of God, ye 
can in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. No man comcth 
to the Father except by the way of the Son, and that way is markt'd 
out in the Gospels with sufficient plainness for all to follow in it. 
Ye must be born again, even born of the Spirit of God, before ye 
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye must begin, continue, and 
perfect the regeneration, for in Christ Jesus neither uircunicision 



510 CREATOK AND COSMOS. 

availeth anything nor uucircumcision, but a new creature. Ye must 
not glory in anything which tlie world presents or affords, but your 
source of glory must be in this, even in the cross of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, by which the world becomes crucified unto you and you unto 
the world. Not that you are to be indifferent as to the welfare of 
those whom the world has engulfed in the vortex of its deceptive 
allurements, its pleasures and its fashions, but to aim both in will 
and deed to do them good and pluck them, as brands from the burn- 
ing, or from the net in which the world and Satan have entangled 
them as captives at their will. You are soldiers in the cause of God, 
and yours is a subjective and an objective warfare ; you must bring 
yourselves and all that you have, and are, in thought, word, deed 
and effect, into subjection to the obedience of Christ ; and you must 
be actively engaged in a conquest for Christ in the world ; you must 
be engaged in gaining souls for Christ from among the world's peo- 
ple ; you do not come to bring the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
ance ; and you become all things that are good and holy and honor- 
able and true to all men, that you may by all means save some and 
bring them to truth and holiness. " For," says the Apostle, I. Cor. 
Ch. I., 21-25 : " after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wis- 
dom knew not God ; it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching 
to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the 
Greeks seek after wisdom ; but we preach Christ crucified, to the 
Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness. But unto 
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of 
God and the wisdom of God." Again the Apostle speaks thus to 
the Romans (Romans X., 4-11) : "For Christ is the end of the law 
for righteousness to every one that believeth.* For Moses describ^th 
the righteousness whicli is of the law. That the man that doeth those 
things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith 
speaketh on this wise: Say not in thine heart: Who shall ascend 
into heaven (that is, to bring Christ down from above) ? or, who 
shall descend into the deep (that is, to bring up Christ again from 
the dead) ? But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy 
mouth and in thy heart ; that is the word of faith which we preach. 
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt 
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou 
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." No 
one can confess truly that Jesus is Christ but by the Holy Spirit, 
and this confession is made in the realizing sense of one's self being 



* Christ Is the perfection of moral and religious character which the law had in view. 



REGENERATION. 511 

born again, being a child of God, a new creature, raised from a death 
of sin to a life of righteousness and active godliness. The word is 
nigh thee, even in thy mouth, that is, the word of faith which we 
preach. For the Jews require a sign, but no sign is to be given 
them; and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but the wisdom whicli they 
seek will not avail them. But we, says the Apostle Paul, preach 
Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the 
Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are " called," both Jews 
and Greeks, Christ the power of God and tlie wisdom of God.* The 
Greeks were characteristically a sagacious people, but their wisdom 
did not avail them, while they continued in their state of Paganism 
to penetrate the mystery of Christ, the whole of which they counted 
foolishness ; but which the Jews found, and do find, to be a stumb- 
ling-block, as the proud, and all who refuse to humble themselves 
before God, will always and inevitably find it. 

On Regeneration. 

John I., 12-13 : " But as many as received him, to them gave he 
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his 
name ; which were born, not of blood ; nor of the will of the flesh 
nor of the will of man, but of God." 

Regeneration is the key note of the Gospel. It is the Alpha and 
the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last of 
the true Christian religion. Without it, all other things, such as 
carnal ordinances, rites and ceremonies, worldly wisdom, influence 
and wealth, are accounted as nothing, yea, as less than nothing, and 
vanity. "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom 
of God." This is a proposition which the worldly philosopher, with 
all his worldly wisdom, cannot understand. He asks in accordance 
with his natural reason : How can a man be born when he is old ? 
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born ? 
He is then told that the birth spolven of is a spiritual, not a natura' 
birth, that that which is born of the flesli is flesh, and that which is 
born of the spirit is spirit, and not to marvel at the announcement 
of the fact, that he must be born again. Moreover, he is made 
acquainted with the modus operandi of this new birth by an illustra- 
tion : That the wind bloweth where it listeth, and one liears tlie 
sound thereof but cannot tell whence it coraeth and whither it >jfoeth : 



* By those who rij^htly understand Christ (.'ruoified, it is found to be the power of Cmd :md 
Hie wisdom of (Sod; but to tliose who do not rij^htly uuderstimd it, wlietlier tliey lie within or 
without Christianity, it must appear as the Apostle says, foolisiiness. Tlie proper undersUiud- 
!ng, you see, is quite simple. 



512 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

SO is every one that is born of the spirit ; which last merely shews 
that the new birth takes place in the Christian in accordance with 
the will and pleasure of Deity ; and that it consists in a change of 
heart and of life from evil to good, from unholiness to holiness, from 
selfishness and indifference as to heavenly things, and from active 
ungodliness, to a life of unselfishness and of active godliness. 

That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of 
the spirit is spirit. As the natural production or birth of the natural 
being, which is a result of change in material or spiritual existence, 
and has always within the experience of man taken place, is termed 
the old creation ; so the supernatural birth, or the regeneration of 
the human being, which is a moral change in the heart and the life 
of the individual, is termed the new creation. Both of these crea- 
tions, it is easily seen, are effected by the Creator: for no effect can 
take place without his agency, — the one in accordance with the 
ordinary operations of nature, the other, in the common understand- 
ing of it, a supernatural change of the same human being, morally 
and spiritually, or a birth from sinfulness to holiness, from unright- 
eousness to righteousness and active godliness. These two 
births, therefore, are now made clear to your mind, the birth 
according to the flesh or according to nature, and the birth ac- 
cording to the spirit or the supernatural birth, and that both these 
births are the effects of change, the one a natural or physical change 
in the way of continued production in natural existences, the other 
a moral change in the heart and life of the individual. This last is 
literally translated from the original " the birth from above." The 
distinction between these two births is clearly set forth in the New 
Testament and especially in the epistles of Paul. 

In the eighth chapter of the epistle to the Eomans, when speak- 
ing of those who live according to the flesh and according to the 
spirit, the apostle says : " For they that are after the flesh do mind 
the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit the things 
of the spirit. For to be carnally minded, is death, but to be spirit- 
ually minded, is life and peace ; or more literally, the minding of the 
flesh is death but the minding of the spirit is life and peace. Be- 
cause the carnal mind, the minding of the flesh, is enmity against 
God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So 
then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." They that 
are in the flesh, therefore mean they that live according to the dic- 
tates and lusts of the flesh, and feel at home in the flesh, as Moab 
settled on his lees, or as the apostle expresses it, they that do mind 
the things of the flesh ; for the carnal mind is enmity against God, 
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 



REGENERATION. £13 

" But," says the apostle, in speaking to the Christian Romans : 
" Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit if so be the spirit of God 
dwell in you." They that are in the spirit must consequently mean 
that they that live according to the dictates, inclinations, and require- 
ments of the Holy Spirit, for the spirit here spoken of, has reference to 
the Holy Spirit. For, says the apostle in this connection ; "Now if 
any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if 
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life^ 
because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up 
Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from tlie 
dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies because of his spirit that 
dwelleth in you. 

I have, in a preceding discourse, explained the New Testament 
sense of Christ being raised from the dead, or, in other words, the 
resurrection. Now that raising from the dead, or resurrection, is 
just what takes place in the work of regeneration in the individual, 
in short, I".:; New Testament sense of the resurrection from the 
dead spiritually is synonymous with the sense of the regeneration, 
or new birth and life. " If Christ be in you the body is dead " be- 
cause of sin, means that the regenerated person is dead to the world 
and the flesh by the obedience of Christ, which he practises. 

But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell 
in you, if you are possessed and actuated by the same spirit that ef- 
fected the resurrection or regeneration in Christ, even so this same 
spirit that dwelleth in 3^ou shall also quicken your mortal bodies and 
effect a spii'itual resurrection or regeneration in you. In the first 
epistle according to John, Chapter III., verse 9, it is said ; Whosoever 
is born of Grod doth not commit sin ; for his seed, (that is, the seed 
of the Holy Spirit which effects the new birth,) remaineth in him ; 
and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Such an one is con- 
tinually 'on the watch against sin, against the wiles of Satan and the 
operation of seducing spirits and teachings of devils, and does not for 
a moment consent to yield his members as instruments of unclean- 
ness or of any evil work which tends to ungodliness. Such a one, 
while continually engaged in waging a spiritual warfare against tlie 
wickedness of the world, the flesh and the devil, and all the agencies, 
visible and invisible, of the evil one ; walks circumspectly, not as a fool, 
but as a wise man, redeeming the time, since the days are short and 
evil, and resolves to accomplish some worth}' work in the cause of 
God and of truth while on this earthl}- scene. Thus, it is seen, the re- 
generate person has to wage a twofold warfare, first to keep in subjec- 
tion himself, with his bodily affections and lusts, his inordinate pas- 
sions and appetites, of whatever kind and tendency these may be, and, 
Vol. II.— 83 



•S14 CEEATOE AKD COSMOS. 

secoiicUy, to wage an aggressive Avarfare upon the world of sin and 
wickedness in order to bring many ignorant, depraved, and sin-sick 
mortals to a knowledge of the truth, and to a life of holiness, right- 
eousness and active godliness. The truly regenerate man or woman 
is never content unless when actively engaged in the service of God. 
Indifference to the cause of God, or neglect of the performance of our 
duties toward him in advancing his cause of truth and righteous- 
ness in the world is sin, which sooner or later brings its reward, 
and which the truly regenerate person does not become guilty of. 
Such an one is a continually operating power for God in the world. 
Knowing that negligence in or indifference to the performance of 
one's duties to God in the advancement of his cause among men is as 
culpable as is active ungodliness. Such an one also sees plainly that 
his work for God is a life-long work, that it is never so well or so 
thoroughly accomplished that nothing remains to be done. 

Alexander, and the Romans after all their conquests, could not 
have been ignorant of the fact that there still remained a wide extent 
of the world where their legions had never trod, where the ensigns 
of their nations had never floated to the breeze. Even so it is in the 
case of the reo-enerate human being, after all his labor of love in the 
service of God, he still sees an abundance remaining for him to do, a 
world of sin and wickedness for him to conquer; he still sees the in- 
numerable legions of Satan arrayed in arms, temporal and spiritual, 
against him, and waging a continual and destructive warfare against 
the cause of truth and righteousness in the world, against the cause 
of God and his Christ, to the destruction, temporal and spiritual, of 
the bodies and souls of men. Seeing this he is grieved to the heart, 
and resolves so long as his physical powers will admit him, to be ac- 
tively engaged in the service of his Master, and not only to achieve 
conquests in the cause of godliness himself, but to raise up others also 
who will follow in his steps and do likewise. His precepts, and his 
example, his strength and his energies are all exerted to the same end 
for tlie accomplishment of the same great object. 

Although these two kinds of creation which I have mentioned 
iave always been effected so far as our experience teaches us, yet it is 
only within the last nineteen centuries that the spiritual creation, or 
the regeneration represented in the New Testament, has come prom- 
inently into view, and become an important subject for consideration 
among mankind. John came preaching the baptism of repentance 
for the remission of sins. Repentance here means a change of heart 
and of life, and like the new birth, is, in a sense, synonymous with 
regeneration. Repentance may be called the beginning of regener- 
ation, Avhich in its beginning has been aptly compared to the flower 



KEGENERATION. 515 

ill the bud, and when perfected to the flower in full bloom. Regen- 
eration is usually gradual in its progress. Analogous to the opera- 
tions and processes in the vegetable world, there is, so to speak, first 
the bud, then the blade, then the ear, after that the full kernel in the 
ear. Still it is not altogether improbable that regeneration may, in 
some cases, be brought to perfection in very short spaces of time ; I 
need not here say instantaneously or momentarily ; for what hinders 
that the wicked, sinning human being may not at once turn from his 
evil wa}' and be good, may not at once repent of, be heartily sony for, 
his sins, and resolve to live a new life, a life of active godliness for 
the future : thus repenting, thus living, he becomes a new creature 
by the operations of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. 
To say that one cannot with the assistance of God, do so, is absurd. 
It is as much as to say that one must be, and live, evil, whether one 
will or not, although we regret to have to say that very few cases of 
instantaneous or momentary conversion come within the range of our 
own experience. 

From the period of its foundation the Christian Church has been 
distinguished as the Church of the regeneration, the Church in which 
the preaching of the doctrine of regeneration was practised. 

Baptism, with repentance, constituted the door by which the people 
might enter into the Christian Church, and the regeneration begun 
at the entrance into it was perfected in it ; and thus it was that all 
who were admitted into it in the prescribed way, and lived therein 
in the way and manner ordained they should live, were called the 
children of the regeneration, the sons and daughters of God, by whose 
spirit their regeneration had been effected : " being born again," as 
expressed in the first Epistle of Peter, chapter 1,'verse 23, " not of 
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liv- 
eth and abideth forever." 

Thus, while man is the father of the children of the old, or Adamic 
creation, God is the Fatlier of the children of the new creation, oi- the 
regeneration, who has begotten them by his Spirit, by the iiicornii> 
tible seed of his word, which liveth and abideth forever. And now, 
since all the children of the regeneration have God for their Father, 
is it not important that they should do their father's will, should con- 
tinually be about their Father's business? If men generally are 
accustomed to obey their earthly fathers with such readiness and 
willingness, is it not important that they sliouM ob(>v tlicir heavenly 
Father, the Father of spirits, and creator of all things, witli a greater 
readiness and willingness? Is it not import ivnt that thcv slioidd be 
prompt in doing his work, in fulfilling his coinuiiinds, and in acting up 
to his requirements; in being in will and in deed, as he would have 



516 CBEATOB AND COSMOS. 

them, all in subjection to the obedience of Christ, that is to say, the 
subjection which Christ yields to his heavenly Father ! As many 
as received /«V«, namely, the true doctrines of the Gospel, to them 
gave he power to become the sons of God. These are they which 
are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
of man, but of God. The sons and daughters of the regeneration 
were and are born of the spirit of God. As many as receive the truth 
of God, that submit to the teachings and leadings of his Spirit, to 
them gives he power to become the sons and daughters of God ; they 
become daily more perfect by the operations of regeneration and the 
renewing of the Holy Spirit. 

This doctrine of the regeneration had a prominent place in the 
early ages of the Christian Church. In the primitive times of Chris- 
tianity it was well attended to and practised. But from the time that 
Christianity became the established religion of the Roman Empire in 
the fourth century, and afterwards, religion became a matter rather of 
mechanical observances than a state of holiness of heart, and righteous- 
ness of life, in the professing Christians. It is much to be desired 
that this doctrine be again more generally and more particularly at- 
tended to, and that the true life be again infused more generally into 
professing Christians ; that, in short, the religion of the Spiiit should 
be again restored, and that men should live individual!}^ and univer- 
sally the life of holiness and of active godliness in the world, and 
not, as they have too long done, suppose they can live such lives by 
proxy. 

Is not the prayer-meeting, where all are accustomed to meet to 
gether for mutual exhortation and godly encouragement, and to pray 
for each other as well as for all mankind, an excellent institution for 
the maintenance of true religion, and for the advancement of the 
cause of truth and righteousness in the world ? The praj'er-meeting, 
when properly conducted, tends to godliness, is a preventive to pride 
and selfishness, and induces humility and holiness of heart and right- 
eousness of life among those practical professing Christians. It 
seems, indeed, proper and becoming, thatin all Churches, even the 
largest, and, (shall I mention it?) the most wealthy and fashionable, 
each of the attendants, male and female, should be required to ad- 
dress audibly, and in a standing position, a short and fervent prayer to 
God ; that a certain number should be appointed to do so for every 
time fif meeting, so as to allow all to pray thus publicly Avithin a 
given time, say a few weeks or months, and in order that as many 
of the people as possible should have the opportunity of thus jiraying, 
that the prayers of the officiating minister should be much shorter and 
more fervent than the}' now ordinarily are, and that liis sermons also 



THE FUTURE LIFE. 61T 

should be brief, practical, plaiii, and to the point. Such a state of 
things would present signs of the restoration of the primitive Church, 
or the age of the regeneration, and would be mighty ia its good effects 
for holiness and active godliness among mankind. But it is time 
that each one should practise the doctrines of tiie regeneration, and 
suoduing in one"s-self all that is contrary to that doctrine, cultivate 
and develop all the character of godliness, and all the characteristic 
Christian graces, the principal of which are love, joy, peace, patience, 
long-suffering, gentleness, faith, benevolence, charity, and active hon- 
est industry. It is time that each should remember that self-denial 
and active godliness are necessary for all to practise, and not only 
for a few out of mankind. 

That there is not a better, a more spiritual state of religion in the 
Christian world, is a matter of regret ; still there is reason to iiope 
that a better time is near approaciing, in which a more spiritual reli- 
gion; a religion of the heart and of the life, a religion of self-denial 
and of active godliness will be practised so universall}* in Christen- 
dom, as to bear unmistakable marks of the age of the regeneration, 
or of the long expected millennium. Each one should do their part 
to introduce and perpetuate that happy era, and thus doing, thus 
living, they will live and die happier. 

On the Future Life. 

II. Corinthians, Ch. IV., verse 18 : " While we look not at the 
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the 
things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not 
seen are eternal." 

The doctrine which more than any other characterizes Christian- 
ity and makes it characteristically different from all other religions 
is the doctrine of a future life. The apostle to the (ientiles cultivated 
and taught this doctrine. He inculcated it with the greatest assurance 
and the greatest firmness, as ma}^ be understood from a consideration 
of all his writings. In the first verse of the fifth, chapter of II. 
Corinthians, the verse immediately succeeding the one which contains 
our text, he says : " For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The whole tenor of the 
New Testament writings inculcates the Christian belief in a future 
life. It is true that this doctrine was, and is to some extent cultiva- 
ted and tauglit in most, if not all other religions with which wc have 
any acquaintance, but it has not lieen, thai wc arc aware of. Ix-licvcd 
so strongly or cultivated with such assurance (although the Moham- 



518 • CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

medans firmly inculcate it) in any other religion as in the Christian. 
For over eighteen liundred years the truly godly Christian has lived 
and died in the belief that he would live blissfully in the future. He 
has endured life's trials and afflictions and sorrows and discomforts 
and grievances and pains, in the firm hope that the happiness of his 
eternal future would more than compensate him for all that he had here 
endured. Following the apostle to the Gentiles in this respect he 
did not consider the sufferings which he endured in this present life 
as worthy to be compared with the glory which should be revealed 
in him and to him in the future life. In times of trial or suffering, 
auiid the varied circumstances and vicissitudes of life, at home or 
abroad, on the bed of sickness and languishing, adrift upon the 
ocean, or helplessy separated from human-kind in the trackless forest 
or in the dreary wilderness, this belief has revived and strengthened 
his soul, and enabled him with composed countenance and peaceful 
heart to endure patiently all that might befall him from the adverse 
influences of the world, and to view with complacency his circum- 
stances, whatever these might be. This belief raised him above the 
world of flesh and sense, of fleeting fashion and vain show, and en- 
abled him to stand on higher ground, even heavenly, and to contem- 
plate higher objects, even those that pertain to heaven, the redeemed 
and sanctified, and to the King of Glory, his Heavenly Father the 
Lord of Hosts himself. 

How faint is the faith or hope in the future life of modern Chris- 
tians when compared with that of th' se in primitive times! It is only 
as the view of the morning star making its appearance above the ■ 
horizon and ushering in the day, as compared with the full view of the 
risen sun. As the Church grows older it appears that this faith 
grows weaker ; and now the faith of Christians (not speaking of 
that kind of faith which is simply the offspring of ignorance and su- 
perstition) may be called in the main a general and tacit acquiescence 
in the long-received doctrine of the future life. Few now-a-days 
have that childlike, unwavering confidence of the primitive Chris- 
tians. The early Christian believed that when he died he Avould go 
to heaven, where he would forever be with the Lord : and this his 
faith enabled liim to expect with complacency the time of his dissolu- 
tion, and to pass triumphantly over the dark valley of the shadow of 
death. Would that such a simple, a childlike, shall we say, a godlike 
faith of a blissful future life were more cultivated now by professing 
Christians ! Would that Avith all their enlightenment and all the knowl- 
edge which modern advancement in science enables them to possess, 
people would come back again to the old ways of tlie early Chris- 
tians, so far at least as the cultivatino- a firm faitli in the future life is 



THE FUTURE LIFE. 519 

concerned. It may be remarked that the early Christians lived in 
general better and holier lives than the modern Christians : that they 
lived lives of self-denial, crucifying the flesh with its affections and 
lusts, lives of active godliness in the spirit ; and that thus living 
they were never afraid to die, as they always endeavored to be pre-^ 
pared to meet their Heavenly Father and Judge. The consciousness 
of a well-spent life gave them confidence in the hour of death, of tlieir 
acceptance with God, and of their gaining admission into those 
heavenly mansions which God has prepared for them that love Him 
and live according to His requirements. There is no doubt that this 
was the case in general with the primitive Christians, and is the 
case Avith all who live alike godly lives- and cultivate alike unwaver- 
ing faith in the blissful future life which God will favor them with. 
There is no reason why people in general now-a-days may notlive as 
holy lives and cultivate as firm a faith in the power and goodness of 
God and in a blissful immortality for themselves, as did the primitive 
Christians; and there is reason to believe that many, very many, do 
live alike godly lives and cultivate alike firm and simple faith in the 
power and goodness of God to effect a blissful immortality for them, 
as did the early Christians ; and it is rather a matter of regret that 
Christians in general do not live and believe thus. Mohammed, though 
he did not pretend to understand how the resurrection would be ef- 
fected, or the way and manner in which it would take place, still 
cultivated and inculcated a firm faith in the resurrection of the body 
and the future life of mankind. He relied on the power of God, who 
first created the .body, to re-animate it or create it anew, and from 
the abundance of his goodness and mercy to afford a happy immor- 
tality to the good, and from his justice and wisdom to appoint the 
evil to a place of retinbution as a reward for their iniquities. 
There is no reason Avhy Christians, with all their intelligence, may 
not cultivate alike firm faith, why they may not inculcate it to the 
great comfort of all who need such consolation and to the great moral 
advancement of mankind. j\Iost of the ancient religions or mvtlio- 
logical sj'stems were characterized b}' having a belief in some sort of 
the future life. This future state some of them, as the Egyptians, or 
those who believed in the doctrine of transmigration, placed on tliis 
earth, where they professed to believe the souls again would re- 
animate their old mansions after an absence of three tlioiisand vears ; 
would again inhabit the earth and enjoy the comforts and beauties of 
the terrestrial existence for another period. Only some of the lu-atlien 
mythologies particularly describe the intermediate state of the souk 
but according to Herodolus, the Egypliaus Inul il ihal it passed 
through the bodies of all (lie animals of the land and sea in the time 



520 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

which intervened during its departure from and its return to the 
body. The ancient Greek and Roman mythologies, as well as those of 
some of the Asiatic nations, such as the Medes, Persians, and Bactri- 
ans, had it that the soul after its departure from the body was subject- 
ed to a judgment in the kingdom of the dead, and according as its mer- 
its or demerits preponderated in the real or allegorical scale so A\as its 
condition in the future existence determined. Plato in the Phtedon rep- 
resents Socrates a little before his death, when encompassed with a 
circle of philosophers, and discoursing with them on the arguments 
which prove the eternal destiny of man, as speaking thus : " When 
the dead are arrived at the rendezvous of departed souls, whither 
their angel conducts them, they are all judged. Those who have 
passed their lives in a manner neither entirely criminal nor absolutely 
innocent are shut into a place where they suffer pains propoi-tioned 
to their faults, until being purged and cleansed of their guilt and 
afterwards restored to liberty, they receive the reward of the good 
ajtions they have done in the body. Those who are judged to be 
incurable, on account of the greatness of theii- crimes, the fatal des- 
tiny that passes judgment upon them hurls them into Tartarus, from 
whence they never depart. Those who are found guilty of crimes 
great indeed, but are worthy of pardon, who have committed violence 
in the transports of rage against their father or mother, or have 
killed some one in a like emotion and afterwai'ds repented, — suffer 
the same punishment with the last, but for a time only, until by 
prayers and supplications they have obtained pardon from those they 
have injured. But those who have passed through life Avith a peculiar 
sanctity of manners are received on high into a pure region, where they 
live without their bodies to all eternity in a series of joys and delights 
which cannot be described." From such considerations, Socrates con- 
cludes that : " If the soul be immortal it requires to be cultivated with 
attention, not only for what we call the time of life, but for that which 
is to follow, I mean eternity ; and the least neglect on this point may 
be attended with endless consequences. If death were the final disso- 
lution of being, the wicked would be great gainers by it, by being 
delivered at once from their bodies, their souls, and their vices ; but as 
the soul is immortal, it has no other means of being freed from its evils, 
nor any safety for it but in becoming very good and very wise ; for it 
carries nothing with it but its good or bad deeds, its virtues or vices, 
whicii are commonly the consequences of the education it has re- 
ceived, and the causes of its eternal happiness or misery." Having 
held such discourses with his friends, lie kept silent for some time, 
iiiul then drank otf the whole of the poisonous draught, which had 
been prepared for him, with amazing tranquility and an inexpressible 



THE FUTUllli LIFE. 521 

serenity of aspect, as one who was about to exchange a short and 
wretched life for a blessed and eternal existence. 

The American Indians believe tiiat beyond the most distant 
mountains of their country there is a wide river; beyond that river 
a great country ; on the other side of that country, a world of water; 
in that water are a thousand islands full of trees and streams of 
water ; and that a thousand buffaloes and ten thousand deer graze 
on the hills or ruminate in tlie valleys. When they die they are per- 
suaded that the Great Spirit will conduct tliem to tins abode of 
souls. 

Thus it appears that not ordy the philosophers of antiquity have 
recognized in various ways the immortality of the soul, but even the 
most savage tribes fortify their minds in the prospect rf death with a 
hope of a happiness commensurate to their desires in the regions 
beyond the grave. 

" Hope springs eternal in the human breast ; 
Man never is but always to be blest, 
The soul uneasy and confined from home, 
Rests and expatiates in a life to come." 

Is it not, therefore, with the highest reason that the Christian, 
with all his superior intelligence, should cultivate that firm faith 
and hope which reposes itself upon the reality of that future exist- 
ence which God in his wisdom, power, and goodness, hath appointed 
for mankind, and should live such a life of holiness and godliness as 
will ensure him a place among the blissful redeemed in the great 
hereafter ? 

While it must be confessed that these creeds of the ancient na- 
tions concerning a future state were in the main ideal elaborations 
from tlie imaginations of their authors, it must still be acknowledged 
that they answered an important purpose ; for while bj'- them j^eople 
were incited and encouraged to live a godly life in hopes that thereby 
they would attain to a blissful immortality in the future, some were 
deterred from living the ungodly life which they otherwise would 
live, from the apprehension that they would in their future state of 
existence be subjected to punishme:it and misery for their sins. 
The doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments among 
Christians, or in other words the doctrine concerning Heaven and 
Hell, produced, until of late, a like effect; but it is very plain that 
in our own age peoj)le in general are not very much inlluenced, one 
way or the othei', by thoughts concerning a future state, their belief 
in the existence of such a state at all being, as explained before, 
rather a tacit acquiescence in the long-established doctrine tliau a 



522 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

real and actual, belief that the thing is as the doctrine maintained 
it to be. It is much to be desired that people would cultivate the 
simple and unwavering faith of the early Christians in a future state 
of rewards, yea, and of punishments, of happiness and of misery 
for the good and the evil. The New Testament teaches that there 
is nothing impossible with God. Again, the question is asked : Why 
should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the 
dead? And thus what valid reason have we for not believing, that 
in some way unknown to us now, God will effect that we shall live 
intelligently and happily in the future ? There is no valid reason 
that we should not cultivate such a belief; but there is the strong- 
est reason, from a consideration of the omnipresence and omnis- 
cience of Deity that it may thus be with us. The Deity is every- 
where present in essence, intelligence, and power. They who live 
a godly life experience his presence and his goodness everywhere 
and variously. The spiritual experience of one godly person may 
not be exactly the same as that of any other, although there is much 
in the experience of the godly that is, in general, much alike. God- 
ly men experience God's presence in the peace of mind, the content- 
ment of spirit, the happiness and the heavenly aspirations of soul 
which they have ; for though they are contented with their lot and 
condition in the world, however humble it may be, they are not 
pleased with the follies and fashions, the vanities and wicked waj's 
of the world, and continually aspire after the knowledge of heavenly 
things and after perfection in godliness. As for me I experience 
God's intelligent presence everywhere and in everything. He 
speaks to me in audible tones from the winds and from the waves ; 
and from the depths of my own heart, and in every object that exists 
within my observation, I experience his presence and intelligence. If 
one ascends up to heaven he is there ; if one descends into hell, be- 
hold, he is there ; if one take the wings of the morning and go to 
the uttermost parts of the sea, or if one descends to the rocky cav- 
erns of the depths of the ocean ; if one go into the wilderness or to 
the trackless forest far away from human habitations, even there he 
is present ; and so he is present in the grave, and out of his presence 
one cannot be. He is not only omnipresent essentially but he is 
omnipresent intelligently and certainly this argues immortality in 
some way for us his creatures. If it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be, is there not still good reason to hope that we, I mean now 
our rational intelligences, will exist intelligently in the futxire ? And 
if this our reasonable, religious, and holy hope is well grounded, as it 
appears to be, then what a glorious and blessed future may the good 
picture for themselves. If we live in some way in the future all 



THE FUTURE LIFE. 523 

who have preceded us are now living in some way, and thus what a 
glorious future can we picture to ourselves of the good and holy of 
every preceding age now enjoying the highest felicity in the man- 
sions which had been for them prepared, and into which they were 
received by their Heavenly Father on their departure from this 
earthly scene of their existence. There they are forever with the 
Lord. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament saints are 
there and those who have, in any age, lived lives of self-denial and 
godliness, who have lived and labored or suffered for the cause of 
truth and righteousness. There are the holy men and martyrs of the 
true Christian faith who find exquisite enjoyment in their associa- 
tions with the good and holy of every religion and age and nation ; 
and there are those, both male and female, who have lived lives of 
philanthropy and charity, men and women who have travelled from 
land to land, from city to city, from house to house, and from one 
abode of misery and wretchedness to another, in alleviating human 
suffering, in binding up the broken-hearted, and in comforting those 
that mourned, in administering comfort and religious instruction to 
the prisoner in his cell and to the invalid upon his bed of languish- 
ing, and in giving the support and the necessaries of life to the in- 
digent and the needy. There are all those of every age and coun- 
try who have lived lives of active godliness, of philanthropy, and of 
exemplariness among mankind. There they all with united heart 
and voice join in the ineffably delightful harmonies and symphonies 
of the Redeemed. 

What a limited scene does this world, with all its glories, exhibit 
when put in comparison with the extent and the splendors of that 
Empire which stretches out into immensity, and shall endure for 
ever ! And is it reasonable to suppose or to hope that man in any 
sense shall be transported to other regions of the infinite universe, 
to mingle with the inhabitants of otlier worlds and to exist through- 
out an endless duration ? If so, what a glorious futurity we may 
picture for ourselves in our endless transmigrations from world to 
world, from star to star, and from planet to planet, from one scene of 
existence to another, continually enjoying the hajjpy and delightful 
association of the glorified celestial inhabitants, and endlessly with 
the blissful redeemed praising and glorifying God the Creator of 
all ! What a principle does the human mind appear when we con- 
sider it as qualified to i)rosecute so many varied trains of thought, 
to engage in investigations so sublime, and to attain to sucli a liigli 
degree of moral perfection even in its present state ! And how may 
we contemplate it in its future state as expatiating at large through 
the unlimited dominions of the Almightv, while eternal ages arc 



524 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

rolling on ! How important ought everything to be considered 
which is connected with the scene of our eternal destination ! If 
the truth of our eternal, and in some way intelligent existence be 
admitted, it is a subject so profoundly interesting and may be con- 
nected with so many awful oi' glorious consequences, that men must 
be dead to every noble o]- refined feeling or idea if they are alto- 
gether indifferent concerning it. Yet how often do we find in the 
conduct of the various classes of mankind the merest trifles set in 
competition with the scenes of happiness or misery that lie beyond 
the grave. The low and grovelling pleasures derived from hunting 
and horse-racing, from balls, masquerades, social parties and theat- 
rical amusements: the acquisition of a few paltry dollars, the rat- 
tling of dice, the shuffling of cards or other low amusements will 
absorb the minds of thousands who pi'ofess to be rational beings, 
while they refuse to spend one hour seriously in reflecting on the 
fate of their immortal spirits, when they shall have departed this 
earthly scene. Nay, such is the indifference and even antipathy with 
which this subject is treated by certain classes of society that it is 
considered as unfashionable, and, in certain cases would be looked 
upon as entirely out of place to introduce in conversation a senti- 
ment or reflection upon the eternal destiny of man. " The careless- 
ness," says an energetic French writer, " which they betray in a 
mattei- which involves their existence, their eternity, their all, awakes 
my indignation rather than my pity. It is astonishing. It is horri- 
fj'ing. It is monstrous. I speak not this from the pious zeal of a 
blind devotion. On the conti-ary, I affirm that self-love, that self-in- 
terest, that the simplest light of reason should inspire these senti- 
ments ; and, in fact, for this we need but the perceptions of ordinary 
men. It requires but little elevation of soul to discover that here 
there is no substantial delight ; that our pleasures are but vanity ; 
that the ills of life are innumerable ; and that after all death, which 
threatens us every moment, must in a few years, perhaps in a few 
days, place us in the eternal condition of happiness, or misery, or 
nothingness." 

Is it not, therefore, the imperative duty of every human being 
who makes any pretensions to prudence or rationality to endeavor 
to have their mind impressed with a conviction of the reality of their 
future existence; to consider its importance; and to contemplate in 
the light ot reason and revelation the sublime and solemn scenes 
which it displays. While doubts remain in the mind concerning 
this subject, or while the mind is in an unsettled state in relation to 
it, one should explore every avenue where light and information 
may be obtained, should study with deep attention and humility the 



THE FUTUKE LIFE. 525 

revelations contained in the Sciiptui-es of truth, and with earnest 
prayer to God for light and direction. And if such inquiries he 
pursued with a devotional and contrite spirit, with perseverance and 
a strong desire to acquire a knowledge of the truth concerning this 
important subject, the doubts and difficulties which liave formerly 
occupied the mind will gradually vanish as the shades of night be- 
fore the rising sun, and the mind Avill rest satisfied with its intelli- 
gent decisions concerning it. " If thou criest after knowledge, and 
liftest up th}- voice for understanding; if thou seekesther as sih'er, 
and searchest for her as for hid treasures, — then shalt thou under- 
stand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For 
the Lord giveth wisdom, out of liis mouth cometli knowledge and 
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall di- 
rect thy paths. Then shall thy light break forth in obscurity, and 
thy darkness shall be as the noon-day." In short, if men are thor- 
oughly satisfied that they will exist in some sense intelligently in 
the future state, they should cultivate during life those heavenly 
dispositions and virtues, and prosecute that course of action which 
Avill prepare them for the enjoyment of the heavenly world. For we 
are assured that without holiness, no man can see the Lord, and that 
no unholy or uni'ighteous person, and no idolator can enter the 
gates of the New Jerusalem, or inherit the kingdom of God; and 
that, therefore, such shall have to spend their eternal existence in 
the place or state for which their course and manner of life has 
prepared them. 

It appears that although the Creator in the general course of his 
providence has connected happiness Avith the observance of his laws, 
and misery with tlie violation of them, in order to display the rect- 
itude of his character, and his hatred of moral evil ; yet he has at 
the same time in numerous instances permitted vice to triumjjh and 
virtue to be persecuted and oppressed, to convince us. it may be, 
that his government of human beings is not bounded by the limits 
of the human life, but extends into the eternal world where the 
system of his moral administration will be completed, his wisdom 
and rectitude justified, and the mvsteilous ways of his providence 
completely made to appear. 

The difference between virtue and vice, between right and wrong, 
is founded upon the nature of things, and is perceptible l)y every 
intelligent agent whose moi-al feelings are not blunied by vicious 
indulgences. Were a man to assert that there is no difh-rence be- 
tween truth and falsehood, justice and injustice, love and hatred, 
godliness and ungodliness; that it is e(iually the sanu\ whether we 
be faithful to a friend, or betrav him to his enemies, whether ser- 



526 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

vants act with fidelity to their employers, or rob them of their prop- 
erty, whether rulers oppress those whom they govern, or promote 
their interests and welfare, and whether parents care for their chil- 
dren with tenderness, or treat them with cruelty, or destroy their 
lives in their infancy, he would at once be denounced as a ravino- 
maniac and be banished from society. The difference between such 
actions is eternal and immutable, and every moral ao-ent is endowed 
with a faculty which enables him to perceive that virtue and vice 
sooner or later ensure their own reward. We can choose to perform 
the one class of actions and to refrain from the other ; or we can com- 
ply with the voice of conscience, whicli deters us from the one and 
incites us to the other, or we can resist its dictates and we can judge 
whether our actions deserve reward or punishment. Now if we are 
inbued by our Creator with such moral perceptions and capacities 
as enable us to at once distinguish between right and wrong, does 
it appear reasonable to suppose that it is equally indifferent to him 
Avhether we obey or disobey these moral laws which he has implant- 
ed in us? Can we ever suppose that the governor of the universe 
is an unconcerned spectator of the good or evil actions which hap- 
pen throughout his dominions ? Or that he has left man, unrecog- 
nized or with impunity, to act according to his inclinations, whether 
these be right or wrong? If such suppositions are inadmissible, 
then it follows that man is responsible for his actions, and that it 
must be an essential part of the Divine government to bring every 
action into judgment, and to reward or punish his rational creatures 
according to their works. And if it may happen, as in point of fact 
to our observation and judgment it occasionally does, that such re- 
tributions are not fully awarded in the present state, nor a visible 
distinction always made between the righteous and the violators of 
God's law, is it not necessary for us with our present knowledge to 
admit the conclusion that a full and equitable distribution of re- 
Avards and punishments is reserved to a future world, where a visible 
distinction will be made, and all intelligent existences clearly dis- 
cern between those that served God and those that served him 
not ? * 

There is no ground for believing that throughout all the worlds 
that exist in the immensity of space a single atom has ever j'et been 
or ever will be annihilated. No instance has yet occurred within 
the observation of our assisted or unassisted sight of any system or 
portion of matter, either in the earth or the heavens, having been 



* A careful perusal of Butler's Analogy, especially its First Part, may assist to a more 
definite belief of the future existence. 



THE FUTURE LIFE. 527 

reduced to annihilation. Changes are indeed unceasingly ti,king 
place in countless variety throughout every department of nature. 

And if amidst the perpetual changes, transformations, and revolu- 
tions, that are going on throughout universal nature in all its dejjart- 
ments no particle of matter is ever lost, or reduced to aniuhilation, 
is it not in the highest degree probable that the thinking principle 
in man will not be destroyed by the change which takes place at 
the moment of his dissolution ? Even although its consciousness 
of existence were to be suspended for thousands of years, its Crea- 
tor can afterwards invest it with a new organical frame suited to 
the expansive sphere of action to whicli it is destined, and the in- 
tervening period of its repose may be made to appear no longer than 
the lapse of a few moments. In short, if the material universe has 
existed hitherto and will continue to exist, so that not a single atom 
or element noAV in existence has at any time, or shall at any time be 
annihilated, is it reasonable to suppose that the thinking principle in 
man, whatever may be its nature and substance (for there have been 
many discussions, childlike indeed, as to the materiality oi- the imma- 
teriality of the soul, or the rational faculty in man), and however 
varied the transformations through which it may pass, shall ever be 
annihilated ? If the Creator is both able and willing to perpetuate 
the existence of the rational spirit through an endless duration, and 
if his wisdom, benevolence, justice, and rectitude require that this 
object should be accomplished, it is plain that all difficulties aiising 
from its nature or the mode of its subsistence must at once vanish, 
and that the arguments in favor of its future existence are equally 
conclusive whether we consider the rational principle as a pure, im- 
material, or so-called simple substance ; or only a peculiar modifica- 
tion of matter which is so-called a compound of different elements. 
Moreover, it does not appear that the Creator is under any necessity 
to annihilate the rational principle for want of power to support 
its faculties, for want of ol^jects on which to exercise tlieui, or for 
Avant of space to contain the innumerable intelligences, visible or in- 
visible, that are incessantl}^ emerging into existence ; for the range 
of immensity is the theatre of his omnipotence ; and that creative 
energy which brings these innumerable creatures into existence will 
also afford places for their habitations, and produce objects for them 
on which to employ their faculties while the eterinxl ages roll on. 

From all that I have said it appears that the eternal existence, 
in some way, of the intelligent principle in man is highl}' reasonable 
and probable. And, if so, should it not be with us an object of the 
firmest faith and hope ? 

The writers of the Scriptures, especially of the New Testament, 



528 CREATOR AND COSMOS. 

firmly inculcate /aiY/i in the existence ot the future life, "Faith," 
says Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews, " is the confident expecta- 
tion of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen." It 
implies a trustful confidence in the existence of a future state, and 
of the rewards of the godly in the life to come ; for, says the apostle 
with respect to Abraham, " he looked for a city which had founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God." With respect to Moses he 
says that with all his persecutions and afflictions " he endured, as 
seeing him who is invisible, for he had respect to the recompense of 
the reward." And with regard to all the other patriarclis whose 
names stand high on the records of the Old Testament Church he 
declares that " they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims 
on the earth," that they " declare plainly that they sought a better 
country, that is, an heavenly, and that those who " were tortured " 
to cause them to renounce their faith endured their sufferings with 
invincible fortitude "• not accepting deliverance " when it was offered 
them, " that they might obtain a better resurrection." 

Paul when looking forward to the dissolution of his own frame, 
declares in his own name and in the name of all Christians that 
" our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far 
more exceeding- and eternal weight of glory ; while we look not at 
the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for 
the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not 
seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, Ave have a building of God, an house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." While these and many 
similar passages clearly demonstrate the faith of their authors in an 
eternal world, and the future happiness of the righteous, the Scrip- 
ture writers are equally explicit in asserting the future misery of the 
wicked. " The unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God," 
but, "shall go away into everlasting punishment." "Rejoice, O 
young man, in thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in 
the sight of thine eyes, but know thou that for all these things God 
will bring thee into judgment." " For God shall bring every work 
into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or 
whether it be evil." May you all, young and old, male and female, 
follow that course of holiness and righteousness which will ensure 
you happiness in the life that now is, and in that which is to come, 
is our earnest prayer. 

THE END. 



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